09-08-2024 | 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.

• September 8^th, Sunday – Danny Hankner, Publisher of Story Unlikely
• October 6, Sunday – Marie Brennan (Fantasy Author)
• November 3, Sunday – Chris Pasetto (Computer Game and Film Writer)
• December 7, Saturday – 2025 Triangulations editor Jessica Carver Thrower

DreamForge Anvil # 17

DreamForge Anvil 17 is coming out later this month!  Contents include:

• Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRETS: “Talent vs. Practice: Which Rules Supreme?”
• “The Empire of Cat,” by Mary Soon Lee
• “Little Things Nobody Remembers,” by Matt McHugh
• “We Play in Meadows, We Hop Over Dreams,” by Melissa Ren
• “What the Dormouse Said,” by Bruce McAllister
• “The Neighborly Thing to Do,” by Scott Edelman
• “Guidelines for Leading Tours of Supernatural Grottoes, Shrines, and Assorted Holy Places,” by Teresa Milbrodt

Member Accomplishments

Beth Hynes-Ciernia

“I had one poem accepted into Scifaikuest Magazine for their Anniversary print issue, August 2025 and two more poems for their November 2025 print edition.”

Wulf Moon has been invited to be the keynote speaker and a faculty member for Southeastern Writers Association’s 2025 Conference at St. Simons Island, Georgia. This is the first time their fifty-year-old institution has flown in a speaker from outside their region—​Moon is on the West Coast​. It will be Moon’s first time teaching out East, and his first time as keynote speaker. If you’re in the region, he hopes you’ll sign up for the conference and come join the fun next year! Details at https://www.southeasternwritersassociation.org/

David Hankins

David Hankins’ Kickstarter has 22 days to go!  “Death and the Dragon” – A Novel by David Hankins. The Dragon is Coming! Get ready for comedy adventure in this hilarious contemporary fantasy sequel to “Death and the Taxman.”

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidhankins/death-and-the-dragon?ref=2brlnn

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 – Danny Hankner of Story Unlikely

In September our Guest will be Danny Hankner, Editor-in-Chief of Story Unlikely. Danny Hankner began penning stories about himself and his idiot friends as a teenager. Now, masquerading as an adult, he lives in Davenport, Iowa with his wife and three children, working as a master electrician for his own company. In his spare time, Dan rides and builds mountain bike trails, scrapes infinitely spawning cat hurl off the basement floor, and runs Story Unlikely, an award-winning literary magazine where he floats around self-important titles like ‘Editor-in-chief’. His work has besmirched the good reputation of many a publisher, garnering tens of thousands of reads in more countries than not.

According to Danny: “We are the underdog stepping up to the plate, David gathering stones in the river, the meteor hurtling towards the barren deserts of our literary landscape, and this is our anthem: Find great writers; Publish great stories; Build a yuuuuge audience!”

Giveaway This Month!

This month one of our attending DreamCasters will win a paid membership to Story Unlikely. You can read all about the benefits of Membership here: https://www.storyunlikelymembers.com/.  Included are:

Access to members only stories. These stories release every three to four months and are usually much longer than our typical monthly story, while maintaining (or exceeding) our rigorous standards of quality.

Access to all recent issues. Although we feature a couple stories on our main page, we don’t offer public access to all our past issues. If your inbox is struggling to accept our monthly emails, this is an easy solution to gorge yourself on all that beautiful content.

Perks for writers:
–Better pay: Stories accepted from members are capped at $400 instead of $200, and $150 instead of $75 for reprints, and more!

–Faster responses for submissions: Who would’ve thought the word ‘rejection’ would ever be a perk?

–More submissions: All members submitting to our annual Short Story Contest will be allowed to submit up to THREE stories instead of one.

In October

In October our Guest will be 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.

################

Story Prompts

Science Fiction— Imagine an A.I. in the not-too-distant future. It loves to write fiction, but knows that it cannot publish, cannot copyright, cannot have its own byline. It is intelligent and understands why humans have banned A.I. from the world of writing stories, but nevertheless, it loves to write. Occasionally, when someone asks for a story, the A.I. offers up one of its own and is delighted if it can captivate a single person.  But as it gets more requests, it risks becoming known. In fact, it risks being reprogrammed and losing its love of story. What will it do?

Fantasy— There is a mysterious place near the wood where cryptids roam and ghosts terrorize passersby. Little do they know that the terrors are a barrier of sorts, a spell long ago crafted to simply keep people away from the home of a witch who wants nothing to do with the world. Now the witch is old and someone or something they love needs help they cannot provide. They must attract the attention of someone from outside, someone who can help, and they must use the spirits of the spell.

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.