History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Keeping a Writer’s Notebook

| May 31, 2021

Writers love blank books. We hoard blank books sometimes, like we’re dragons. We like to have a stack of blank books waiting around for just the right project. For some authors, suggesting that they use one of their precious hoard to write notes is anathema. But I’m suggesting just that–picking one of the notebooks from […]

Fun for Friday: June 2021 Writing Prompts

| May 28, 2021

June is just around the corner, so it’s time for another month of writing prompts! For this month, the words are drawn from a variety of sources and aren’t necessarily themed toward the month. There are also some fun things tucked in there like “lyrics” and “quote,” which might not mean talking about those things, […]

What Sort of Apocalypse?

| May 27, 2021

Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse promises an apocalypse right upfront in the title, but what sort of apocalypse is it? Sudden, inexplicable, and weird. Those are all words I’d use to describe the apocalypse. A huge swath of the population suddenly goes quiet, their thoughts are no longer their own, and they work in concert, […]

TV Show Recommendation: The Nevers

| May 26, 2021

I had a lot of trepidation about watching The Nevers, knowing that Joss Whedon was involved. Because while I am a fan of a lot of Joss Whedon’s shows, I’m not a fan of his behavior, and I’ve been gradually moving away from supporting his previous projects. But The Nevers hooked me from almost the first […]

Intercity Illusions Cover Reveal!

| May 25, 2021

I’ve got another collection coming out on June 15, Intercity Illusions! This is a collection of primarily short stories, with a small amount of poetry mixed in. All of the stories are loosely defined as urban fantasy. Each one is set roughly in present day, with most of the world functioning the way our world works. […]

Writing Tools: Story Forge Cards

| May 24, 2021

I’ve accumulated a large collection of card-based writing tools, each of which is useful to different parts of my writing process. So I’ve decided to do a series of posts about the various decks I own and how I use them in my writing. My oldest deck is Story Forge, which I posted about nine […]

Fun for Friday: Visual Writing Prompts with Extras

| May 21, 2021

Sometimes you see a great image prompt, but it gives you almost too many potential ideas. That’s why something like this page of visual writing prompts with brief suggestions of what’s going on and some questions your story might answer can be helpful. This particular batch is meant for classroom use, but that doesn’t mean […]

“All That Transpires under the Night Sky” in Unfixed Timelines 2

| May 20, 2021

The backstory behind “All That Transpires under the Night Sky” is an odd one. I had started the story several years before I finished it. For whatever reason, it wasn’t working, and I shoved it into a folder of things to work on some other time. This proved effective when I was later looking for […]

Book Recommendation: Story Genius by Lisa Cron

| May 19, 2021

I recently read and recommended Wired for Story by Lisa Cron, and now I’m back to talk about another of her books, Story Genius. Whereas I found Wired for Story to be something that I could apply to both novel and shorter writing, Story Genius is 100 percent a book for people who want to write a novel. […]

Check out My Patreon!

| May 18, 2021

Did you know that I have a Patreon? I do! It’s a way for my fans to throw a small amount of money my way to support my writing and learn about what I’m working on! I’m getting very close to my goal of making a monthly video of me reading one of my stories […]