History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

My Latest Horror and Dark Fantasy Pieces

| March 18, 2025

I’ve published a handful of horror and dark fantasy pieces in the nine months since my last post on my spooky reads! Weathering Youth contains stories featuring younger protagonists, but that doesn’t mean the stories are all light and fluffy. In particular, “Remembrance” (drabble), “A Trail of Apples” (short story), “No Fear” (flash fiction), “Someone […]

New Spooky Pieces

| June 13, 2024

If you like to read spookier pieces, here’s some of my recent horror and dark publications! Unfixed Timelines 3 includes several historical fiction pieces with darker themes, including “Charcoals from an Unidentified Chicago Artist” and “Green-Eyed Phantom.” Though neither of these are horror, they definitely delve into the darker side of history and fiction. My […]

Poetry in Doorways in the Gloom

| November 28, 2023

There’s a part of me that never really left her goth phase, and sometimes, that comes out in my poetry. I included twelve of my dark poems in Doorways in the Gloom. They range from somewhat tongue-in-cheek on ghosts and death (like “15 Ghosts” or “Definitely Not Haunted”) to dark fantasy (“The Briar Princess”) to something […]

Some Newer Spooky Reads

| October 10, 2023

If you’re looking for something spooky to read for Halloween (or leading up to it), here’s a few of my recent dark publications. My drabbles, “The Problem with Schematics” and “Litany,” appeared in the Dark Stars anthology, which is a collection of dark sci-fi drabbles from Shacklebound Books. One involves a ship that should not […]

A Few Recent Horror Publications

| March 16, 2023

If you’re looking for something spooky to read, here’s a few of my recent horror and dark publications. “The Divergence in the Woods” is a creepy flash fiction tale of two young women looking for their missing father in the woods. You can find it in Trees. “Chrysopoeia” is a microfiction story of exposing a […]

Spooky Writing Advice!

| October 31, 2022

Happy Halloween! If you’re wanting to learn more about writing spooky stories, there are a ton of resources available online. I really like this recent article on tips for writing spooky stories geared toward a very general audience!

Fun for Friday: Eerie Pictures

| October 14, 2022

It’s the spooky season, so today’s image writing prompts are also on the eerie side. The first image is a black and white image of leafless trees in a faint mist, with a two-track path beginning in the right hand foreground and extending into the distance. There may be a shrouded figure in the distance, […]

Horror Video Games with Good Story

| December 1, 2021

If you’re looking for a spooky horror video game to play, check out this list of 15 horror games with good story. I’m not a huge video gamer, but of course I’m familiar with Resident Evil and Silent Hill, both of which have specific titles on this list. I’ve also heard good stuff about Alan […]

Fun for Friday: Haunted Images

| October 15, 2021

It wouldn’t be October without some spooky image prompts, now would it? The first image is of a person wearing a hooded coat and carrying a backpack standing on a tree-lined road that leads to a large, old house, with a full moon overhead. It’s a nighttime scene in blueish shades. The second image (deleted) […]

Game to Watch For: Phantom Ink

| October 13, 2021

In looking for cool spooky games, I came across Phantom Ink, which was originally called Ghost Writer when it was funded on Kickstarter. It’s meant to be a party game with elements of Mysterium and Decrypto. Players divide into two teams and portray either a ghost or a medium, with the ghosts sending cryptic partial […]