History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Leaders and Followers” in Wreathed in Steam

| August 31, 2023

“Leaders and Followers” is a story I wrote in an attempt to conceal information about the first-person narrator. I can’t say too much more about that goal without giving away the twist in the story, but it’s a fairly short, cozy, fantasy story, and I was pleased at how it turned out. “Leaders and Followers” […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Rook and Rose Pattern Deck

| August 30, 2023

I love gorgeous decks of cards for writing and also of a tarot-like nature, so of course I’m backing the Rook and Rose Pattern Deck! Based on the Rook & Rose epic fantasy series by M.A. Carrick, this deck can be used for divination, to play games, or even as a writing inspiration deck. The […]

“Undecided” from Droplets from the Universe

| August 29, 2023

The story “Undecided” was my attempt to write a sci-fi story that used a so-called “soft” science, cultural anthropology, to solve a problem. The story has a lot of other sci-fi tropes–aliens and hard science among them–but the actual crux point is somewhat unexpected. I also adore the characters I wrote for this story–two extremely […]

Stephen Fry on Form, Part 11

| August 28, 2023

As I mentioned previously, I’m working through Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled very slowly to absorb as much wisdom as I can about writing poetry. This week’s post covers Chapter 3, Section 11, on shaped verse. This section goes through many different forms of poetry, but the thing the forms all have in common is […]

Fun for Friday: Dystopian Writing Prompts

| August 25, 2023

If you’re looking for an enormous list of ideas, check out this list of 872 dystopian writing prompts! They aren’t numbered, so it’s harder to use a random number generator to pick one, but you could just scroll to a random point on the list and start reading there! I’m almost overwhelmed by the possibilities […]

“Amanita” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| August 24, 2023

“Amanita” is an odd story on the border between reality and dreaming and, perhaps unsurprisingly, given the title, involves hallucination-inducing mushroom tea. (Amanita mushrooms can be poisonous, but they can also be hallucinatory. Or both.) It took a bit of work to get it to balance nicely between reality and dreaming, but I was pretty […]

Interview with Priya J. Sridhar

| August 23, 2023

Today, I’m talking with Priya J. Sridhar, who is a prolific writer spanning fiction and nonfiction, and much more! Read on to learn more! DV: Tell me a little about yourself and your writing. PJS: I am a speculative fiction writer with eight books under my belt, a nerdy nonfiction writer, and a copywriter in […]

“Five Days After” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| August 22, 2023

My story “Five Days After” is one of the many stories that I first had the idea for while riding the bus in Seattle. Bus commuting is normally fairly quiet and boring. Many of the people on the bus are just trying to get to and from their day jobs. But sometimes you overhear interesting […]

Write Hive Conference Videos Available!

| August 21, 2023

A couple of months back, I watched a bunch of the WriteHive conference videos online as a moderator. Now they’re all online and available for anyone to watch here! There are also videos from previous years available at the same location! I’ll be posting some of my thoughts and summaries about many of the individual […]

Fun for Friday: Writing Prompts from the DefCon One Instagram are Back!

| August 18, 2023

Apparently, I forgot to keep the DefCon One Instagram account prompts on my blog schedule, so I’ve fallen behind. But now, they’re back! Write a piece in which you describe things without using the sense of sight Write a piece about two people putting furniture with a subtext of something else going on between them. […]