History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue” in C. & M. Marsh, Girl Detectives

| October 18, 2022

“The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue” was the first story I had published, so it’s got a very warm place in my heart. It’s the first story of Chrysanthemum and Marigold Marsh and the mechanical garden they live in. The mechanical garden was inspired by a friend’s child mishearing “botanical garden” as “mechanical garden,” […]

The Marsh Sisters and Their Adventures

| October 3, 2019

The Marsh sisters, Chrysanthemum and Marigold, were the first characters I wrote when I started getting serious about my writing. Since then, they’ve dealt with a thief in the mechanical garden in “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue,” a clockwork monkey acting up in “The Marvelous Matter of the Mischievous Monkey,” and a missing […]

Steampunk Technology, Real and Imagined

| May 16, 2019

The steampunk technology that I write into my novels and stories is often partially real and partially imagined. For The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby, the idea of the clockwork animals was pulled primarily from my imagination–while it’s certainly possible to have mechanical or robotic animals with modern technology, I used a lot of hand waving […]

An audio version of a steampunk story!

| May 19, 2017

The very first story that I published was “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue,” back in 2010. It’s been reprinted a few times since then, and now, it’s available in audio format as well! This is a story with two young girls as protagonists (age 9 and 12), and it’s a very kid-friendly story, […]

“Nochevieja” and reprints available now!

| December 6, 2016

I’m a little behind in announcing some story releases! “Nochevieja,” which is the latest of my Huntsman stories in the Cobalt City Universe, appears in Cobalt City Christmas: Christmas Harder. This is another Huntsman story featuring the World War II incarnations of the Huntsman–Matthew Castile in the U.S. and Sarah Castile in Europe–but it’s set in […]

June 2016 recap

| June 30, 2016

By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 22 Acceptances received: 1 Rejections received: 14 Stories withdrawn: 0 Resubmissions: 14 New Submissions: 0 Stories out at the end of the month: 20 (My numbers seem off, but I can’t figure out why right now.) June wound up being a strange month, in which I didn’t […]

February 2016 recap

| February 25, 2016

I’ve decided to go ahead and do the February recap a few days early, and include the last few days of February on the March recap. By the numbers: Stories out at the beginning of the month: 18 Acceptances received: 1 Rejections received: 10 Stories withdrawn: 0 Resubmissions: 10 New Submissions: 1 Stories out at the end of the […]