History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: April 2024 Writing Prompts

| March 29, 2024

Here we are at the end of March, so it’s time for the April 2024 writing prompts! This month, all of the words come from art challenges. The first column is from Doodlewash’s Spring Things challenge, and all of the words there are spring themed. The second column is from the Kick in the Creatives’ […]

Poetry and Microfiction in Droplets from the Universe

| March 28, 2024

In addition to the short stories I’ve talked about previously, Droplets from the Universe contains a number of joyful sci-fi poems and a couple of very short fiction pieces. The fiction pieces include “Explore Savois,” a microfiction piece written as a tourism enticement for an out-of-the-way planet, and “Life on Pluto,” a very tongue-in-cheek drabble (exactly […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Bitter Become the Fields

| March 27, 2024

Horns & Rattles Press is currently funding their Bitter Become the Fields anthology, which is a horror anthology filled with stories featuring flora and fungi! The list of authors is pretty exciting, including some recent names in the horror genre and other names who are sure to hold that status in the future! The Kickstarter for Bitter […]

“Light for Life” in Dead-Starred Futures

| March 26, 2024

“Light for Life” is a microfiction story that looks at a world in which growing plants has become a difficult proposition and the sorts of trades a person needs to make to be able to grow food. It’s certainly a dystopic world, but it also reflects places in our world in which climate change has […]

Coping with Burnout

| March 25, 2024

Every so often, burnout rears its ugly head. For me, it usually happens most often when I’m trying to cram too much into too small of a space of time. But it can also happen when my day job gets particularly hectic, leaving me feeling drained and unable to do anything more when I get […]

Fun for Friday: Misheard Song Lyrics as a Story Prompt

| March 22, 2024

Have you ever misheard or misunderstood the lyrics to a song? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, there’s a website devoted to this, called KissThisGuy (after a mishearing of a Jimi Hendrix song). I think misheard lyrics could make a great prompt for a story. Whether you use one of your own or one […]

“Good Fortune” in Wreathed in Steam

| March 21, 2024

“Good Fortune” is a gaslamp fantasy flash fiction piece I included in Wreathed in Steam. It involves fortune telling and things from the depths of the seas, two of my very favorite things. I classify this one as gaslamp fantasy because it’s set in a location that feels very much like it would fit into a […]

All the Latest from DefCon One Publishing

| March 20, 2024

We’ve been publishing a whole bunch of new books lately through DefCon One Publishing. Of course, that’s the home of my books, but we also publish books from the Cobalt City Universe from several authors, and this year, we’ve got a ton of those! It’s the twentieth anniversary of creator Nate Crowder publishing his first […]

“Eyes of Fire, Eyes of Smoke” in Unfixed Timelines 3

| March 19, 2024

“Eyes of Fire, Eyes of Smoke” was a story that started with the title. I combined that with the idea of writing a story about a legendary monster not often seen in fiction, the pishtaco or kharisiri of Andean legends. With that figured out, I went from there to write a historical fantasy story about […]

Have You Left a Book Review Lately?

| March 18, 2024

If you’re a reader (and if you’re not, I’m a little confused about what brought you to my website) or writer, have you left a book review for someone lately? Even if your review is short and sweet (“Loved it!” and “Great read!” are both good options), it helps writers out immensely when people review […]