The 2013 REALM MAKERS CONFERENCE

August 2 - 3, 2013
(9AM - 10PM)

JC Penney Conference Center
1 University Blvd, St Louis, MO 63121-4400

   The first annual Realm Makers Conference is for writers with a focus on speculative fiction. Jeff Gerke, publisher of the Marcher Lord Press imprint, is the keynote speaker. Other featured speakers include Grace Bridges, Bryan Davis, Ben Erlichman, L. B. Graham, Suzanne Hartmann, Kristen Stieffel, Robert Treskillard,  Kathy Tyers, Andre Winch, Chila Woychik, and Matt Yocum.

   It's not often you gather this many Christian speculative writers, editors, and publishers in one location. You won't want to miss the opportunity

Registration Cost:

If you register between these dates:	Your registration cost is:
May 1st -June 1st	$185 (Early Bird Pricing)
June 2nd-July 25th *	$235
At the door**	$250

Realm Makers Conference Main Page

Realm Makers Registration Page

Digital Dragon Magazine
Fictional Fun for the Family

Digital Dragon Magazine: http://www.digitaldragonmagazine.net/

(December 2009 cover)

Digital Dragon Magazine offers family friendly fantasy, science-fiction, and speculative fiction online. December marks the seventh issue for this monthly short story collection. The first issue released in June 2009, and each month the issues normally contain seven or more short stories and an editorial column.

I enjoyed Angel Wings by Fred Warren in this month's issue. If you thought body piercings and tattoos were bad, just wait until animal augmentation becomes popular. This month's Wary Wizard, by Sarah Ashwood, is also a fun read when a guardian dragon must solve his own riddle.

Back issues:

http://www.digitaldragonmagazine.net/vault.php

*Participants’ Links:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Tina Kulesa
Melissa Lockcuff
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Nissa
John W. Otte
Cara Powers
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson
KM Wilsher

LOST GENRE GUILD - Blog Tour Day 3
Promoting and supporting biblical speculative fiction since 2006

"The Lost Genre Guild's mission is to raise the awareness and respect for Biblical speculative fiction, and to encourage, educate and support the writers of such fiction."

Website: http://www.lostgenreguild.com/


This the third and final day for the Lost Genre Guild Tour. Today I wanted to mention some of the member sites, and a few of my favorite stories so far from the group. Yesterday I listed the biblical speculative anthology, Light at the Edge of Darkness. My favorite story in the book is "Your Average Ordinary Alien" by Adam Graham. As a Trekkie, the story is hilarious.
Here is an except: YAOA
Adam and his wife, Andrea, both write and you can find their stories in
Laser and Sword Magazine

Another Lost Genre Guild member whose stories I enjoy reading is Karina Fabian. She writes about Vern, the small troubleshooting dragon stuck on Earth in Dragon Eye P.I. The Vern stories have a good sense of humor and lots of interesting characters.

Other fine Guild authors include:

Steve Doyle
www.doylebooks.com
http://doylebooks.blogspot.com

Brandon Barr
http://www.brandonbarr.com
http://christiansciencefiction.blogspot.com

Michael Lynch
http://www.mikelynchbooks.com
http://www.mikelynchbooks.blogspot.com

Jim and Paulette Harris
http://www.pauletteharris.biz
http://comeandsitawhile.blogspot.com

Whether you read or write biblical speculative fiction, you won't go wrong with the Lost Genre Guild and its members. It's a great group to go to for information and support.




*Participants’ Links:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Courtney
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Lost Genre Guild
Mike Lynch
Magma
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Mirtika
Hanna Sandvig
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

LOST GENRE GUILD - Blog Tour Day 2
Promoting and supporting biblical speculative fiction since 2006

"The Lost Genre Guild's mission is to raise the awareness and respect for Biblical speculative fiction, and to encourage, educate and support the writers of such fiction."

Website: http://www.lostgenreguild.com/


On day two of the Lost Genre Guild Tour I wanted to discuss a few of the book titles and the founder's site. I first heard about the Lost Genre Guild through another member a few months before release of a speculative anthology entitled, Light at the Edge of Darkness. The book contained stories about aliens, time travel, a vengeful angel, ghosts, and bleak tales of the future. Here at last I found other people who enjoyed a good fantasy, science fiction, or horror story. And they were Christian authors. I was hooked.



The next book I heard about from the Lost Genre guild was Flashpoint by founder Frank Creed.
Frank's book reminded me of Bladerunner meets the Bible. In the future churches have moved underground and it's up to the Sandmen to show others a different path for their life. Of course the Sandmen have weapons to defend themselves and protect the innocent, but without the usual bloodbath you've come to expect from a techno-thriller.

Both books told the kind of stories I enjoyed reading. They didn't come across as rehashed Sunday School stories, but they weren't filled with gratuitous voilence or bedroom scenes either.
Lost Genre Guild stories provide a happy medium between the two extremes.

Frank Creed, kindly answered a question about upcoming Lost Genre Guild style books:

As one of the Lost genre Guild founders, would you like to mention any upcoming speculative fiction books you, or other members, will release in the coming months? Any word on a release date for Flashpoint II - War of Attrition? My son and I are looking forward to reading the sequel.

