10-06-2024 | 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.

• October 6, Sunday – Marie Brennan (Fantasy Author)
• November 3, Sunday – Chris Pasetto (Computer Game and Film Writer)
• December 7, Saturday – Jessica Carver Thrower, editor of 2025’s Triangulation “Dark Hearts”

Member Accomplishments

Congratulations to our DreamCasters who made Honorable Mention in the latest round of submissions for the Writers of the Future contest.

Congratulations to Alex Harford for his slightly surreal flash fiction, “Will Ocean’s Converge in Our Village Park?” in the Lucent Dreaming poetry and prose anthology about friendship, For a Friend. This is Alex’s first sale! Learn more at https://bit.ly/3XhQcoZ

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 – Marie Brennan

In October our Guest is Marie Brennan. Marie is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly leans on her academic fields for inspiration. She recently misapplied her professors’ hard work to The Game of 100 Candles and the short novel Driftwood, and together with Alyc Helms as M.A. Carrick, she is the author of the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy, beginning with The Mask of Mirrors. The first book of her Hugo Award-nominated Victorian adventure series The Memoirs of Lady Trent, A Natural History of Dragons, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Her other works include the Doppelganger duology, the urban fantasy Wilders series, the Onyx Court historical fantasies, the Varekai novellas, and over eighty short stories, as well as the New Worlds series of worldbuilding guides. Her short story “A Tale of Two Tarōs” appeared in DreamForge Magazine.

For more information and social media, including her Patreon, visit linktr.ee/swan_tower.

Giveaway This Month!

This month one of our attending DreamCasters will win a copy of Marie Brennan’s “Turning Darkness into Light,” An adventure set in the hugely popular A Natural History of Dragons universe – a delightful Victorian-esque fantasy.

In November

In November our Guest will be Chris Pasetto. Jane and I worked with Chris at DreamForge Intertainment back in the 1990s. Since then Chris has worked as a lead game designer at both Interplay Entertainment and Rockstar Games, as well as Senior Designer at High Moon Studios. Chris Pasetto is also known for the films “How I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse” (2009) and “Air” from 2015, and the graphic novel Kill the Minotaur.

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Story Prompts

Science Fiction— The Pipeline. In the near future, humanity stumbles upon an extraordinary discovery: a vast, intergalactic network of information dubbed “The Pipeline.” This cosmic Internet connects countless alien civilizations, offering an unprecedented window into extraterrestrial knowledge, culture, and technology. As Earth’s scientists and governments scramble to decipher and navigate this alien datasphere, they face a daunting challenge: distinguishing fact from fiction in a sea of unfamiliar information.

As they delve deeper, they encounter disturbing patterns: hostile rhetoric towards developing civilizations, including Earth, and conflicting accounts of galactic history. Is this animosity a true reflection of interstellar politics, or merely an echo of humanity’s own online discourse? How can they verify information when the sources are light-years away? As Earth teeters on the brink of revealing its presence to the wider galactic community, what course does humanity choose?

Fantasy— In a pre-industrial world where magic is a significant part of the economy, there is a new Lord Suzerain who has built a magical library, perhaps the largest in the world. He sends forth agents both in his own lands and beyond to buy magical spell books from their owners. In this transaction, the deal is that the owner is paid handsomely, and the owner is given a hand-made copy which is still magical, though the original must stay in the Suzerain’s library. Something is happening. Books are disappearing from the library. Patrons are being injured in magical outbursts. It seems that putting so many magical tomes in close proximity is having an unexpected, emergent effect.

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.