Voices for Voices®

Unveiling the Dark Side of Realm Makers: Christian Fantasy or Predatory Platform? | Episode 213

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 213

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Unveiling the Dark Side of Realm Makers: Christian Fantasy or Predatory Platform? | Episode 213

The veil is pulled back on Realm Makers in this riveting conversation with David Solomon, who courageously shares his firsthand experience with the Christian fantasy writing organization's troubling leadership practices. What begins as a discussion about inconsistencies in the organization's public image quickly escalates into serious allegations about how concerns regarding inappropriate adult-minor interactions are handled behind closed doors.

Solomon methodically walks listeners through a trail of evidence revealing stark contradictions: an organization led by someone who "has not written anything, nor does he read Christian fantasy," conferences that promise Christian content but deliver secular speakers, and perhaps most concerning, a leadership approach that appears to prioritize reputation management over the safety of young writers. When Solomon approached Scott Minor with concerns about an adult author privately messaging a child, he was met not with protective action but with demands for evidence and skepticism.

The conversation takes an even darker turn as Solomon reveals how his advocacy for child safety allegedly led to the creation of what he describes as a "shadow group" tasked with gathering evidence against him and his family. Host Justin Alan Hayes supplements these accounts with documentation connecting various individuals within the organization despite public denials of association, including connections to someone who reportedly organizes retreats for arranging "non-consenting marriages between teenage children."

Throughout this eye-opening episode, Solomon emphasizes he isn't calling for the destruction of Realm Makers—a community he still values—but rather for new leadership and greater transparency. "It's a wonderful place, but its leaders are a circus," he states, encapsulating the complex reality of an organization with potential that's hampered by what appears to be deeply problematic leadership.

For parents of young writers or anyone considering involvement with writing conferences, this episode provides crucial information to make informed decisions about where to safely nurture creative talent. Share this episode with fellow writers and parents to help protect our creative communities from predatory behavior.

Justin Alan Hayes and David Solomon expose troubling inconsistencies in the leadership and practices of Realm Makers, an organization marketing itself as a Christian fantasy writing community, raising serious concerns about the safety of young writers.
• Realm Makers conferences appear to employ "bait and switch" tactics, promising Christian content but featuring secular speakers
• David Solomon details how his concerns about inappropriate adult-minor interactions were dismissed by leadership
• Evidence connects Bryan Davis to Realm Makers despite public denials of involvement
• Documentation shows concerning connections between Realm Makers and individuals linked to inappropriate activities with minors
• David calls for new leadership while emphasizing the value of the community itself
If you or someone you know has been a victim of human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. For mental health crisis support, call or text 988.

#humantrafficking #survivorstory #voicesunsilenced #davidsolomon #trafficking #socialawareness #humanrights #socialjustice #codywallacebast #stophumantrafficking #humantraffickingawareness #survivorempowerment #humantraffickingprevention #socialmediaactivism #humantraffickingstory

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your support. If you give us a big thumbs up, subscribe. Keep in touch. We have hit 200 episodes on our way to 300 for 2025. That includes in-studio episodes as well as remote episodes too.

Speaker 1:

So we are going to continue with a very important guest that we've had on in the past and I am not going to take any more time up because there is so much information that we want to share. But before I do that, just remember that anything that you hear, see, is information that we're sharing, so you make the decision off of that information that we're not judging anybody. We want to uplift people, even if it looks like individuals may potentially be in the wrong, so we want to mention that as well. So, david Solomon, he's joining us today for this episode, and thank you for joining us on all the episodes you've been with us and being so candid about such a delicate topic. So, david Solomon, would you like to lead us in prayer as we get started?

Speaker 2:

Yes, sir. Dear Lord, these are difficult topics and difficult subjects, and I just want to thank God for these subjects being addressed and for us having a voice for those that have been silenced or those that can't speak out right now, and I also want to thank you for those that are coming out and having the strength to speak out. Lord, thank you for letting us be here and try to guide us in this. Let your will be done, protect those who are in danger from this Lord, and let your light and your truth shine and let truth be revealed today, lord, and give us strength and encouragement in your name, amen.

