DreamForge Anvil | Issue 18

Recipes for a Voyage to the Far Shore

Jared Oliver Adams lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he writes, explores, and dabbles in things better left alone. He holds two degrees in music performance, a third degree in elementary education, and is utterly incapable of passing a doorway without checking to see if it leads to Narnia. Find him online at www.jaredoliveradams.com

Story Notes for "Recipes for a Voyage to the Far Shore"
As a person who believes in a version of “The Undying Lands” in which all are offered passage, these questions are very important to me, all the more because many in my own religion seek to formulate charts of “valorous deeds” required for boarding.

More Than Microscopic

Ties That Bind

As an ex-rocket scientist Mark has an unwitting talent for taking the everyday magic out of twinkling stars, sunsets, colourful flames dancing in a roaring fire, and rainbows. This does not stop him seeing the magic differently and in alternate colours. The newly reconstructed rumbly city of Christchurch, NZ, is where he hails from. This has touched a lot of his writing, be it science fiction or the darker speculative style that reflects his experiences. New Zealand hosts an amazingly supportive speculative fiction society, and Mark acknowledges the major part that SpecFicNZ (https://specfic.nz/) has played in encouraging his work, and also Critical Mass (you know who you are!) for being the critique group he needed.

You can find other works by Mark in Abyss & Apex Magazine, Escape Pod, Perihelion as well as numerous anthologies and Antipodean SF where he is part of the narration team.

Story Notes for "Ties that Bind"
We are not singular people as such, though we think we are. There are threads of ideas, feelings, and longing that interweave our lives with the lives of others. Then there are darker threads of connection such as debt, fear, and addiction that hold us into the pattern of our lives more strongly than any conscious self-direction, outside of what we consider to be our autonomy. Through our actions we alter them, but what if someone could see and interact with them directly? Would that be a good thing? Often unwanted and unasked for interventions can trigger a very oppositional reaction.

Cross-Pollination

Taylor Jones writes fiction and poetry about the possible future and the impossible present. Her work is often inspired by her background in and love of biology. Her writing and art have appeared in Reckoning, Spit Poet Zine, Smoky Quartz, South Broadway Ghost Society, Interstellar Flight Press, and Barren Magazine. She lives in Denver, Colorado, in a house full of plants. Links to her work can be found here (https://linktr.ee/trjonesartwork)

Imagination Era

Poetry Notes for "Imagination Era"
I am in a unique position in-between the AI sector and the writing industry. It often felt like my two worlds collided, but more importantly it felt there was an opportunity to offer my unique perspective on things. I recently wrote a review paper labeled Dawn of Imagination Age: Addressing Ethics of Generative AI Leveraging Lessons from the Healthcare Domain. The paper's aim is to highlight the ethical blunders current generative AI makes, and provide guidelines to address them. After finishing this work, I wrote a story called Imagination Age, where a robot learns its own ethical code to make his parents (his programmers) proud. Imagination Era is a poem off-shoot of that story.

Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS: You Can’t Stop the Signal

A Ray So Alone

Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Jack Morton studied English and Writing at the University of Toronto. His stories can be read in Radon Journal, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, Parsec Ink’s Triangulation, Vast Literary Press, and Woodward Review. He lives in Toulouse, France.

Story Notes for "A Ray So Alone"
The rays of A Ray So Alone presented themselves to me nearly fully formed, their appearance, their personality, and their voice when communicating. Lily and Will came about later as a response to the questions I had about ray culture and lifecycle, respectively.

Editor, Editorial Selections, Essays, and more.

Jane is the Founder of Chroma Marketing Essentials, a digital marketing agency located in Jeannette PA.  She holds a degree in Visual Communications from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and more years of experience than she cares to count. 

Before founding CME, Jane worked as an Artist, Art Lead, Art Director, and Project Manager for the computer game developer DreamForge Intertainment, where she worked on a number of early computer games, including Roger Zelazny’s Chronomaster.

Editor, Editorial Selections, Essays, and more.

Editorial Assistant