I want to start this post by first saying thank you.

 

Thank you to everyone that has made it possible for Kristina and I to quite literally make our dreams become a reality.

 

People often say “if you had asked me then, I wouldn’t have believed you” and perhaps that sentiment is overused, but that is really, truly how Kristina and I feel about this past year.

 

We had dreamed of doing something meaningful with the talents our Heavenly Father has given us.

We had dreamed of putting together a Kickstarter project and getting the minimum funding.

We had dreamed of getting more than the minimum amount of funding and making this project something truly special.

And a year and a half ago, I’m not sure we even thought to dream of meeting Kristen Britain. Or thought to dream of being a part of her next book release event.

 

But every single one of those things has now happened, and to all of you who made it happen, we hope you know who you are, and we hope you know how incredibly grateful and honestly… humbled we are at the gift you have given us.

 

 

 

Now, for the real reason for this blog post:

The Dream Gathering event up in Bar Harbor, Maine!

 

(As a sidenote: If you’re more of the visual type, you’ll find a vlog at the bottom of this post!)

 

Our wonderful, fantastical weekend began Thursday evening when I picked Kristina and her little girl Joy up from the airport in Bar Harbor, Maine. We drove to our hotel, checked in, and then walked over to the Jesup Memorial Library (100% fangirling the WHOLE way because we were about to finally meet Kristen)!  Kristina and I were both nervous and consequently slightly out of breath by the time we reached the library, but when we got there it just felt so natural to say ‘hi!’ to Kristen and to give her a great big hug.

I suppose when you’ve spent months communicating with someone and doing your very best to honor the work she’s created, you can’t help but feel like you already know her!

 

 

On Friday, Kristina and I had some free time while the library was being prepared for the weekend’s events, so I took Kristina around the Park Loop road. It was windy, rainy and very foggy, all of which made for one of the most magical trips around Acadia I’ve ever taken.

Later in the evening, Kristina and I had the opportunity to share about our Kickstarter campaign with a wonderful audience at the Jesup. We got to talk about why our project was so successfully funded AND I got to nerd out about social media and spreadsheets!

Click here to catch a rerun of our presentation!

 

 

Saturday was the day of THE event: the Dream Gathering at the Jesup Memorial Library. A dedicated group of volunteers honestly worked magic in getting the library ready, turning it into Professor Berry’s Library (Bunch was even in attendance!), with all the beautiful banners of the Sacoridian provinces hanging in the main hall and a miniature (incredibly detailed) version of the Sacor City War Museum in the periodicals room! The amount of attention that went into the displays is really incredible, so if you haven’t yet, I would recommend checking out the video tour of the library RIGHT HERE.

 

During the course of the evening, Kristen, Kristina, and I each got our chance to speak about our projects (Kristen’s novella The Dream Gatherer and my and Kristina’s Book Soundtrack and Artwork). To follow Kristen was nothing short of intimidating, but Kristina did well and I didn’t burst into nervous tears when we got up to say our thank yous, so I’d say we did OK!

 

 

I kid, I kid. We did more than OK. If you ask me, it was overwhelmingly successful.

 

Having the chance to stand up in front of the people who have put so much of their trust in myself and Kristina was absolutely the least I could do and Kristina and I both feel so fortunate for the opportunity to have been present at the event on Saturday. We were, and still are, overwhelmed with the sense of community we felt in that library Saturday evening.

 

Kristen, you really do have the best fans. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for being willing to share them with us for a season. We hope we’ve been able to lead a few new faces to your tribe and that we’ve been able to show you the incredible things your words have done, not just for us, but for all of your fans.

 

 

(P.S. I have a longer version of this vlog with exclusive footage from the whole weekend over on my Patreon. Click here to check it out!)

 

As a short recap, here are some pretty neat things that came about this weekend:

 

  • I had the most magical trip I’ve ever taken to Bar Harbor. The fog. The rain. The yellow and orange leaves. So. much. beauty!
  • Kristina and I now have our art book and cd available for purchase in Sherman’s!!! A REAL bookstore!
  • Kristina can now say she’s tried lobster ice cream (I consider myself fortunate that I cannot say the same).
  • Kristina and I received some wonderful gifts from some of the Green Rider fans:

 

 

  • Kristina and I got to meet so many of the fans we’ve been interacting with these past few months, which was lovely to finally have some faces to the many, many names we’ve been working with!