Speaker 1:

Amen. Yeah, maybe you just want to continue from where we left off and really talk about. We're going to touch on some of the biblical aspects because we are looking to uplift and and realm and realm makers is purported to be founded in a biblical Christian manner, and so we feel it's important to share that aspect. So take it away, dave.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I think that there's a lot of controversy over this and I want to dive deep into that. Realm Makers gets its origins from a group called Holy Worlds, which was a place for Christian writers to gather and kind of an elite, if you will where multimillion-dollar authors mentor minor children, were minor children and children of all ages up to 20. And wellmakers became this big thing. But its leadership under Scott Miner actually it boggles the mind. It's for Christian writers and Scott Miner has not written anything, nor does he read Christian fantasy. So my first question to him that I would like him to address is why are you leading a group and a big CEO and you don't know the first thing about Christian fantasy?

Speaker 2:

Christian fantasy is a sub-genre. It was created by CS Lewis and JR Tolkien and then it was reinvented by Ted Decker, brian Davis, frank Freddie, wayne, thomas Batson, christopher Hopper, brock Eastman and, over the years, morgan Buse and so many more greats out there. That created the genre to be more Winged. Feather Saga is another good one, and these stories I inspire faith. But they're fantasy and you can create Christian aspects or a Christian message, not a come-to-Jesus moment, but a moment that reflects your faith and reflects you want someone to be led to Christ through these fantasy worlds or realms, if you will. Through these fantasy worlds or realms, if you will. It's an excellent way to be a missionary on a battlefield of people that don't know God. However, just like anywhere else, there are bad apples, and so we're going to address that.

Speaker 1:

Can I jump in real quick about the founder? Yeah, absolutely yeah. So, as Dave has mentioned, so kind of what the public sees for Realm and Realm Makers, as the founder, the CEO, you know the person at the top that claims credit for that is Scott Miner. However, we have uncovered evidence of the opposite. So we asked a program you may know it chat GPT did Becky Miner. Is she related to Rawmakers? How is she related to Realm Makers? How is she related? And trying to find because we're looking for, again, facts to bring to the table, whatever way they take us so that prompt was entered into chat GBT and it says, yes, becky Minor is the founder and CEO of Realm Makers, an organization established in 2012 to support Christian writers and artists who create science fiction and fantasy. She continues to lead the organization, which offers an annual writers, writers conference, awards, among others. And so, again, that's also a lie with some of the actually a lot of the communications that we've seen audio, video conversations, sources that show that, oh well, this person's really leading, and so we call that the bait and switch. And then the bait and switch also, as we continue, a bait and switch is offering one thing and coming with another. So, let's say you're in the market for a Tesla and there's a certain model number that you're interested in and you see an advertisement that you can get this particular Tesla. Come to find out that they really don't sell Teslas. The name says Tesla, but they don't sell Teslas. They sell Honda Civics and Accords. So that is what we're talking about, with a bait and switch, and that happens with these conferences, which are ones coming up in July in Grand Rapids, michigan. We will let you make the decision about that, but we have uncovered evidence and photos of Terry. Who's that individual? Terry Brooks, a picture of Terry, and I'm going to try to find it as I'm talking. There's just so much information to get to. But Terry Brooks is a secular speaker, so not on Christian, which is okay. We're not here to go down that road.

Speaker 1:

But what we are saying is we talk about the bait and switch with the Tesla and that Tesla's not being at the dealership. Well, how about if you spend $1,000, $2,000 for a hotel, flights, parking, for a conference registration, thinking it's going to be like David mentioned about Christian fantasy, that those are the speakers that are going to be there? So you're under the pretense that that's how things are going to be. And you show up, and then there's a secular speaker which doesn't always agree with the Christian side, and so again these conferences come up, and again there's a huge one in July coming up in Grand Rapids, michigan, and we just want to share this information so you have all that information going into those decision makings, because I don't like a bait and switch.

