History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Spun Sugar” and “No Fear” in Weathering Youth

| June 30, 2026

Because Weathering Youth is my biggest collection to date, I’m grouping the short stories and flash fiction stories in pairs for my posts, based on the way they fall in the collection. This lets me look at the connections between the stories and how I decided to arrange specific stories in the collection! “Spun Sugar” and […]

The Big Pink Book Prompt 6: Fantasy Theme

| June 29, 2026

The sixth prompt in the Big Pink Book is a mostly blank page. The stickers are an empty thought bubble with a green border at the top right, and a row of stickers across the bottom of the page. From left to right, they’re a rectangular sticker with a photorealistic blue sky and pink-ish clouds […]

Fun for Friday: July 2026 Writing Prompts

| June 26, 2026

It’s time for the July 2026 writing prompts! This month, the first column is the little life July 2025 prompts from @pastichecostudio. Many of these are summer-themed prompts, but they’re also very evocative! The second column is the Doodlewash July 2025 World Watercolor Month prompts, which was the 10th anniversary of World Watercolor Month. This […]

Judgement in A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| June 25, 2026

The Judgement tarot card represents rebirth, awakening, and absolution. In A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, this is represented by a haiku and a poem. The haiku, titled “one shouldn’t pass their” after the first line, deals with judgement on a more practical level. The poem, “On the Ocean,” is a cento sonnet, or a […]

“Homecoming” in This Book Has Ghosts in It

| June 23, 2026

“Homecoming” is the first story in This Book Has Ghosts in It and includes elements of my ongoing interest in writing about the dangers of deep water. Though this story isn’t one of my “things in the water that want you dead” stories, there’s certainly something strange about the water and the town it touches. The […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts, Flags and Leaves

| June 19, 2026

So this prompt page wound up with me writing a lot of tiny notes, and it’s kind of a mess, honestly. Instead of trying to transcribe it, I’ll summarize what I’ve got. First off, I identified the flags as papel picado, because I hadn’t known their actual name before. They’re connected to the Day of […]

“Propagating Rosa glacies” and “The Glass Cauldron Shattered” in Chimerical Remembrances

| June 18, 2026

“Propagating Rosa glacies” and “The Glass Cauldron Shattered” are two of the flash fiction pieces in Chimerical Remembrances, which fit nicely together, as they share a theme of magical revenge. “Propagating Rosa glacies” is written from the perspective of a botanist giving advice on growing a particularly finicky plant. Their most important pieces of advice are tied to […]

Don’t Forget About Bounty of the Atoll!

| June 16, 2026

Have you checked out Bounty of the Atoll? It’s a fantastical history novella that mashes up bits of two fairy tales, plus a couple of essays about the setting and history. And it’s got gorgeous cover art from Kloudinthesky! Far from Spain, there are rumors of a beautiful princess held prisoner by a witch and […]

The Big Pink Book Prompt 5: Flags and Leaves

| June 15, 2026

The next prompt in the Big Pink Book is another page with loads of room for writing. It has a small round sticker at top left that says “Here” (glittery yellow with purple text), a string of black and gold papel picado (perforated paper flags often seen at Day of the Dead events), and a […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts, Magical Books

| June 12, 2026

On Monday, I shared the blank version of this page, and today, you get to see what I did with it! Here’s what my notes say: Hymnal of Transformation (with an arrow pointing to the books) music as magic = lyramancy RyA theme -> predicament what if you have to finish a hymn if you […]