dawn.vogel | February 29, 2024
“When Science and the Gods Fail” is a microfiction story about a robot who takes matters into their own hands when calamity strikes. However, since this is one of my darker sci-fi stories … well, I’ll let you guess at the ending, but I won’t say anything more than that. “When Science and the Gods […]
dawn.vogel | February 28, 2024
The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Henry Herz (Blackstone Publishing, 2023), is a speculative fiction anthology that blends historical fact about Marie Curie’s life as a young woman and fantastical, science fiction, and horror elements to present new and intriguing experiments a young Marie might have undertaken. Most […]
dawn.vogel | February 27, 2024
One of the stories in Wreathed in Steam has the longest title of my published pieces to date: “Twelve Essential Things Found in Commander Scarlett Archer’s Spacesuit Pockets (And Some Which Were Not)”. I normally shorten it to “Twelve Essential Things …” for obvious reasons. The title pretty much tells you the plot of the story, […]
dawn.vogel | February 26, 2024
Not too long ago, an author friend of mine mentioned using Freeform, an iOS app, to organize his thoughts on a story he was working on. He added photos of his cast, notes on each of them, and a day by day outline for each of the major characters, along with what happened for each […]
dawn.vogel | February 23, 2024
It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about a new beginning. Write a piece about a scarf that has emotional resonance with its maker. Write a piece involving folklore from a place you or your family has lived. Follow the DefCon One Instagram account for writing prompts every other […]
dawn.vogel | February 22, 2024
“The Waypost Tree” is a very brief flash fiction piece about a wizard and familiar after the wizard learns something new about her familiar. Told from the familiar’s point of view, it’s a significant moment conveyed in very few words. “The Waypost Tree” can only be read in Conceits of Whim and Fancy!
dawn.vogel | February 21, 2024
Addison Smith’s Darkling Dreams (Shacklebound Books, 2024) is a collection of drabbles–stories of exactly 100 words. The themes in these stories are often dark and sci-fi, but they show an incredible mastery of the drabble format in their breadth and scope of approaches to this tricky length. I was familiar with some of Smith’s drabbles through […]
dawn.vogel | February 20, 2024
“Consequence” is a drabble, exactly 100 words, in which a superhero is faced with a choice about her power. I can’t say more about it than that, without giving away too much of the story! “Consequence” originally appeared at Martian: The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but it’s also available in The Sidewalk Diverges.
dawn.vogel | February 19, 2024
I’m currently in the midst of revising a novella, and I’ve definitely hit the mucky middle. I didn’t feel like it slowed down substantially when I was writing this part of the book, but now I’m second-guessing everything I’ve written, all the parts I’ve revised, and all the parts I haven’t revised. It’s sort of […]
dawn.vogel | February 16, 2024
If you’re looking for writing activities that can be done with a group or on your own, check out this list from Event Espresso! It’s got a mix of activities for kids and adults, plus ones that are good for groups or solo. And even if you’re an adult, there’s nothing wrong with using an […]
