1. Tracey Dyck says:

    I’ll be there for the first time this year! I’m looking forward to meeting some of my internet writing buddies, soaking in the enthusiasm of a whole group of writers in one place, learning new skills, and pitching my novel. 😀

  2. Jonathan Lovelace says:

    I first heard about Realm Makers back in 2014, only a couple of months before that year’s event, and I would have had to have skipped the last couple of sessions of a class I was taking to have gone. And Philadelphia seemed a long way to go just for a weekend, so I said to myself, “Maybe next year, if I can afford it or I have something I can show off there.”

    The next year, I think it was in St. Louis, *almost* close enough that I would consider going even though my budget didn’t really support such an excursion and my writing wasn’t ready to show off yet. But I said to myself, “Maybe next year,” and I thought about how they might even pick one of the more nearby colleges that I knew hosted events sometimes (Calvin College in Grand Rapids, my alma mater, and the even closer Concordia University in Ann Arbor).

    And then Realm Makers went out West for two years. Even if I had finished my first novel (as I hope to be at least within striking distance of doing by this time next year), I wouldn’t have been able to make that long a trip.

    But I hope to be able to attend Realm Makers some year in the future, when either it returns to somewhere within extended driving distance of Michigan, or my budget will allow for the greater expense of longer-distance travel.

What do you think?