History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun For Friday: Using Short Writing Exercises for a Novel

| October 16, 2020

This article has some neat ideas for short writing exercises that can help with novel writing. Though they call them “flash fiction” exercises, I think they are more meant to be done in a short period of time than to produce actual flash fiction. For those who are doing NaNoWriMo next month, they could provide […]

Setting Goals for 2020

| January 2, 2020

Now that it’s 2020, it’s time to start looking at my writing goals for this coming year! Top of my list for this year is looking for an agent. I’ve got a young adult book that is pretty close to being ready to query agents with, so that’s going to be at the top of […]

2019 Awards Eligibility

| November 26, 2019

It’s the time of year when folks start posting lists of their stories and books from the past year that are eligible for award nominations. And here are mine! Flash Fiction: “Coffin Coffee Table,” The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts (March 2019). “Brick-Red Love,” The Arcanist (April 2019). Also available in The Arcanist: Year Two. “Safe Haven,” Five Minutes at Hotel […]

Brass & Glass 3 Progress

| April 25, 2019

I’ve turned around the first batch of editorial edits for Brass & Glass 3, which means we’re one step closer to publication! There will still be at least one more round of edits to do, so we don’t have a publication date yet. But every little inch counts in this world! If you want to […]

Fun for Friday: Having Fun Writing Novels

| March 15, 2019

Check out this article on 3 ways to make writing your novel easier. While not all of the advice will apply to every author, there’s at least some commiseration that some novels are harder to write than other novels. And it’s not necessarily about how many novels, you’ve already written, either. It doesn’t automatically get […]

Finished First Draft!

| March 12, 2019

On Sunday, I typed the final words in my first draft of the novel I’m tentatively calling Promise Me Nothing. It’s a young adult novel with paranormal elements, but I hesitate calling it urban fantasy (even though that’s probably what it falls under). It’s still going to need a lot of work before it’s publishable, […]

Brass and Glass 3, Coming Soon!

| January 15, 2019

We’re getting ready to put the last round of work in on Brass and Glass 3, which is due out this spring (probably May). It’s still quite a process to get from a completed draft to a book, but my editors at Razorgirl Press are awesome to work with, and they help me get all of the nuts […]

2019 Goals

| January 7, 2019

2019 is already off to a roaring start, but I’m just now posting my goals for the year. Like last year, they’re largely numbers driven. 43 completed stories/poems and 34 others at least started This seems like a HUGE number of stories, but it’s definitely viable. There are three contests I take part in that […]

My 2018 Publications

| November 20, 2018

With the proliferation of awards posts popping up across the internet, I went back and looked over what I’ve had published this year and what I’ve written this year, because I started feeling like I hadn’t done much. Turns out (go figure), my brain is a filthy liar. Sales and Publications: I’ve sold 11 pieces […]

The Next Big Thing

| November 13, 2018

Near the end of October, I typed “THE END” for the second book I’ve finished writing this year, which is tentatively titled Wasteland. This was a NaNoWriMo project that I worked on a few years back, but I only got about five or six chapters done before I set it aside. My biggest reason was […]