This will take a couple days to answer—I’ve been on a no-mail status for a few weeks now. My own War of attrition and Forever Richard are forthcoming this spring—no dates yet. Terri Main’s Creative Calisthenics and Marcher Lord Press’ new releases are about to pop. How bout I comment with more on this news?

Thanks again, Mr. Creed.



Day three of the Lost Genre Guild Blog brings information about other Guild members, their sites, and books you might also enjoy.


*Participants’ Links:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Courtney
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Lost Genre Guild
Mike Lynch
Magma
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Mirtika
Hanna Sandvig
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

LOST GENRE GUILD - Blog Tour Day 1
Promoting and supporting biblical speculative fiction since 2006

"The Lost Genre Guild's mission is to raise the awareness and respect for Biblical speculative fiction, and to encourage, educate and support the writers of such fiction."

Website: http://www.lostgenreguild.com/


The Lost Genre Guild is a writing group that provides moral support, a ear to listen, and sometimes, when needed, a shoulder to lean on, for biblical speculative writers. Members have found a group of kindred spirits in the Lost Genre Guild. If you enjoy stories a little outside the norm - fantasy, science fiction, horror, or suspense - and told from a biblical perspectibe, the Lost Genre Guild is group for you.


Group founder, Frank Creed, kindly offered to answer a few questions about the Lost Genre Guild and it's purposes:

What is the purpose behind the Lost Genre Guild and when was the group formed?

I'd planned on starting the Lost Genre Guild in early summer, 2006. Then I got wrapped up in what was then called Daniel I Weaver’s anthology project—now known as Light at the Edge of Darkness—an anthology of Christian speculative fiction. All the submitting authors worked together through a series of scheduled critique rounds that extended into September of that year. Great memories and results; the anthology landed a 2007 Top-Ten Predators and Editors Award. After the writers helped improve each other's fiction, we moved the enthusiasm from a critique group to the Lost Genre Guild's private newsgroup.
Light at the Edge of Darkness seventeen contributors all needed to promote the short stories we’d just polished, but the Lost Genre Guild's primary focus has always been raising public awareness of Christian sci-fi, horror, and fantasy.
The literary mark of speculative fiction is complete creativity of settings and characters. Such creativity can be easily utilized to explore social issues and themes. A college textbook titled Thought Probes: Philosophy through Science Fiction literature calls science "fiction the hand-maiden of worldviews". Atheism has dominated science-fiction literature, and L. Ron Hubbard even used it to start his own religion. As a lifelong fan of CS Lewis and speculative fiction, my many hours wasted in Christian bookstores in search of my favorite fiction became a chip I still carry on my shoulder. Why Christian publishers completely ignored such a powerful fiction-ministry baffled me. Those interested in reading more on this topic might enjoy the following essay: http://tinyurl.com/5dygz8

Would you mind mentioning a few of the many benefits a LGG member might enjoy?

The heart of our community is a private newsgroup. We have public group forums at MySpace, and Shoutlife. There have been announcements on http://frankcreed.proboards.com/index.cgi but we now have a brand-new lost genre Guild forum that includes a private critique group. Can ya’ say “busy”? The passion has finally found a public home. Check out http://lostgenreguild.com/phpBB3
We have chat and secondlife.com virtual reality Web shows as well, but a Canadian sport called curling gets more spectators. 8 (


How many writers, readers, and editors of Christian speculative fiction are currently members?

Promoting our genre is a steady and slow effort, but it definitely helps that our membership now includes most of the artists listed at Jeff Gerke’s wherethemapends.com, many writers and editors from Bill Snodgrass’ Double Edged Publishing, and Rebecca Miller’s Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour. I won't violate the Guild's privacy policy by name-dropping, but we are 133 members strong. I had hoped that fans would take the opportunity to hang out with their favorite writers, but we’ve few straight-up fans. Our membership hails from all aspects of Christian publishing.

How might interested readers and writers apply to join its ranks?

Were one to Google Lost Genre Guild and senses that it be a good fit, the home page at http://lostgenreguild.com and our ABOUT sidebar link explore membership. To join, one simply has to send me a message indicating their interest, by using the CONTACT link. There has only been one anti-Christian try to be tricky and infiltrate, but he ran a weak game and got bored quick. This simple method has kept spammers away, and our privacy policy ensures security. We're just one little cell in the Body of Christ, and the only things really needed is passion and enthusiasm with which to encourage others in our community.

Thank you, Mr. Creed.

Day two of the Lost Genre Guild Blog brings more information about the founder and a few books the group helped promote.

*Participants’ Links:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Courtney
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Lost Genre Guild
Mike Lynch
Magma
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Mirtika
Hanna Sandvig
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

Light at the Edge of Darkness

Light at the Edge of Darkness, published by Cafe Press, is a wild speculative Fiction Ride. There are stories for everyone - time travel, haunted houses, space aliens, westerns, and even zombies.

Some stories are funny, some sad, and some will haunt you once the lights are turned out.

All the stories will make you stop and think about where you are in
your walk with God.

Give Light at the Edge of Darkness a try, it's a great collection.

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Edge-Darkness-Cynthia-MacKinnon/dp/1934284009/ref=sr_1_1/104-7757790-7126359?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176582378&sr=8-1