History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Review of Corpses and Cognac by Dorian Graves

| March 31, 2021

Corpses and Cognac (2021) is Dorian Graves’ second book in the Deadly Drinks series, an urban fantasy series in a similar vein to Supernatural but so much better! I read and reviewed the first book in the series, Bones and Bourbon, when that book came out, and so I was excited to take a look at the […]

Camp Haunt, Exclusively at Channillo

| March 30, 2021

Camp Haunt is an unusual novella. It’s an epistolary novel, with the fragments including letters, diary entries, and camp forms. It’s one that I wrote without substantial revision, as I was often writing each section of it about a week before they went live. It’s also the only novella that I’ve published but not via […]

A Well-Earned Day Off

| March 29, 2021

Okay, I’m not at the beach today, but I am taking a well-earned day off after a weekend of online gaming. It was lovely to be able to “attend” a convention that’s normally at a time when we can’t travel this year, thanks to it being entirely virtual. So today is a day for catching […]

Fun for Friday: April 2021 Writing Prompts!

| March 26, 2021

It’s nearly April, and at least in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s springtime (for whatever that means for a given latitude)! The words for this month are a mix of springtime words and other, random words, but hopefully the multiple meanings of some of these words will provide an interesting combination! I’ve also added a photograph […]

The Cobalt City Roots of Sparx and Arrows

| March 25, 2021

Of the five stories in Sparx and Arrows, only three of them take part entirely in Cobalt City, the home to many superheroes, and where each of the heroes in this collection got their start. “Big in Japan,” as the name might suggest, is one of the two stories not entirely within Cobalt City. This story […]

On Kickstarter: Coyote and Crow

| March 24, 2021

Though the Kickstarter is already well-funded, I wanted to share Coyote and Crow, a roleplaying game set in a near-future where the Americas were never colonized, written by Native creators. This Kickstarter funded in 45 minutes, which isn’t surprising at all. This game looks gorgeous, and the content sounds amazing. I’m particularly excited because the center […]

“The Actor-Observer Effect” in Unfixed Timelines 2

| March 23, 2021

I work alongside archaeologists and anthropologists in my day job, so it’s no surprise that some of their terminology infects my brain, and thus my writing. I’ve also become keenly aware over the years about just how flawed a lot of early anthropological work was, with the practitioners inflicting their own understanding of how the […]

My Writing Must-Haves

| March 22, 2021

What’s on your writing must-have list? Here’s mine: My laptop. Can’t get very far without it. Because I don’t really take it anywhere aside from the spare bedroom, I have a device that lifts the screen up to eye level when it’s on a table, but that also renders the keyboard difficult to use, so […]

Fun for Friday: Friday Five Prompts

| March 19, 2021

I was recently looking for some new writing prompts, and I stumbled across Long and Short Reviews’ Friday Five Prompts. This lists out five word prompts for every Friday in 2021. And while we’re already part of the way through the year, there are still plenty more weeks to enjoy! I love playing with word […]

Barren Available for Pre-Order!

| March 18, 2021

My latest novella, Barren, which comes out April 6, is now available for pre-order! Barren is a post-apocalyptic novella with an older woman as the protagonist. This is an apocalypse caused by climate change and the failure of the ecosystem. Major themes in the book include love and loss, against a backdrop of the struggle […]