DreamCasters Agenda,
April 2024

04-27-2024 | 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

DreamCaster Dates for 2024

Here are the dates and guests for the next three months.

• Saturday, April 27th – Jonathan Maberry, NYT Best Selling Horror Author
• Sunday, May 5th – Scott Edelman, 8 Time Bram Stoker Award Nominated Writer
• Saturday, June, 1st – Elizabeth Eve King, Metastellar Magazine and the serialization of Gods and Monsters

Member Accomplishments

Here a are a few of the latest uploads to our DreamCaster’s gallery of accomplishments:

Writers of the Future  finalists and mentions

Recent Sales

• Milo Piper’s Breakout Single that Ended the Rat War, by David Hankins. Published in Troubadours and Space Princesses Anthology. https://amzn.to/3TlocyI
• You’ve Got to Be Kitten Me, by Angelique Fawns. Published in Faux Paws. https://bit.ly/3tv4GW3
• I Thought I Closed That Door, by Faith Allington. Published in Hearth & Coffin. https://bit.ly/48VtqHb

The full DreamCaster gallery of published stories is online at Airtable.

 Let us know about any new publications, awards, or accomplishments you might have. If you get news to me at Scot.Noel@DreamForgeMagazine.com, I’ll make sure to mention it.

Our Program – Guest Jonathan Maberry

JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times best-seller, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, anthology editor, comic book writer, executive producer, magazine feature writer, playwright, and writing teacher/lecturer.

He is the editor of Weird Tales Magazine and president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. He is the recipient of the Inkpot Award, three Scribe Awards, and was named one of Today’s Top Ten Horror Writers. His books have been sold to more than thirty countries. He writes in several genres including thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and mystery; and he writes for adults, middle grade, and young adult.

Learn more at https://www.jonathanmaberry.com/

This is your chance to learn, talk about, and ask about Horror writing!

Giveaway This Month!

This month one of our attending DreamCaster will win a hardback copy of Jonathan Maberry’s novel Glimpse. “A chilling thriller that explores what happens when reality and nightmares converge, and how far one will go to protect the innocent when their own brain is a threat.”

In May

On Sunday, May 5^th, Scott Edelman is our guest.

SCOTT EDELMAN has published nearly 100 short stories in magazines such as Analog, The Twilight Zone, Postscripts, Absolute Magnitude, Science Fiction Review and Fantasy Book, and in anthologies such as You, Human, The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Crossroads, MetaHorror, Once Upon a Galaxy, Moon Shots, Mars Probes, Forbidden Planets. His poetry has appeared in Asimov’s, Amazing, Dreams and Nightmares, and others.

And of course, Scott has had two stories in DreamForge and will soon have a third, “The Neighborly Thing to Do,” currently scheduled for a fall release. His story “Answered Prayers” also appeared in the DreamForge/Space & Time Anthology Worlds of Light and Darkness.

His most recent short story collection is Things That Never Happened, published September 2020 by Cemetery Dance. Of the book, Publishers Weekly wrote: “His talent is undeniable.”

Early in his career, Scott worked as an assistant editor for Marvel Comics starting in the early ’70s, writing everything from display copy for superhero Slurpee cups to the famous Bullpens Bulletins pages. While there, he edited the Marvel-produced fan magazine FOOM (Friend of Ol’ Marvel). He also wrote trade paperbacks such as The Captain Midnight Action Book of Sports, Health and Nutrition and The Mighty Marvel Fun Book number four and five.

This is another chance to learn, talk about, and ask about Horror writing!

Story Prompts

Science Fiction— Imagine an alternate reality. It starts with the Little Ice Age in Northern Europe that started in the 14^th century and lasted nearly 500 years. Now, let’s imagine it spread throughout the northern hemisphere. One real technology in our past that might have become widespread was Pykrete, a mixture of ice and sawdust that had qualities like concrete and melted slowly but was buoyant too. They were going to build ships with it. What if it became a worldwide building material? Fast forward to a parallel civilization like ours today when increased industrialization causes global warming. Boats, buildings, massive infrastructure – it would all be under threat of melting. What temperatures would people want the world to go back to – certainly not the ones we grew up with. The idea to explore is “what is the normal world we’re trying to maintain by controlling warming? What if it were different, as it has been in the past?”

Fantasy— The Hunted. Imagine a fantasy world where magic exists, as do magic users, but over time it was realized that the very use of magic caused the world to become unbalanced and chaotic in nature. Earthquakes, climate change, disease, failed crops. The story takes place in a time when anyone with magic talent is hunted down and killed as the population tries to eliminate the ability for magic. Of course, magic users defend themselves with magic, making the situation worse. Craft a tale where people must make a choice between allowing a magic user to save lives or executing a magic user knowing they are sacrificing lives that could have been saved, in the name of their mission against magic.

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.