History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Love in What If I’m a Merfolk?

| December 16, 2021

Some of the poetry in What If I’m a Merfolk? revolves around love among the merfolk, or love between a merfolk and a human. While merfolk and humans are often antagonistic toward each other, that isn’t always the case. My short story, “Catch,” is one example of this, telling the tale of a young woman and […]

Three Cool Kickstarters!

| December 15, 2021

There’s always a lot of cool stuff to be found on Kickstarter, but here are three projects that have caught my attention! The first is From Big Idea to Book: Create a Writing Practice that Brings You Joy. While many books on writing advice retread the same territory that many experienced authors have already covered, […]

Fun for Friday: May 2021 Prompts

| April 30, 2021

May is Mermay in the art community, and I like to turn a lot of art prompts into writing prompts. So the first column of this month’s prompts are from the Mermay 2021 list. And while these words are geared toward inspiring artists to draw mermaids, you may come up with different ideas for your […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Mermaids Monthly

| December 2, 2020

As you may have guessed if you’ve been following my blog for any period of time, I enjoy writing stories about things in the water that want to kill you. So I’m super excited for the possibility of Mermaids Monthly, which is currently funding their first year on Kickstarter! If they are able to fund their […]

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 […]

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 […]

Cover for What If I’m a Merfolk?

| July 16, 2020

You may have already seen the cover for my next collection, What If I’m a Mermaid? on my main page, but if you haven’t, check it out! The artist is Ariel Alian Wilson, who we worked with regularly for Mad Scientist Journal. The collection will have 23 poems, most of which were written in May for […]

“Catch” in Denizens of Distant Realms

| March 12, 2020

Not quite eight years ago, my friends and I went on a writing retreat, and that excursion resulted in one of my favorite stories that I’ve written. “Catch” is a story of mermaids and love, and it wouldn’t have happened quite the way it did without that writing retreat. The house we rented was on […]