History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Collaborative Storytelling

| March 31, 2025

During the gaming convention I was at recently, I played in a couple of games that involved a lot of collaborative storytelling. It was fun for me to get to stretch some of my writing muscles in a setting where I wasn’t writing down the results, but rather working with other people to shape the […]

Quick and Dirty Research for Writers

| March 10, 2025

I recently wrote a lot of flash fiction stories for a casual contest. My stories were all over the place in terms of topics, including a medieval Catholic saint, mushrooms, seventh century Korean and Chinese history, and tea leaf reading, and a few people commented on the breadth of topics, trivia, and knowledge. But as […]

Desk Tour: My New Desk Area Setup

| March 3, 2025

I spent a few hours recently rearranging my writing desk area, so I have a new desk area setup. After some disbelief of this on BSky, I decided to do a little desk tour of the new setup! My desk area is about half of our dining room table, tucked in the little nook of […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Fashion in Worldbuilding

| February 24, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! The panel on “Fashion in Worldbuilding” talked about the different ways that clothing can be used not only […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Show and Tell

| February 17, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! I watched the panel titled “Show and Tell: What Works and What Writers Get Wrong,” because even after […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Passive Marketing

| February 10, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! Jessica Salina’s presentation, “Passive Marketing: How Authors Can Leverage SEO,” is a brilliantly useful watch for anyone who […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Rooted in Story

| February 3, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! I watched “Rooted in Story: Cultivating the Natural World in Ink” to get some cool ideas on how […]

Interview with Nathan Toronto

| January 27, 2025

Today, I’m chatting with Nathan Toronto, military sci-fi aficionado with an interest in alternate history and publisher of Bullet Points! DV: Tell us a little about yourself and your writing. NT: I am a military science fiction addict. It can be a means for creating a more peaceful, prosperous world. In my professional life I […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Tackling Procrastination and Creating a Routine

| January 13, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! Amusingly enough, I procrastinated quite a bit on watching “Tackling Procrastination and Creating a Routine.” But once I […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Tarot for Writers

| January 6, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! I enjoyed Kris Waldherr’s presentation on “Tarot for Writers,” which was a neat look at the ways in […]