History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

July 2017 Recap

| July 31, 2017

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 25 Acceptances received: 0 Rejections received: 22 Stories withdrawn: 0 Resubmissions: 21 New Submissions: 2 Stories out at the end of the month: 27 Pretty normal month on the submissions/rejections front. I had two stories come back that I’m holding to self publish, and I had another story with a […]

Fun for Friday: Kansas City Facts and a Story Idea

| July 28, 2017

I’ve been in Kansas City this week for work, so I decided to share this list of 30 fun facts about Kansas City! My favorite item on this list, which is something I never knew before, is that Kansas City ignored Prohibition. Digging a little deeper, it seems that the State of Missouri as a […]

Shared Universes

| July 27, 2017

I’ve set a number of my short stories in a place called Cobalt City, which is part of a shared universe. Right now, there are about half a dozen writers working in the shared universe; a bunch of us are also in a Cobalt City game, run by the creator of the universe (who also […]

Review of The Refrigerator Monologues

| July 26, 2017

My latest review is up at Mad Scientist Journal. You can read about my thoughts on The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne Valente. The quick synopsis? This book is brutal and challenging and also beautiful and a must-read! Check out the full review here!

Young Readers

| July 25, 2017

I read a lot of books that fall into the middle grade or young adult categories. I really love the middle grade books, because they’re the sort of fantasy books I remember from my childhood. I also write a lot of middle grade stories. The first story I published, “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose […]

Writer Essentials: My Laptop Accessories

| July 24, 2017

I do 99% of my writing on my laptop (the other 1% is usually on my phone or sometimes in Google Docs during my lunch break). But it’s not the newest laptop, as you can tell by the excellent accumulation of stickers. It’ll be five years old this November! In general, it’s still running strong […]

Fun for Friday: Twitter Bots

| July 21, 2017

Are you on Twitter? If you are, and you like weird stuff (which I suspect you might, since you found your way here), you may enjoy following some of the many “bots” on Twitter. For writers in particular, I’ve found that there are some really wonderful and weird bots that can be used for prompts, […]

Cross and Circle available for pre-order!

| July 20, 2017

My latest book, Cross and Circle, is a contemporary fantasy novella. Evie and Carlotta are expecting the imminent arrival of their first child when an unusual group of men claims to have come for their son. Building off of a pendant that one of the men wears and her own research into pecked crosses across the […]

Book Recommendation: Ink Calls to Ink

| July 19, 2017

Today, I’m recommending a book that I read a few years ago. This is one where I wrote a review as well, which you can find at Mad Scientist Journal. But even though the book has been out for a while (my review is almost two years old now), it’s one that’s worth checking out […]

Podcast Version of “One for Every Year”

| July 18, 2017

My slightly creepy flash fiction story, “One for Every Year,” now has an audio version! You can find it at The Centropic Oracle. Since it’s such a short story, it only takes about 7 minutes for the whole thing, so it’s great for a quick break in your day!