Year four is in the books. Realm Makers, a writers’ conference for those with a speculative bent, combined with a faith-based worldview, is the brainchild of Becky Minor. Each of the conferences to date has been bigger and better.

This video, a teaser for the 2016 conference, gives a good flavor of what Realm Makers is all about.

Any number of conferees tweeted about the conference and their experience. Others, such as Steve Laube and Mike Duran, wrote blog posts. We must not leave out Facebook which also had any number of conferees sharing their experience. And then there is Instagram, with all the pictures telling the story of another successful conference.

Besides fun and workshops, there were contest winners.

Nadine Brandes and Sara E. Morin won the first ever Excellence in Editing Awards.
Kirk DouPonce once again won the Parable Award for the best cover design.
Genre award winners included Kerry Nietz in the Supernatural/Horror/Other category and John Otte in the Sci-fi category.
The first ever Realm Award went to Carrie Noble.

Plans for next year are already in the works, and this time the conference will be moving west. As per Saturday’s Spec Faith news item, Ted Dekker will head up the lineup for the conference to be held in Reno, Nevada.

For many of us, Realm Makers serves as a beacon, a tangible piece of evidence that speculative fiction is alive and well among Christians. We love it, we watch it, we read it, and we write it. May our tribe increase!