History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Weird Flower Photo Prompt

| May 11, 2018

Somethings things are not entirely what they seem … The photo here is of a strange orchid, but to me, it looks like it could be a fish, or maybe an alien life form. It’s the sort of photo that could inspire all sorts of interesting creatures, plant life, or maybe something else. Do you […]

Fun for Friday: Generate an Espionage Mission

| May 4, 2018

In the course of working on a new story, I realized that I had the main character in mind, but I didn’t quite know what I wanted them to do. So I looked for a random espionage mission generator, and found an excellent one via NeverEngine. With this and the die roller on my phone, […]

Fun for Friday: May Writing Prompts

| April 27, 2018

May is on its way, and with it comes the May writing prompts! This month has more spring-themed words, along with some of the events that happen in May. And of course, you don’t have to go with a May-themed interpretation of these words! Check back on the last Friday of each month (or occasionally […]

Fun for Friday: A Writing Prompt a Day

| April 20, 2018

If you’re someone who wants to find writing prompts, but wants to be surprised by what they are each day, you might like A Writing Prompt a Day on Tumblr. It’s certainly not the only daily writing prompt supply, but this one has a wide variety of types of prompts–some that seem to encourage pieces […]

Fun for Friday: What’s So Bad About Friday the 13th?

| April 13, 2018

It’s Friday the 13th, a day that strikes dread into the hearts of many. But why? People who fear the number thirteen are said to have triskaidekaphobia, and the fear of the number seems to stem from religious sources–Judas was said to be the thirteenth apostle at the Last Supper. But even for those who don’t […]

Fun for Friday: Rainy Day Photo Prompt

| April 6, 2018

It’s almost always rainy in Seattle, especially this time of year. So today’s Friday fun is a photo prompt of a rainy day. What I love most about this photo is how the figure in it is completely out of focus and obscured. That means it could be pretty much anyone! Maybe you want to […]

Fun for Friday: April Writing Prompts

| March 30, 2018

April is just around the corner, so it’s time for April’s writing prompts! This month, the words are mostly spring themed, but there are all sorts of interesting directions you might take words like “awakening” or “thrive,” for example. There are a few other things tossed in for good measure, include a couple of words […]

Fun for Friday: Spring Photo Prompt!

| March 23, 2018

This week’s Friday fun is a writing prompt in the form of a photograph. It’s clearly spring in this photo, and there’s a very nicely maintained path amidst the flowers and blooming trees. So where does this path lead? What’s just out of sight in this photo? Who’s about to walk down this path? The […]

Fun for Friday: Eponyms

| March 16, 2018

I talked about contronyms a couple of weeks ago, and today, I’m talking about eponyms! According to Wikipedia, an eponym “is a person, place, or thing after whom or after which something is named, or believed to be named.” Historical eras and scientific innovations often receive eponymous designations, but sometimes, they can be a little […]

Fun for Friday: Language Complexity vs. Language Size

| March 9, 2018

A recent study suggests that languages with a larger vocabulary size tend to be less complex and easier to learn than those with a smaller vocabulary size, which necessitates a number of grammatical rules. The examples that they give of languages with a larger vocabulary size are English and Mandarin. And while I’d argue that […]