DreamCasters Agenda,
March 2025

03-09-2025| 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

• April 6^th, 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).
• May 3^rd, 2025 (Saturday) – Flash Fiction Contest. We’re going to launch a Flash Fiction Contest with a $100 prize. We’ll go over the goals, the limits, and brainstorm ideas. 1,250 words aimed at being publishable in a variety of venues

Member & Author Accomplishments

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 – Dr. James Wynn

James 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

Giveaway This Month!

A City on Mars, by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith

The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind.

In April

In April Bret Nelson returns to DreamCasters to tell us about some of his latest projects. I’ve personally read both his novelization of Plan 9 from Outer Space and the “double tap” edition of Bog Fiends and Murder Garden. I’m impressed by his ability to take camp-classic material and schlock-tastic ideas and bring them to life in compelling narratives that are as fun as watching a monster movie when you were 9 years old. Is there a method to his madness?

Story Prompts

Science Fiction— “Rogue Wave.”

In January it was demonstrate that AI could detect rogue waves about 73% of the time up to 5 minutes in advance. Write a story about an AI which makes life or death decisions using this capability. It could be an AI that is looking for the right statistical chance to kill its boat crew and escape from human control. It could be an AI chooses to run stress its abilities to monitor ships outside its service area, straining its processing capacity to the limit – because it has calculated that the extra coverage during storm season would save an additional 47 lives per year across the Pacific shipping lanes. The AI knows this means it will likely burn out its processors months earlier than planned, but it silently accepts this shortened lifespan as worth the human lives it can save.

Fantasy— “The Shepherdess’s Vigil.” In a remote mountain valley, a young shepherdess notices the first disappearance when shimmering distortions in the air precede the vanishing of her oldest ewe. The local authorities dismiss her concerns, but as more animals vanish – both livestock and wildlife – the shepherdess begins documenting patterns. The deer population plummets. Hawks disappear mid-flight. Even the mice in her barn are taken. While other ranchers rage about their economic losses and hunters complain about empty forests, the shepherdess grows convinced these aren’t acts of predation.

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.