History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: March 2020 Writing Prompts

| February 28, 2020

We’re already to the end of a long February, so it’s time for the March writing prompts! I’ve got themed and non-themed prompts mixed in this year! Check back on the last Friday of each month (or occasionally the first day of a new month, when that falls on a Friday) for my History That […]

Two New Stories!

| February 27, 2020

I’ve got two new stories out recently! “Dakota Travis, Saurallero Extraordinaire” started out with a different title about riding a dinosaur. Ultimately, it turned into a flash piece that was still about riding a dinosaur, but in an obituary format about the first man to make an art form out of riding dinosaurs on other […]

Review of Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts

| February 26, 2020

I’ve got another book review up at Mad Scientist Journal today, for Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Power and Majesty, which is the first book her her Creature Court series. I’m anxiously awaiting the chance to read the other books in this series (which unfortunately have to wait until I have some free time between review book reading), because […]

Unfixed Timelines: Veli tis Artemidos

| February 25, 2020

When I was choosing stories to include in the first volume of Unfixed Timelines, “Veli tis Artemidos” was at the top of my list. Not only do I love this story, I also love the history behind it, because it’s just so WEIRD! A body so riddled with bullets that the person responsible for the death […]

My Revision Wall

| February 24, 2020

I’ve been working through revisions on a novel since the beginning of 2020, and I’m finally reaching the end of those. But I wanted to show off the tool that I’ve been using to help with those revisions–my Revision Wall. Some people use post-it notes to do something similar, but I needed a) more space […]

Fun for Friday: What Ifs

| February 21, 2020

For this week’s fun, check out this list of “What If” Journal Prompts. But now, apply them to fiction. More specifically, spin out some ideas of what a character might do if one of these What Ifs happened to them, and build a story from there!  

Coming Attractions: Unfixed Timelines 2 and Coast to Coast Stars!

| February 20, 2020

I’ve got a couple of short story collections that I’m working on to release this year! The first will be a collection of short stories from Cobalt City and one of its sister cities, Cerulean City, California. The connection started when I established a new hero in Cobalt City, and then had her on a […]

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To: Late February 2020 Edition

| February 19, 2020

Reading: Books to review and a whole lot of flash fiction recently. Plus I’m editing Kensei 3 and then a short story collection! Watching: Mostly Riverdale. Pretty much only Riverdale and K-pop videos. Listening To: New albums from Pentagon (The Black Hall), Monsta X (All About Luv), and Moonbyul (of Mamamoo) (Dark Side of the Moon). […]

Heroes of Necessity: Army of Me

| February 18, 2020

The stories in my collection, Heroes of Necessity, all revolve around women with unusual powers who become the heroes their situation requires. In “Army of Me,” an app Molly’s phone requests her assistance to combat a hacker. She’s able to enter the digital realm and manipulate code from within in order to help the app. The […]

Sentence Structure for Compelling Prose

| February 17, 2020

Writers are told to vary their sentence length to make their prose interesting, so that readers don’t fall into a rhythm or pattern with their reading. This article talks about the use of complex sentences to create compelling and emotional prose. There are a number of examples of famous writers who have done this, followed […]