History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Have You Checked Out Brother’s Keeper?

| January 25, 2024

Have you had a chance to check out Brother’s Keeper yet? It’s a novelette set in the Cobalt City Universe, featuring the members of Triple Threat (Dulcamara, Terra Firma, and Ex Spiravit), along with Caterwaul, Gato Loco, and a new hero and villain! Gato Loco’s days as a vigilante are over. When a problem needs superheroes […]

“Trinkets or Treasures” in Wreathed in Steam

| January 23, 2024

“Trinkets or Treasures” falls more into the gaslamp fantasy area of steampunk–there’s no noted steampunk technology, and it’s more about magic than technology. But I included it in this collection because it fit well into the steampunk connection to people fighting against corrupt governmental systems. It’s a brief flash piece offering a bit on insight […]

Post-Apocalyptic Stories

| January 18, 2024

My latest post-apocalyptic tales are in my collection Dead-Starred Futures. They include some dystopian and dark sci-fi stories on other worlds and some that take place on an Earth that looks very different after climate change and other things render the planet harder to make our home. In addition to this collection, I have two post-apocalyptic […]

“Gratitude” in Droplets from the Universe

| January 16, 2024

Sometimes, you come up with a truly ridiculous concept for a story and then run with it. I don’t remember why I decided velociraptors could be genetically engineered to be sanitation engineers, but I decided to do it and play it like this was just a normal thing. Nothing weird about it at all. Then […]

“Memento Mori” in Unfixed Timelines 3

| January 11, 2024

“Memento Mori” is an unusual combination of the Old West and science fantasy. It’s a story about Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and aliens, and it purports a history that isn’t even remotely true. But all that being said, it’s based on some real history, so it fits perfectly into Unfixed Timelines 3. This story was […]

My December 2023 Publications

| January 4, 2024

I had three pieces come out in December, all on the shorter side of things! The Utopia Science Fiction 5th Anniversary Anthology included a reprint of my story, “Senchado in Microgravity,” which Utopia published originally back in April 2020. This story, about family, grief, and tea, has also been podcast and included in one of my collections, […]

My 2023 Awards Eligibility Post

| January 3, 2024

It’s the time of year when folks start posting lists of their stories and books from the past year that are eligible for award nominations, like the Nebulas, Hugos, and more. I’m including word count for my short stories and novelette this year, because different awards require different word counts, and it’s easy for me […]

“Good to the Last Drop” in Dead-Starred Futures

| December 28, 2023

“Good to the Last Drop” is a dark sci-fi flash fiction piece that involved research into hydroponics and growing coffee, along with some other searches to pull together the plot. I can’t say much more about that research without giving it away, but suffice it to say that some people will do ANYTHING for their […]

“The Dame with the Boots” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| December 26, 2023

I can always remember where I got my weirdest ideas, and it’s almost always that someone misread, misheard, or misinterpreted something. “The Dame with the Boots” was definitely one of these cases. I think it was something about a pool shark, and for whatever reason, I pictured an actual shark playing pool, and somehow, that […]

“Nectar Shortage” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| December 21, 2023

Sometimes, a story starts with a writing prompt in a workshop, and then you wind up frantically typing the rest of the story in your hotel room after the workshop instead of whatever you had planned next. That’s how “Nectar Shortage” came about. It required a good deal of editing and reworking, but the bones […]