History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Haunted Images

| October 15, 2021

It wouldn’t be October without some spooky image prompts, now would it? The first image is of a person wearing a hooded coat and carrying a backpack standing on a tree-lined road that leads to a large, old house, with a full moon overhead. It’s a nighttime scene in blueish shades. The second image (deleted) […]

“Hashtag TPE” in Intercity Illusions

| October 14, 2021

My story “Hashtag TPE” was written for a Miskatonic University anthology, where it found its first home. But it was also a perfect addition to Intercity Illusions, as it’s right on the edge between Mythos and urban fantasy. I wanted to write a very modern take on Miskatonic University, with the characters embracing present-day culture (like […]

Game to Watch For: Phantom Ink

| October 13, 2021

In looking for cool spooky games, I came across Phantom Ink, which was originally called Ghost Writer when it was funded on Kickstarter. It’s meant to be a party game with elements of Mysterium and Decrypto. Players divide into two teams and portray either a ghost or a medium, with the ghosts sending cryptic partial […]

Interested in Supporting My Writing?

| October 12, 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 haven’t reached my first goal, which involves a monthly video of me reading one of my stories or […]

Writing Tools: Reckless Deck Apprentice Pack

| October 11, 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. I’ve talked previously about the core Reckless Deck and Reckless Deck Worlds, […]

Fun for Friday: Group Writing Games

| October 8, 2021

If you’re looking for writing games to play with a group of old writing friends or as an ice-breaker for a group of new writing friends, Erin Lafond has some fun creative writing games for a group! While the ideas themselves aren’t geared strictly toward speculative fiction, it’s not too difficult to figure out ways […]

September 2021 Story and Poetry Releases

| October 7, 2021

I had two new pieces come out in September. First, my poem “The Turn of the Seasons” was published in Sylvia Magazine. This poem is a double acrostic poem–it’s easy to notice the letters spelling out summer and winter at the beginning of the lines, but the last letter of each line also spells out autumn […]

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To, October 2021 Edition

| October 6, 2021

Reading: I didn’t get to my graphic novels last month, so that’s happening now, slowly but surely. Watching: A bunch of our shows from September have either ended or are wrapping up soon, so we’re mostly watching Nancy Drew and His Dark Materials in spurts. Listening To: A lot of old favorites, interspersed with occasional new-to-me groups! […]

September 2021 Recap

| October 5, 2021

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 142 Acceptances received: 3 Rejections received: 92 (+1) (+5) Stories withdrawn: 0 Resubmissions: 91 New Submissions: 1 Stories out at the end of the month: 133 My numbers for September are a little on the low side, because, as you can see from the […]

Horror Writing Tips from Chuck Wendig

| October 4, 2021

Some topics are a little outside of my wheelhouse when it comes to writing advice. For example, in spite of my love of many spooky things, I’m not great at writing horror. I can write some creepy flash fiction occasionally, using the idea that leaving things to the reader’s imagination is a great way to […]