History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Writing Prompts

| May 5, 2023

If you like writing sci-fi, the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space has prepared a writing prompt based on objects in their collection, originally for a Sci-Fi Family Day. If the images of Smithsonian artifacts in that document don’t spark any ideas, you can also search their multimedia gallery to see if something there works […]

Droplets from the Universe Out Today!

| April 18, 2023

My latest collection, Droplets from the Universe, is out today! This is a collection of joyful and humorous science fiction stories and poetry. Droplets from the Universe contains short stories, flash fiction, and poetry from the vastness of the universe. Dance amongst these droplets of joyful and humorous science fiction. Not every story starts happy, but […]

Review of Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories by Tobias S. Buckell

| March 22, 2023

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories is the latest collection from author Tobias S. Buckell (Apex Book Company, 2023), and it’s filled with a wonderful collection of previously published sci-fi stories. Several of the stories in this collection share the same setting, one in which oxygen use is monitored and paid […]

Droplets from the Universe Coming Soon!

| March 14, 2023

My next collection is Droplets from the Universe, coming in April! I absolutely love how the cover came out! Droplets from the Universe contains short stories, flash fiction, and poetry from the vastness of the universe. Dance amongst these droplets of joyful and humorous science fiction. Not every story starts happy, but all finish with positive […]

Review of Solid-State Shuffle by Jeffrey A. Ballard

| February 22, 2023

Solid-State Shuffle by Jeffrey A. Ballard (New Rochester Publishing, 2006) is a action-packed, high-stakes heist novel set in a post-ocean rise Seattle. With a fun cast of main characters and hints at an intriguing backstory, the prose will carry you along through the book. Isa and her team, consisting of her brother-from-another-mother Puo and her […]

Sci-Fi Stories and Collections!

| September 22, 2022

If you’re a sci-fi fan, I’ve got a sci-fi collection that might appeal to you! New Moons Under Which to Sleep contains previously published sci-fi short stories, flash fiction pieces, and a couple of poems, plus a couple of pieces that were new to the collection. My other recent sci-fi publications are: “Slime, or Primordial […]

Free Sci-Fi Writing Online Summit!

| August 22, 2022

If you’re interested in writing a science fiction novel, but you need some help, check out the Pro Writing Aid sponsored Science Fiction Writer’s Week. It’s an online summit with some big names in the science fiction world, and it’s completely free to participate in! It runs from August 29th through September 2nd, and I […]

New Pieces Out in July 2022

| August 4, 2022

I had two new sci-fi pieces out in July, one poem and one short story! My poem, “The Way Forward is a Maze,” appeared in the Veterans of Alien Wars issue of Eye to the Telescope. I wrote this poem for this call for submissions, and it turned out well. The poem is about how […]

New Poetry Out in June 2022

| July 7, 2022

I’ve been selling pieces pretty steadily, but I only had one new piece release in June. My poem “Lost in Space” appeared in Felis Futura, which is an anthology of future cats. I wrote this poem specifically for the anthology, involving cats on a spaceship and how their shedding might gum up the works a […]

Fun for Friday: Sci-Fi (and other) Writing Prompts and Generator!

| July 1, 2022

If you’re looking for a bunch of sci-fi prompts, along with some other genre prompts, check out this page. In addition to the prompts here, there are links to other prompt lists, AND there’s a prompt generator as well! So you’ll find all sorts of ideas (some better than others, of course, when it comes […]