History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Anthology Construction

| April 30, 2018

The final writing panel that I was on at Norwescon was about anthologies–both editing them and writing for them. I’ve had a number of my short stories published in anthologies, with more scheduled, and I’ve also edited all of the Mad Scientist Journal Kickstartered anthologies. I shared the panel with K. G. Anderson, Jennifer Brozek, and […]

Fun for Friday: May Writing Prompts

| April 27, 2018

May is on its way, and with it comes the May writing prompts! This month has more spring-themed words, along with some of the events that happen in May. And of course, you don’t have to go with a May-themed interpretation of these words! Check back on the last Friday of each month (or occasionally […]

Summer Reads: Camp Haunt

| April 26, 2018

With summer approaching, plenty of folks have a little extra time for reading. If you like your summer reads to be a little on the spooky side, check out Camp Haunt! Camp Haunt grew out of my love for going to camp in the summers of my childhood, combined with a love for all of […]

Tool Recommendation: The Reckless Deck

| April 25, 2018

If you know about my love for random generators, this post will likely come as no surprise to you. For those who prefer their randomness to come from a more tactile source, I cannot recommend the Reckless Deck enough! I found the Reckless Deck on Kickstarter when they were getting funding for the second installment […]

Light Reading: Cross and Circle

| April 24, 2018

As a reader, sometimes I want a book to read that won’t take me too long. Novellas and novelettes are great for that sort of light reading. I can spend an hour or two enjoying a story, and then I’m done, back to whatever else I need to do. If you like light reads, check […]

Off for another adventure!

| April 23, 2018

This year seems to be the year of many adventures for me. This time, I’m off to the city that birthed me, to visit my mom and sisters. It’ll be a different sort of adventure, as it’s a combination of me hanging out and also working. One of my sisters and I will be commandeering […]

Fun for Friday: A Writing Prompt a Day

| April 20, 2018

If you’re someone who wants to find writing prompts, but wants to be surprised by what they are each day, you might like A Writing Prompt a Day on Tumblr. It’s certainly not the only daily writing prompt supply, but this one has a wide variety of types of prompts–some that seem to encourage pieces […]

What Makes a Hero?

| April 19, 2018

Is a hero defined by their actions or by their powers? I’m inclined to think it’s the former, because there are a lot of “super heroes” who don’t actually have superpowers. Batman, Hawkeye, and many others just have training and skill, rather than powers that come from some weird source. By that token, even the […]

Review of Long Hidden

| April 18, 2018

It’s been on my to-read list for quite some time, but I finally have read and reviewed Long Hidden, edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older. It’s an anthology of 27 alternate history speculative fiction stories featuring marginalized characters. If you’re curious to see what I thought of it, check out my review at Mad Scientist Journal!

Brass and Glass 2 Edits are DONE!

| April 17, 2018

I finished up the last of my edits to the manuscript for Brass and Glass 2: The Long-Cursed Map on Saturday, and sent it off to my editors. Barring anything major that they find, the writing is basically done! Of course, that doesn’t mean that the book is also done. It still needs a copy edit, […]