History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Punk in Science Fiction and Fantasy

| April 16, 2018

At Norwescon, I spoke on a panel about punk in science fiction and fantasy. At first, I was pretty sure that I didn’t have very much to say on the subject, especially in comparison to my co-panelists. But it wound up being a great conversation about punk music, the punk aesthetic, and the many, many […]

Conventions as a Learning Experience

| April 10, 2018

One of the things that I love the most about going to conventions like Norwescon is the opportunity to learn from other writers. Even if I don’t get a chance to go to many (or any) panels that I’m not on, I still wind up in conversations while working at our table, or at parties, […]

Fun for Friday: Penguins Writing Prompt

| January 19, 2018

According to our calendar from our local zoo, tomorrow (January 20th) is Penguin Awareness Day. As my husband said, “I am aware that there are penguins.” So am I. I have both petted and fed a penguin at our local zoo, so I can confirm that they are definitely real animals. They’re also one of […]

Fun for Friday Writing Prompt: A Winter Scene

| January 12, 2018

You know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words? Today’s writing prompt is the picture (deleted). Sure, it looks like a simple wintery scene, but there’s a deer grazing at the edge of the only partially cleared road, and there’s a woman walking away. One might assume that the two could […]

Inspiration: Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse

| January 9, 2018

As I’ve mentioned before, Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse came out of the 2017 Write Like You’re Alive challenge from Zoetic Press. This also wound up informing the format for the story, too. See, I normally outline using Mark Teppo’s outline structure (which I’ve talked about before), which leads to an 18 chapter outline, with […]

Fun for Friday Writing Prompt: A Fresh Start

| January 5, 2018

What would your character do if they had the opportunity to make a fresh start? Would they continue on where they were already headed, or would they do something completely different? If you’re stuck writing a character, try this out as a way to get unstuck. Write that character with a fresh start, and see […]

Day Job + Writing = Story Ideas?

| October 19, 2017

Before I moved to Seattle, I was pretty sure that archaeology was EXACTLY like it looks in the movies, all digging up ancient civilizations and running around lost temples. No, wait, maybe that’s just how Indiana Jones makes archaeology look cool in the movies. When I moved here, I started working with archaeologists, and though […]

Fun for Friday: Turning Drawing Prompts into Writing Prompts

| September 15, 2017

Often times when I’m looking for a random inspiration for something to write, I turn to lists that are designed for artists who want random prompts for daily drawings. It’s not that difficult to turn a drawing prompt into a writing prompt. Instead of drawing whatever is on the list, you can write a story […]

Character Inspirations

| September 14, 2017

Last week, I finished up the first draft of Brass and Glass 2 (which doesn’t have an official subtitle yet) and started outlining book 3. In doing so, I had a chance to look at some of my characters, their motivations, and the inspirations behind them. One of my friends read the first chapter of The Cask […]

Coming Up: Volatile Figments

| September 5, 2017

I’ve been working on pulling together a lot of my old, previously published stories, along with some new stories, into mini collections. The one I’m working on currently is Volatile Figments, which will be a collection of six stories in the young adult/dark contemporary fantasy realm, a number of which feature teenage monsters. Why teenage monsters? […]