History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Poetry Forms: Magnetic Poetry

| December 21, 2020

Magnetic Poetry certainly isn’t a standard form of poetry, but it’s a fun way to play at writing poetry with possibly very cool results. I’ve had a variety of magnetic poetry sets over the years, but I can’t stick them to my fridge right now, for fear that my cats will remove and literally consume […]

“The Sea Sings Back” at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly

| November 10, 2020

I’ve got a new poem out this month at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly titled “The Sea Sings Back.” While I write a lot of things from the perspective of things that live in the water that want to murder you, this poem personifies the sea, reminding readers that the sea, too, is capricious. And wants to murder […]

Fun for Friday: Writing Games!

| November 6, 2020

If you’re stuck in a rut, sometimes playing a game can help get your writing flowing again. Here are 20 games to play with writing! This list is a lot of fun because it’s a mix of poetry, writing from scratch, and revision games. So you can pick and choose which ones work best for […]

Poetry Forms: Clogyrnach

| October 26, 2020

I’ve been interested in trying some of the Welsh poetry forms, but I find a lot of them intimidating due to their requirements for meter and rhyme. While the Clogyrnach also includes those requirements, they seem a little more friendly in this shorter form. The Clogyrnach (pronounced Clog Ear Nak) is a Welsh poetic form […]

Poetry Forms: Diminishing Verse

| September 28, 2020

Diminishing verse is an interesting form. There aren’t requirements related to meter or rhyme, but instead to the last word of each line of the poem. You begin with one word at the end of a line, and then the next line removes one letter (or more, according to one source) from that specific word […]

Things in the Water that Will Kill You

| September 8, 2020

When asked to summarize what I write, I often tell people “I write about things in the water that will kill you.” And while not all of my stories share that distinction, I have more stories about murderous aquatic creatures than nearly any other topic. I’ve written about vodyanoi, nixes, the stromkarl, selkies, and, of […]

Poetry Forms: Fibonacci

| August 31, 2020

If you’re looking for a really interesting poetry form to try out, check out the Fibonacci. This form uses the numerical pattern of the Fibonacci sequence as the syllable count for each line (ooh boy, MATH!). So your first and second lines both have one syllable, and your third line is the sum of those […]

“He Who Is in the Place of Embalming” Now Out!

| August 25, 2020

I’ve got a new poem out in the most recent issue of The Weird and Whatnot. “He Who Is in the Place of Embalming” is a poem I wrote based on an image of a modern Anubis, colored slightly with shades of American Gods. It’s one of several mythology-based poems I’ve written, and I’m glad to […]

Check Out my Collection, What If I’m a Merfolk?

| August 20, 2020

What If I’m a Merfolk? is my latest publication, a collection of poetry and a few stories about merfolk. The blurb for the collection reads: Becoming a merfolk. Accepting yourself. Defending your home. Anguishing over environmental degradation. Exploring mythology. And falling in love. What If I’m a Merfolk? collects 23 poems and 3 stories about […]

What If I’m a Merfolk? Out Today!

| August 4, 2020

My first collection comprising mostly poetry is out today! What If I’m a Merfolk? features 23 poems and 3 stories about being a merfolk or becoming a merfolk. The majority of the poems were written during Mermay this year, and I paired those up with a handful of other pieces of merfolk poetry and fiction I’ve […]