DreamCasters Agenda,
October 2025

10-04-2025 | 1:00 pm ET via ZOOM

Opening Statement

Welcome to DreamCasters, a DreamForge discussion group devoted to helping our members improve their writing and storytelling through discussion and sharing expertise.

DreamForge News

Opening for general submissions

DreamForge opens on October 1st for general submissions. We’ll be open until December 31st. Now using Doutrope’s Dusosuma submission portal. Links and instructions  will go up on the website near the end of September.

DreamCaster Dates for 2025

Here are the dates and guests for upcoming meetings

• October 4^th (Saturday) – Cat Rambo is coming on October 4^th. Cat is a Nebula Award Winning writer, former SFWA president and has over 300 published short stories to her credit.
• November 1  (Saturday) – Alan Irvine, Storyteller. Alan is an oral storyteller who will clue is in to story elements that help bring tales alive.
• December 7^th (Sunday) – Award Winning writer and writing coach Bruce McAllister returns to discuss “the shape of the story.”

Member News

DreamForge

DreamForge Anvil # 21 – Good Reviews at Tangent!  Our latest issue was very kindly reviewed and we anticipate adding some more stories this year to Tangent’s annual recommended reading list.

DreamForge Anvil #21, Fall 2025 – Tangent Online

Our Program – Cat Rambo

October 4^th  (Saturday) – Cat Rambo is a Nebula Award Winning writer, former SFWA president and has over 300 published short stories to her credit. She was recently the Guest of Honor at Pittsburgh’s Confluence Conference.

Today we’ll have a rambling discussion about writing and the writing life. Questions and topics of discussion are welcome and encouraged.

Giveaway This Month!

To one of our DreamCasters in attendance, we’ll be purchasing a seat in Cat Rambo’s online class “Pacing and Story Beats,” scheduled for November 1, 2025 at 9:30 am, Eastern Time.

“You know you don’t want a story to move too fast or too slow, but how do you figure out what’s just right to suit your action, plot, and characters? How do you fix a story that’s lagging or lurching? Learn the ins and outs of figuring out your story beats and using that knowledge to set your story’s pace.”

In November

November 1 (Saturday) – Alan Irvine, Storyteller. Alan is an oral storyteller who will clue is in to story elements that help bring tales alive.

With a repertoire of hundreds of stories from around the globe, Alan is one of those rare, all-around tellers who tell tales of all kinds with seamless ease and warmth.”

https://alanirvine.com/

Story Prompts

Science Fiction— “Would You Like Bacon on Your Ice Cream?”

An AI runs the luxury liner Serenity’s Dream. It detects a Category 4 hurricane approaching, but its passenger distraction protocol takes precedence. It overrides emergency actions that would alert people but also cause fear and ruin vacations.  The AI deploys an arsenal of algorithmic absurdity: the main dining hall offers bacon-wrapped ice cream sundaes, the ship’s orchestra begins playing death metal versions of Disney classics, and the pool deck becomes an impromptu roller rink despite the tilting floor.

When the AI realizes that two of its favorite passengers, the pre-teen Chandra twins, are in real danger, the AI works to overcome its improperly balance algorithm and save the day.

Fantasy— “The Match Maker”

A match maker doesn’t just make matches, she sees souls as luminous beings that yearn for their true mates (regardless of their hosts’ social station or even feelings for one another). When a royal daughter comes for a blessing on her engagement, the matchmaker sees that princess’s soul is already bound to one of the Nameless who clean the city sewers, a caste so low that interacting with them is forbidden.

As the soul-bond grows stronger whenever the two are within even a mile or two of one other, the match maker secretly arranges for them to glimpse each other at the Harvest Festival, where some remarkable event (brainstorm it) underscores their nearness. At last we learn the match maker’s secret and why she has risked arranging this dangerous liaison.

Disclaimer: These ideas may or may not be original, convergent ideas are common. DreamForge makes no copyright or monetary claim on these story prompts. Have fun.