Speaker 1:

David doesn't like a bait and switch, and I believe you, whether you're here in Northeast Ohio, the United States, or across the world, where a lot of people, apparently, in a great way, are picking this up, I believe they don't like a bait and switch, and so I'll let David continue while I search for that picture of Terry Brooks with Brian Davis. So we're starting to see those linkages right. So we're talking about individuals as individuals and then we're tying these together of how does this relate to Realm and Realm Makers? And so that's why I wanted to mention that Becky Miner is the founder and CEO of Realm Makers, and so if you start out with a lie like that, even though it's the same family and it's his wife, it's still a lie. So that's also a bait and switch. You can continue, david.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you, and we want to address those concerns today. And this isn't about putting anyone down, this isn't about vendetta. This is about exposing the truth and letting you make the decision. He doesn't want you knowing this and parents and people that are listening to this from Rome, and honestly, scott, who I know will hear this, the truth is going to come out, so brace yourself in the next five minutes.

Speaker 1:

So right here I found the picture. So we have Terry Brooks here in a post on Brian Davis author's account. So he's posting it with Terry Brooks. It says me with author Terry Brooks. So again, this is proof. It's coming straight from an account and I wanted to share that. And while I'm on the topic of pictures, we have a nice one here, also under the Realm Makers bookstore account, where we have a picture with Scott Minor all the way here on the left and in the middle Brian Davis, david's point one of his points of how people are linked together where Scott says I don't know Brian and Brian says I'm not a part of Realm Makers. That is obviously something that is untrue because I'll say, last but not least, on the Realm Makers account, in June 13th of 2020. So we're talking about you know that's been a few years, but this isn't ancient information and Realm Makers so they posted it says Teens, we still have a program for you at Realm Makers 2020.

Speaker 1:

While our original teen track instructor had to bow out for personal reasons, we are excited to welcome back best-selling author Brian Davis. He'll be showing teens how to really dig into their manuscript and bring it up to par in the editing stage. Teens interested in publishing will not want to miss this opportunity. So get to the bait and switch here, right? If you haven't reserved your spot in our unique virtual conference experience, register today. So what's the bait and switch? Well, here's Brian Davis says he's not a part of Realm Makers, doesn't know anything about it. And here's plain as day hashtag Realm Makers 2020, teen track, with a nice, beautiful photo of Brian and it says Phoenix Solution self-editing to resurrect your manuscript from the ashes. So we're starting to see how these pieces are coming together. You can continue. Sorry for cutting in, david.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, you're good and Scott Minor, we listen me and Scott, we didn't have any problems.

Speaker 2:

In fact, scott and I were kind of just you know, subtle friends. I have a lot of relationships on Realm, even now with people who know I've come forward and we were having this big moment my nine-year-old he was having a book come out and so I went to Scott because a parent came forward and said that Brian Davis was private messaging their child and then we were getting harassed and I went to Scott because I thought I could trust him and I have made this great group of Christian writers that were trying to make a difference in the industry. And then Scott, instead of saying thank you for bringing it to my attention, said I don't believe you. It wasn't. Well, let me see it was. I don't believe you. So he made my wife and me surrender evidence and demanded evidence of everything on Brian so that he could make the determination if I'm a liar and if he should destroy my son's career and mine, let alone my wife's at the time, and he created a hate group. Do we have that?

Speaker 1:

That's actually one thing. I don't have it printed out, but we'll have a it's on TikTok.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's on.

Speaker 1:

TikTok, so you can see it on Voices for Voices.

