DreamCasters Agenda, February 2025
02-08-2025| 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
DreamCaster Dates for 2024-25
Here are the dates and guests for upcoming meetings
- February 8 2025 (Saturday) – Teresa Milbrodt. Teresais a creative writer, disability scholar, and assistant professor at Roanoke College. She is author of three short story collections, a flash fiction collection, and a novel, as well as several critical articles in disability studies.
- March 9th, 2025 (Sunday) – Dr. James Wynn speaks with us about how the language of Colonialism is working its way into space exploration.
- April 6th, 2025 (Sunday) – Bret Nelson. When Bret Nelson isn’t writing stories, he’s making TV shows and games. He’s worked with Kermit the Frog, Buzz Lightyear, and Conan the Cimmerian. Right now, he’s working on things he can’t talk about (that’s what the contracts say).
Member & Author Accomplishments
Congratulations to:
Stephen Sottang for the article “Practical Forgiveness,” published in 3rd Act Magazine in December. Check it out at https://www.3rdactmagazine.com/past-issues/3rdact-wa-win24/
Pete Lead, for “All the Better to See,” published in Unnerving Magazine in January. Check it out at https://www.unnervingbooks.com/single-post/all-the-better-to-see-by-pete-lead
David Hankins, for “The Key to the Kingdom,” published in Sally Port Magazine in January. Check it out at https://sallyportmagazine.com/individual-issues/
The 2024 Critters Readers’ Poll was kind to DreamForge DreamCaster supporters and writers. Wulf Moon won Best of the Year in six categories, including Best Author. David Hankins DF story “To Catch a Foo Fighter won for both Best Positive Fiction and Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Story, and The Tale-Tale Cricket by Candice Lisle won for Best Horror Short Story. Congrats to all!
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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 – Teresa Milbrodt
Teresa Milbrodt is the author of three short story collections: Instances of Head-Switching, Bearded Women: Stories, and Work Opportunities. She has also published a novel, The Patron Saint of Unattractive People, and a flash fiction collection, Larissa Takes Flight: Stories. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines.
Teresa’s scholarly interests include disability humor, disability and sexuality, and creative practice in disability communities. Her insights in this area can be of great value to writers hoping to be inclusive in creating characters whose disabilities are part of their normal lives.
She loves cats, long walks with her MP3 player, independently owned coffee shops, peanut butter frozen yogurt, and texting hearts in rainbow colors. Read more of her work at: http://teresamilbrodt.com/homepage/
Giveaway This Month!
This month one of our attending DreamCasters will win a copy of “Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor, and Sexuality, by Teresa Milbrodt. This book takes a humorous, intimate approach to disability through the stories, jokes, performances, and other creative expressions of people with disabilities. Author Teresa Milbrodt explores perceptions of disability in literature and dominant culture, allowing people with disabilities to shape political disability identity and disability pride, call attention to social inequalities, and poke back at ableist cultural norms.
In March
In March our guest will be Dr. James Wynn.
Wynn, an associate professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said it is important to consider space exploration and settlement from the perspective of colonialism. The potential for conflicts over land and resources between nations are parallel to those in past colonial moments.
Dr. Wynn’s request; “Given that you are all avid sci-fi readers and writers, I would really love to hear about your experiences with colonial themes in the stories you’ve read and written and the ways in which you think historical colonial ideas have recirculated or evolved in sci-fi literature.”
You can read more at: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2023/december/a-place-in-space-for-the-humanities
Story Prompts
Science Fiction— “Speaking with the Universe.”
Have you ever seen a conceptualization of large-scale universal structures like the Hercules-Coronal Borealis Great Wall? It’s so wide that light takes about 10 billion years to move across the entire structure. It also looks like a glowing set of nerve fibers. While light may be slow, wormholes may allow for instantaneous movement of theoretical particles called tachyons throughout the structure without delay. What if the whole thing is a nervous system, one that has a sense of self and can think? What if someone finds a way to say “hello?”
Fantasy— “Poppy.” Ordinary people in a wooded, suburban community start to see the ghosts of dinosaurs roaming the night. At first, they watch lone individuals, then a slow-moving herd of herbivores, including a small calf that they come to name and adore for its antics. What will they do when a pack of predators arrive? Has this all taken place millions of year before and time has sealed the fate of the herd? Or do these ghosts have a tenuous connection to the current day, one where humans can reach across the gulf of time and stay the hand of fate?
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.
