History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: August 2020 Writing Prompts

| July 31, 2020

Even though time feels somewhat meaningless, with all of the days running into one another, only differentiated by weekends, another month has passed. July is wrapping up today, which means it’s time for the August 2020 prompts! This month, the words are generally random, with a few seasonal words tossed in for good measure. I’m […]

Coast to Coast Stars: Comeback Tour

| July 30, 2020

The first story I wrote for the collection that eventually became Coast to Coast Stars was “Comeback Tour.” This seems like an odd place to start, since the title implies a backstory that I hadn’t written. And then there were the leggings. The leggings were a thrift store find that made me think of a super hero. […]

Review of High Noon on Phobos by Jude K. Justice

| July 29, 2020

High Noon on Phobos, the debut novella from space western author Jude K. Justice, is a rollicking adventure of twists and turns that will appeal to fans of the western genre and fans of science fiction. Blaise McGregor (who went by Blaze McGregor as a gunfighter) is a retired gunfighter, waiting for his ship to […]

Female Protagonists in Volatile Figments

| July 28, 2020

The six stories in Volatile Figments all have female protagonists, but other than that, they have little in common. There are a couple of high school students, a couple of college students, an ageless child, and an adult. Some of the women have dealt with the supernatural before, though most of them are encountering it for […]

Poetry Resources

| July 27, 2020

When you’re new to the world of poetry, there are a ton of forms of poetry that people talk about, either extolling the virtues of a specific form, or talking about how much they hate another specific form. But even if you’ve read a lot of poetry before you start writing it, a lot of […]

Fun for Friday: Some Interesting Images

| July 24, 2020

This Friday, I’ve got some interesting images to inspire your writing! The first image is a person with gray short hair wearing black and white sugar skull-like makeup and a black shirt, holding an upright bass guitar partially in front of their face. The second image is a purple-tinted cloudy sky with power lines to […]

Unfixed Timelines Lineup Confirmed!

| July 23, 2020

I’ve written and revised the essays for Unfixed Timelines 2, so I now feel pretty confident telling you about what this collection will include. The order remains to be determined, but the stories and essay topics are: “Nochnaya Serenada” (reprint) and an essay about the history of the Night Witches “Have You Seen Him?” and […]

Review of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

| July 22, 2020

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Macmillan 2019) has garnered a lot of attention, receiving nominations for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. As of this writing, it has won the Locus Award and is in the running for the Hugo Award. The praise is well deserved, as this novel of space lesbian necromancers is […]

Stories Published!

| July 21, 2020

I had two stories come out last week, one a reprint, and one new! “I Believe” is reprinted in the latest issue of Breath & Shadow, which makes my second appearance in that magazine. This is a sweet little story about a girl growing up and how that affects her and her imaginary friends. My […]

Borrowing from Yourself

| July 20, 2020

If you’re inspired to write a short story that isn’t slated for anything in particular, are you tempted to build a new world, or set your story in a world you’ve already created? If you’ve already got a world that you’ve created, it’s entirely likely that there are potential stories that you haven’t gotten to […]