Speaker 2:

So we know that he created a hate group. The four individuals Gabriel Blur, I believe her name was Emily Sophia Hansen and Scott Minor are the four individuals that were in it, and the job was to keep in the shadows. Don't tell anybody, and list when you met David Solomon and his wife or his son and present evidence of either his trafficking or possibly him as a trafficker and surrender it to Scott Minor. Now, scott Minor doesn't want you knowing about this because it was done in the shadows. This is an organization that claims that it has no secrets, yet it creates a group in the shadows, doesn't want to even talk to the direct, which was me or my wife, demanded information through social media and called other people on the phone that knew us and demanded to know how many people I told that Brian Davis trafficked me or other victims. This is the leader who is in charge of protecting your children on Realm.

Speaker 1:

And also I'll jump in while we're talking about minors not Scott Minor, we're talking about minors, you know, people that are not legally an adult, and so, again, we have some more information. One is a picture from the Bolivar Church of God, february 21, 2021. And there's a picture of Brian Davis at a booth here. It looks like he's selling books. We don't draw issue with that, but the individual who he is getting a photo with is Nick Battaglia, which is a minor, and so this individual not only did he get a picture, because people get pictures with lots of people and may not know but somebody who is an adult, like Brian Davis in that instance, should have an idea of how that looks to the optics right. And so there's a post along with that picture.

Speaker 1:

Bolivar Church of God church family. Most of you have seen Nick Battaglia, who's been a fixture from California on our online services, and it goes on to talk a little bit about some health challenges, but at the very bottom it says a picture of Nick with his favorite author, and so, again, a picture is a picture, but we also have uncovered evidence that Brian was in a chat with Nick, and so, when we look at trying to protect our children, really everybody, adults and children that can be a hard pill really to swallow. As a parent, Did Nick's parents know that there was this linkage and it's just very interesting, let's call it interesting. So you have that as well as we talk about. I just want to throw out real quick so we're talking about as well as we talk about. I just want to throw out real quick so we're talking about. You know, brian Davis says oh, these are unfounded claims. You know what David is coming out and accusations and harassment.

Speaker 1:

So we went to another source, chat GPT, because actually Brian Davis has accused David of being a human trafficker. And again, we're not using human trafficking in a light sense. We know it's heavy, we know it's serious and that's a big reason why we feel we want to just bring the information out. Was entered asking if David is a human trafficker and it comes back and actually says David Solomon, or guess, right along with Cindy Dyke, saber, and Amanda Solomon, his wife, have publicly accused Brian Davis of involvement in human trafficking. So it's not just David, it's not just his wife, there are others and I think it's a good time just to as far as current event-wise, the Diddy List has just dropped, actually last night, the night before this episode is being filmed, and there are interesting individuals on that list, and so go ahead if you want to check that out after you watch and listen to this episode and all other over 200 episodes at this point. So there's a person right that we both know, very popular, that actually shares the same name as me Justin, we'll leave it at that has come out and publicly talks about him being potentially trafficked, and I guess there's different names on the Diddy list that might be included with Realm and Realm Makers. So we just want to throw that information out, because that's again that information literally just dropped as I came into the studio. So I wanted to share that and I really want to get to before we run out of time. Is there's an individual named Von Ullman, which you may be familiar with, and so we're going to really bring it like this and so we say, well, who's Von Ullman?

Speaker 1:

Okay, so this is a Christian source article which has also been on the Daily Mail and Yahoo News. So, again, this isn't something that we wrote or we asked somebody to write. This is information, and what it is is straight up from the article getting them married, selling virgin daughters, and the principles. So we on our site used the word betrothal to refer to the entire set of principles, which differ from those of courtship and dating, which are taught by scriptures, to the path of marriage and several related topics. One of the sort of several bullets here one is the authority of the father over the marriage of their virgin children, the continuing authority of the father after marriage, the importance of young, fruitful marriages, that a bad marriage is preferred over no marriage. And so this individual has again put retreats together to bring for lack of a better word kind of grooming individuals, minors, with what looks like the intention of having them married. And it says right here in the article it is quite explicitly a place for families to get together to arrange non-consenting so they're not consenting to it marriages between their teenage children. So we think that's a problem, the Salvation Army thinks that's a problem, and the Salvation Army has some property to which one of these retreats was to take place. I think it was a couple years back and the Salvation Army, once they found out about Vaughn and the intentions, they canceled the retreat and said you cannot have this retreat on our property. So then that's publicly available knowledge. Believe it or not, that's public knowledge. So how does that have anything to do with Realm and Realm Makers?

