At DreamForge, we believe the human adventure is just beginning, that we we’re poised to make great strides on levels both big and small. We’ll take big steps and wonder at the vastness yet to cover. We’ll look to our own accomplishments and make peace with eternity. It will become possible to see the universe in different ways, and our need for love will defy all the forces arrayed against it.

There are so many stars (about 100 billion in our galaxy alone), that no matter how small you make the numbers in the Drake Equation, there should be alien civilizations out there. Because we don’t look out and see strange ships mining the asteroids and giant solar sails tacking against our sun’s solar wind, we have to wonder what’s up. Where are they?

Exposition is the enemy. Exposition is why we sent your story back, even when we liked your engaging writing style, the cracker opening, your memorable characters, and your promising plot development. So, let’s learn to recognize this pernicious despoiler of pencraft, in hopes of bringing those stories back to life!

Writing is a craft that does not necessarily improve through solo practice. It is too easy to believe we’ve done brilliant work when the only feedback we have is the praise generated in our own imagination. A good mentor can cut through the self-deception and rationalization, pointing out the specifics in need of intensified practice and careful polishing. After all, how can a Padawan progress without a Jedi Master?

Even the most casual baseball fan has heard of Satchel Paige, or at least bits of his legend. About how he placed a gum-wrapper on home plate and threw three strikes in a row over it to win his first pro contract. The truth is actually stranger and much more impressive. I know. I was there at the beginning and at the end, and much of the in-betweens.

The drone closest to me settles on a wild pansy. Slowly, I move towards it, but stop a few feet away. It doesn’t react. How dumb are these things? No matter what Adriyel says, they will confuse the real pollinators. Bile rises up, burning the back of my throat. No, research or not, I can’t let them ruin the habitat like this. We’ve all suffered enough.

Arma Fortius had been climbing from the base camp up the ragged slopes of Mons Albus, the great white mountain, for three days. And still Apollo’s Tower, the majestic pyramid that was the culmination of Trajan’s promise of reaching the heavens, loomed in front of him. Was it high enough? Arma wondered. Even some of the nation’s best philosophers had their doubts…

I watched the monitors while Varia looked through the viewing port, flipping her glasses up and down. Every time we set up the experiment, it was the same. There was a delay of exactly 44.5 seconds from the time Varia saw the dragons to the first spike on the detectors. There are theories that dark matter universes are layered right on top of our own, undetectable, at least with current technology.

When you are a ship that has been traveling the galaxy for a thousand years, and the nanomechs have been repairing your outer skin for those thousand years, you have a lot of scar tissue. Your outer hull is twice as thick. The starship-class identifier just doesn’t know it and you get a go light. It thinks you’re the same size you once were and realizes too late you’re not.

We have so many people to thank! Founders, Kickstarter Heroes, Contributors, Friends, Family, and First Line Readers.