History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: What About Bacchus?

| July 18, 2025

This week’s etymology dive is an odd one, related to the Roman God Bacchus (the Greek God Dionysus). I had the thought recently that it seems like the words “baccalaureate” and “bacchanalia” might be related to one another. But their meanings are different enough that I wasn’t certain how they might be connected. Bacchus and […]

Fun for Friday: Catching up on DefCon One Instagram Prompts

| July 11, 2025

It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! I got a little behind on reposting these here, which is why there have been so many recently! Write a piece about stitching together pieces of a map. Write a piece about a sweet treat at the seaside. Write a piece about an […]

Fun for Friday: Weird July History

| July 4, 2025

Time for more weird history to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! For this month, we start with The History Place’s comprehensive list for every day of the month of July. Although not everything on this list is “weird,” there are certainly some gems tucked in there! Sky History also provides three […]

Fun for Friday: July 2025 Writing Prompts!

| June 27, 2025

July is just around the corner, so it’s time for the July 2025 writing prompts! As per the usual, I took these from a variety of art challenges. I had a surprisingly difficult time finding some good ones for July, with the end result that these are a bit less summer themed than I expected. […]

Fun for Friday: Another Batch of DefCon One Instagram Writing Prompts!

| June 20, 2025

It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece from the perspective of a kite. Write a piece about an item replicating out of control. Write a piece set where the jungle and ocean meet. Follow the DefCon One Instagram account for writing prompts every other Friday, or check them out […]

Fun for Friday: The Wild Etymology of Magpie

| June 13, 2025

Useless Etymology recently posted about the origin of “magpie,” as in the bird, and it’s a wild ride! First off, you’ve got “pie” as a name for a bird, which is derived from the Latin “pica.” Hang on, though. “Pica” is also a condition in which humans eat non-food items, normally because of a vitamin […]

Fun for Friday: Weird June History

| June 6, 2025

Time for more weird history to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! We’re starting this month’s weird history with The History Place, for historical events for every day of the month. Not all of them are strange, but there are certain to be gems hidden amongst the events! The History Channel has […]

Fun for Friday: June 2025 Writing Prompts

| May 30, 2025

May has absolutely flown by, and here we are at the edge of June! For this month’s prompts, I took column 1 from @solarwings junicorn art challenge. While the idea of Junicorn is unicorn themed, I thought this year’s prompts were nicely evocative of speculative fiction ideas, whether you include a unicorn or not. This […]

Fun for Friday: DefCon One Instagram Prompts

| May 23, 2025

It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about a replacement for a diamond. Write a piece about the requirements for an unusual ambition. Write a piece about a golden seed and what it sprouts. Follow the DefCon One Instagram account for writing prompts every other Friday, or check them […]

Fun for Friday: A Different Sort of “Spring” Prompt

| May 16, 2025

For this week’s Fun for Friday, I thought I’d do a different take on “spring” and some image prompts. The images are all sourced from Pixabay and were uploaded long enough ago that I feel pretty confident that they are not AI generated. The first image is of a glowing yellow electrical light filament, arranged […]