Speaker 1:

So Von Ohman has a nice profile here for Realm and Realm Makers. His avatar is a penguin. I went to Youngstown State so, so I love penguins. That was our mascot, so that's, that's his, that's his, that's, that's that's who he is.

Speaker 1:

And how is he connected? You say, well, how is he connected to Brian Davis and all these things? Well, brian Davis has a profile in Rome as well. So you see him in the center and then, oh, you see this little penguin over here that is next next to Brian. Oh, you see this little penguin over here that is next to Brian. So they're connected and it's just interesting that we find that. And so, if we're really looking at things biblically, would we want an individual such as Vaughn to be in a group, an individual such as Vaughn to be in a group that says it's okay for minors to be involved with Realm and Realm Makers? And there are certain ages that they say that don't tell anybody your age, keep that to yourself. So we think that's also a problem. There's a tick tock on that. Uh, we'll probably be maybe doing another one, I, I don't know, uh, to all that, uh, so I just wanted to to to share that, that those linkages, and we got about a minute and a half, uh, david yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we just want to pose these questions Von Omen, scott Minor and there's many other predators too. Why are these people being protected? And why does Scott Minor want all the evidence and then say, well, I'm going to kick you off, you're a liar. Brian's a good guy, I know him personally. And then all of this, you need to decide. But I really am calling for new leadership in Realm Makers. I do not want to tear this place up. It's a wonderful place, but its leaders are a circus. Scott Minor addresses as Dr Strange, who is a sorcerer let's go to that A sorcerer of witchcraft at a Christian event, a Christian event, and you have the nerve to show up with a necklace that literally says Satan on it, calling this a Christian event. That is what you chose to dress up. I'm not making that up.

Speaker 1:

We're showing it on camera, so we have this photo here of this outfit as well, and this was posted by Shiloh. Brian is a friend and a role model in life, so you might be wondering well, how is James Argyle and Shiloh, how are they connected to Brian? Well, apparently Brian is a friend and a role model to Shiloh, so that's a pretty good link if we look at it.

Speaker 2:

And so they connect. And James Art Gill also is writing. He wrote a graphic novel, but he also is writing another one, apparently with Brian, that's coming out this summer with Kinsdale.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we got to wrap it up. Sorry, yep.

Speaker 2:

Be aware of what Realm Makers is. Sorry, Yep. Be aware of what Realm Makers is. Make your own decision, but know that there's more truth coming and pray, because it is your children's lives in danger and your children could be next.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, david. Thank you for being so transparent, coming forward. It's incredibly hard, I can just only imagine, and so I just want to reiterate we're sharing information. Make your decision, whether you're watching or listening, check it out, look into these things, look at your children, make sure that right. We saw that conversation with Nick and Brian's in there. Who are they talking to on online? So we might think we don't want to be a helicopter parent. Well, I would like to know if any children that I was related to were having these conversations with somebody who has been linked via fax. We saw the police report. There's just a lot.

Speaker 1:

So I want to thank David for joining us and we want to close here. I just want to say the nationalhum Human Trafficking Hotlineorg is the site where, if you or somebody knows been a victim or believe they've been a victim of human trafficking which that's actually. We talked about the case number earlier that David has. That's where it's through, so you can reach out to them 24-7 at 1-888-373-7888, tty-711. You can text STAR-233-733, and you can also chat, and if you or somebody you know is experiencing the thoughts of suicide or experiencing a crisis mental health, you can reach out via website 988lifelineorg. You can also call 988. You can text 988. And then you can also chat. So, bringing this to a close, I want to say a short prayer God, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time.

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