DreamCasters in March 2022
DreamCasters Agenda | March 2022
Sunday, March 6th, 1:00 pm Eastern Time.
Want to join in? Support us on Patreon at the DreamCaster level and above (only $3/month)
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 – 5 min
Meeting Dates
Thank you to everyone who completed our survey on the best meeting dates and times. Responses showed that we hadn’t guessed too far off to begin with. Weekends are best; Sundays are best, early in theMonth is best. To be sure, there are many of our DreamCasters we can’t accommodate; however, the most we can get together in one place and time seems to be Sunday at 1:00 pm.
Sales Announcements
DreamCasters, get us your sales announcements for the month and we’ll congratulate anyone with a new sale or upcoming publication.
Indiana Tilford: A sale to Etherea Magazine. They bought Indiana’s story The Price of Creation.
Alicia Hilton:
Alicia Hilton sold a story to Scary Dairy Press for the Bloody Rock music-themed anthology. “Devil in Disguise” is a story about justice and redemption that blends dark fantasy with crime fiction, horror, and science fiction. http://scarydairypress.com
Alicia sold a poem to Egaeus Press for the Birds anthology. “My Avian Daughter Devours Meteors” is a poem about otherness, transformation, and hope that blends fantasy and science fiction. http://www.egaeuspress.com/About_Egaeus_Press.html
Alicia sold a poem to Star*Line. “Chicago 2033: Big Brother versus the Tiny Alien that Lives on Sandra” is a dystopian poem that blends science fiction with fantasy. http://www.sfpoetry.com/starline.html
Alicia sold a poem to Frost Zone Zine. “She Nurtured a Monstrous Thirst” is a poem about self-discovery and motherhood that blends mythology with dark fantasy. https://frostzonezine.com
Alicia has also been selected to be the chairperson for the 2022 Bram Stoker Award jury in the anthology category. In 2021, I was a juror for the Bram Stoker Award anthology category. This will be my first time serving as a chair.
Unfortunately, Alicia’s circumstances prevent her from joining us in the Bakeoff. She is writing a novella and is busy evaluating and editing submissions for the B Cubed Press Alternative Holidays anthology.
Submission Market
Looking for a submissions market? Parsec’s Triangulation Anthology (themed Energy) has extended it submission period to the end of March. http://parsecink.com/triangulation-submissions/
Alicia Hilton is editing the Alternative Holidays anthology, along with Bob Brown. Authors can submit speculative fiction, poetry, and essays that have a holiday theme. The submission deadline is March 30, 2022. Here are the submission guidelines: https://bcubedpress.moksha.io/publication/alternative-holidays/guidelines
The Great DreamCaster Bakeoff – 1 hour
We got 12 entrees and everyone stays in the contest for now, and everyone who put in a template will get detailed notes back.
Staying up until midnight last night reading templates, I realized that I don’t have the bandwidth to process entries between a Friday deadline and a Sunday meeting – so I’m always going to be a month behind, but this will give you guys some recovery and adjustment time as I tell you what I’m seeing and you have time to adjust and resubmit by the next deadline.
We also decided we are going to clear out the First Line Readers evaluation portal and teach all of you how to use that to submit for next month and comment on one another’s work. For the April 8th deadline, you have the chance to adjust your template (or even start over with a new one – based on what you learn when I get your templates back to you. But you’ll also add the Orientation scene, fully written out and introduce the Protagonist in a way that we understand their motivation.
Remember everyone who participates, whether you are chosen as one of our six main competitors or a beta reader, at the end of the competition you get to turn in a story during a special submission period just for DreamCasters.
Good luck to everyone.
The Great DreamCaster Bake-Off
Give Aways! 5 minutes
By random dice roll, we will give away two prizes, with each winner getting two 1952 issues of Galaxy Magazine. In 1952, Galaxy was just entering its third year and one of you gets an issue with Isaac Asimov, one with Robert Heinlein, and both get an issue featuring Willy Ley.
Story Prompts – 5 minutes
We’ll give out a couple story prompts that might be interesting to explore.
Meeting Ends. Thank You All!
In April
In April, we’re going to continue to work on the DreamCaster Bakeoff. I don’t think we’re going to ring in a speaker again quite yet. We’ll see how the continuation of the Bakeoff goes.
Story Prompts – (Reveal live during meeting):
Science Fiction – Recently, a pod of orcas (killer whales) was observed and filmed hunting and cooperating to brutally kill a blue whale. To cooperate in this fashion, experienced orcas train new pod members. What would humans do if orcas become so successful that they threaten newly resurgent blue whale populations? If orcas become responsible for the extinction of blue whales, is that just nature, or should humans interfere?
Fantasy – A woman in the 20th Century begins to have dreams that change the past. These are not premonitions of what is to come, but of an event in her life that could have gone one way or another. When it goes differently than the original timeline, she awakes into a world where the consequences of that different occurrence are manifest. At first, she and she alone is aware of the change. But as she tries to use this power to her own benefit, with lucid dreaming, the changes become more dramatic and those around her begin to notice the shift.
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.
