History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: May 2021 Prompts

| April 30, 2021

May is Mermay in the art community, and I like to turn a lot of art prompts into writing prompts. So the first column of this month’s prompts are from the Mermay 2021 list. And while these words are geared toward inspiring artists to draw mermaids, you may come up with different ideas for your […]

Have You Checked Out Barren?

| April 29, 2021

Have you had a chance to check out my latest novella yet? Barren is available in ebook, and it’s only 99 cents! Barren is a climate change apocalypse story about finding a glimmer of hope and pursuing it, even at great personal peril. The main character, Lemy, is deeply curious and wants to help people if […]

Book Recommendation: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

| April 28, 2021

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody insists frequently that this book is not a formula for writing a novel, but it provides a ton of information on novel structure and pacing that could be used as something like a formula, or at least a strong set of guideposts. This approach is marvelous […]

Denizens of Distant Realms for Many Readers

| April 27, 2021

My collection of short fantasy stories, Denizens of Distant Realms, may not be for readers of all ages, but it’s a good collection of short stories for adults and teens, and maybe some older kids. There’s nothing explicit to be found within its pages, but there are a few stories that younger readers wouldn’t entirely […]

When Media Portrayals of Writers Go Wrong

| April 26, 2021

I got hooked on Riverdale from the get-go, and I really enjoyed the early seasons of it (as I talked about here). But as can be the case with shows, they lose some of their magic as they go on. Now in season 5, beginning with the fourth episode, Riverdale has undergone a time jump […]

Fun for Friday: Unreal Images

| April 23, 2021

This week, we’ve got some slightly surreal images involving roads for writing inspiration. (Images deleted.) The first image is a photograph taken through a pair of glasses. Where the glasses are present, the photo has some color, with blue sky and green grass on either side of a fairly worn roadway. Outside of the glasses, […]

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Available for Old Legends and New Fables

| April 22, 2021

Continuing on with my many publications in 2021, today I’m both revealing the cover for Old Legends and New Fables, and letting you know that it’s available for pre-order! This collection primarily collects poetry related to the mythology and other stories of a multitude of cultures, with a handful of stories. The gods of old have […]

TV Show Recommendation: The Owl House

| April 21, 2021

We’ve just recently finished watching the first season of The Owl House, and it’s a a delight! It’s definitely a cartoon that’s designed for kids and tweens, but it’s so utterly charming and, like many cartoons, has plenty of humor for adults as well. What I really love about this show is that the main character […]

“Fortissimo Possibile” in Heroes of Necessity

| April 20, 2021

“Fortissimo Possibile” was one of the two stories in Heroes of Necessity that was written to a specific prompt. In this case, the prompt was for stories that involved low-powered superheroes–the sort that some might consider to be heroes with “useless” powers. But no powers are “useless,” when it comes down to it. Leila’s power […]

Atmospheric Sensory Detail vs. Sensory Detail for Plot

| April 19, 2021

A lot of writing advice suggests that you need to load your writing with sensory details. However, other advice suggest that the only sensory details you include should be the ones with direct bearing on the plot. This article suggests a much more balanced approach–including enough sensory detail to establish the atmosphere, but also using […]