History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Weird May History

| May 2, 2025

Time for more weird history to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! As usual, I start with The History Place, which always has the fullest coverage for every month. You may need to pick through the list to find truly weird events, but I’m certain they’re there! Meanwhile, Historic UK has a […]

Fun for Friday: May 2025 Writing Prompts

| April 25, 2025

May is not quite a week away, but it’s time for me to post the monthly writing prompts, so they’ll be ready for you on May 1st! May is always MerMay for me, so the first column is the 2025 MerMay official prompts! You can use this column with the words as they are or […]

My May 2024 Publications!

| June 6, 2024

I announced this last week as well, but my one May publication was my story, “The Storyteller,” in Bikes, The Universe, and Everything from Microcosm Publishing. This is the eleventh volume of the Bikes in Space series, but the first one I’ve placed a story in. My story involves a post-apocalyptic culture that relies on bicycles […]

May 2024 Recap!

| June 4, 2024

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 93 Acceptances received: 0 Rejections received: 33 (+2) Stories withdrawn: 0 Resubmissions: 22 New Submissions: 2 Stories out at the end of the month: 82 May was on the slower side for my writing and submitting, but also on the acceptance and rejection sides. […]

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To: May 2024

| May 8, 2024

Reading: I’ve actually been really bad about this lately. Work has been hectic, with lots of editing, so the last thing I want to do in the evenings is read. I need to get back on track with that, though, because those books won’t review themselves! Watching: It’s been a whole lot of K-pop lately, […]

Fun for Friday: May 2024 Writing Prompts

| April 26, 2024

Time for another month worth of writing prompts! It’s my favorite time of year, MerMay, so the first column is the MerMay 2024 prompts! MerMay is a mermaid-related art challenge, so all of these words are meant to be combined with merfolk of some sort. There are a couple of named individuals in this year’s […]

May 2023 Publication

| June 8, 2023

I only had one story out in May 2023, and it’s a reprint, but it’s definitely worth checking out this story’s new home! My story, “Turning the Tide,” which first appeared at Daily Science Fiction, can now be found among other dark military sci-fi stories in Dread Space 2! My story is a very short flash piece […]

May 2023 Recap!

| June 6, 2023

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 88 Acceptances received: 2 Rejections received: 44 (1 + 6) Stories withdrawn: 1 Resubmissions: 38 New Submissions: 4 Stories out at the end of the month: 76 The numbers for May are unsurprisingly on the lower side, unsurprisingly because I took half the month […]

Fun for Friday: May 2023 Writing Prompts

| April 28, 2023

In the not-entirely-accurate words of Justin Timberlake, “It’s gonna be May!” Okay, yeah, that’s a horrible joke but I love it anyway. And it is nearly May, which means it’s time for one of my favorite monthly challenges, MerMay! And MerMay is the source of the first column of words/phrases. There are a couple on […]

May 2022 Recap

| June 2, 2022

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 107 Acceptances received: 2 Rejections received: 55 (+3) Stories withdrawn: 2 Resubmissions: 75 New Submissions: 3 Stories out at the end of the month: 115 This month was a little light on the submissions, but also VERY light on the rejections, compared to a […]