History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Just Add Holy Water” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| April 25, 2024

“Just Add Holy Water” is a fantasy short story featuring a young protagonist working alongside a reanimated skeleton to solve a problem. It’s a mix of fun and peril for the characters, but it all works out in the end–just perhaps not how you might expect. This story originally appeared in Death’s Sting: Where Art Thou? […]

“Green-Eyed Phantom” in Unfixed Timelines 3

| April 23, 2024

“Green-Eyed Phantom” combines three of my favorite things to write–historical fiction, young characters, and siblings. It’s a story in which two pre-teen sisters attend a Civil War soldiers’ reunion with their parents and encounter something unexpected. I based the setting on the many, many old newspaper articles I read about these Civil War soldiers’ reunions […]

Very Short Fiction and Poetry in Wreathed in Steam

| April 18, 2024

I included one very short piece of fiction, “Paint Pots,” in Wreathed and Steam, which is a gaslamp fantasy style piece of microfiction about a magical painter. I also have a number of poems in this collection, which vary between steampunk and gaslamp fantasy. Some of my personal favorites are two involving ghosts: “My Josephine” and […]

Coming in May: A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| April 16, 2024

I’ve got a new collection, A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, coming out in May of this year! It collects fantasy  stories and poems along a theme of the major arcana of the tarot. The tarot provides wisdom to seekers of esoteric knowledge. In this collection of fantasy stories and poetry, the cards of the major […]

My Recent Superhero Fiction

| April 11, 2024

Since my last update about superhero fiction, I’ve added one to the stack! