History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: February 2021 Prompts

| January 29, 2021

For February’s writing prompts, I’ve got a collection of randomly generated words, put into a random order. Don’t feel like you need to use the specific word I’ve listed in your piece (though you can if you like). Feel free to play around with word association, or just use these words as a jumping off […]

“Hearts in Motion” in New Maps!

| January 28, 2021

My first published story in 2021 is “Hearts in Motion” in the debut issue of New Maps. “Hearts in Motion” is my post-apocalyptic meet cute story of two teenage girls from different social groups in the middle of what has become a desert long before they were born. It was a story spawned from three […]

Review of Unnatural Order

| January 27, 2021

Unnatural Order, edited by Lyss Wickramasinghe and Alis Franklin (CSFG Publishing, 2021), is an anthology of stories of monstrous beings produced by the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild. The stories range widely under the speculative umbrella, with fantasy, science fiction, and horror all represented in the anthology’s pages. In a themed anthology, each author’s ideas on a […]

Moms Having Adventures in Cross & Circle

| January 26, 2021

Not too long ago, someone on Twitter was looking for fantasy books that involve mothers as protagonists. Their ask was related to epic/high fantasy, not urban fantasy. If they’d been interested in urban fantasy, I could have recommended Cross and Circle. In Cross and Circle, Evie is pregnant for a good chunk of the book, then […]

How Do You Use Your Planner Book?

| January 25, 2021

Some recent house cleaning unearthed a couple of my old planner books, which of course led to me flipping through them and seeing how my planner book use has changed over the years. In 2017, I made detailed lists at the beginning of the week that listed what I planned to get done that week, […]

Fun for Friday: Biopunk Ideas

| January 22, 2021

If you’re not familiar with biopunk, start with this article on biopunk and utopias. But if you’re ready to launch into some biopunk writing, check out this prompt and see what ideas it sparks in you! (darkliquid has additional prompts here on different themes. I haven’t read through all of them yet, so I’m not […]

“Have You Seen Him?” in Unfixed Timelines 2

| January 21, 2021

I’ve had an interest in the King in Yellow of the Lovecraftian Mythos for years, and versions of the King in Yellow have shown up in three of my stories, including “Have You Seen Him?” in Unfixed Timelines 2. In this case, it’s the Yellow Spirit, a demonic entity with whom the protagonist’s father made […]

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To, January 2021 edition

| January 20, 2021

Reading: Still working through books for reviews. Watching: We cruised through the final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and we’re nearly through the final season of Runaways. Then it’s on to the backlog of things we abandoned, or something new that catches our attention. Listening To: Jeremy added me to his YouTube subscription as […]

Promise Me Nothing is Available for Pre-Order!

| January 19, 2021

Promise Me Nothing comes out on Tuesday, February 16, but if you plan on buying it in ebook, you can pre-order it now, which means it will be automatically delivered to your electronic book reading device on release day! Here’s the blurb for this young adult contemporary fantasy novel! Supernatural Reform School or Horrifying Death […]

Poetry Form: Rimas Dissolutas

| January 18, 2021

There’s something of a perception that French forms of poetry are among some of the more difficult forms. However, if you’d like to dip your to into the world of French poetry, the rimas dissolutas form is one that I’ve found a little easier than others. (Weirdly, the name “rimas dissolutas” appears to be Portuguese, […]