History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Big Pink Book of Prompts, A Galaxy Draws a Self Portrait

| September 18, 2026

For the twelfth prompt from the Big Pink Book, I took the three elements together and combined them into an idea for writing a poem with the title “A Galaxy Draws a Self Portrait.” I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m posting a photo of my page of notes. At the top of the page, […]

WriteHive 2026 Online Conference: How to Find the Right Home for Poems and Short Stories

| September 16, 2026

Now that the videos from the 2026 WriteHive online conference are posted, I’ll be sharing some of those with quick summaries. First up is one of the panels I spoke on, “How to Find the Right Home for Poems and Short Stories“! During this panel, we talked about the challenges of submitting short fiction and […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book Prompt 11, Blue Doors

| September 4, 2026

On Monday, I shared the eleventh prompt from the Big Pink Book. If you guessed that I was going to do something with blue doors, you’re absolutely correct. (It was probably pretty obvious.) Even though the image at the top left is a birdhouse, it had a similar shape and dimensions as the door at […]

Poetry in Chimerical Remembrance

| August 20, 2026

Chimerical Remembrance has five poems included in it, alongside contemporary fantasy flash fiction and short stories. They cover a variety of topics, but many of them involve social commentary through a contemporary fantasy lens. “The Cold, Strange Globe” was a poem inspired by an image of a glass sphere and a winter scene, which I […]

Big Pink Book Stars and Rainbows! (Prompt 9)

| August 7, 2026

On Monday, I posted the blank version of this page, and today, I’m back to show you how I used it. The first thing I did was to mark the text, “When it rains, look for rainbows. When it’s dark, look for stars,” to flip the elements, making it “When it rains, look for stars. […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts, Fantasy Vibes = Rhymes!

| July 3, 2026

For the sixth prompt in my Big Pink Book, I decided to use the fantasy imagery, particularly the unicorn, to write some poetry. At the top of the page, I wrote seven lines of what amounted to vaguely iambic pentameter (it’s not perfect, but it’s in that ballpark). And none of the lines rhymed, though […]

Have You Checked Out This Book Has Ghosts in It?

| May 5, 2026

Have you checked out my dark fantasy collection, This Book Has Ghosts in It? It’s a collection of 40 pieces of short fiction and poetry, most of which is dark contemporary fantasy, but with some other dark fantasy pieces tossed in. Ghosts of the modern era aren’t always those of the deceased. In this collection are […]

The Moon in A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| April 2, 2026

The Moon tarot card represents the subconscious, illusions, intuition, and emotions. In A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, this is represented by a haiku and a poem. The haiku, titled “Counting Mermaids at Twilight” (one of the few not titled by its first line), touches on the illusory nature of this card and the perception […]

The Star in A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| March 19, 2026

The Star tarot card represents hope, healing, and renewal. In A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, this is represented by a haiku and a poem. The haiku, titled “The stars fall like rain” after the first line, is a necessarily brief reflection that touches on the hope aspect of the Star, while also having literal […]

This Book Has Ghosts in It out today!

| March 10, 2026

My latest collection, This Book Has Ghosts in It, is out today! Ghosts of the modern era aren’t always those of the deceased. In this collection are ghosts of ideas, creatures of death, and creepy plants and places, in addition to the more traditional forms of ghosts. Short stories, tiny stories, and poetry keep you wondering […]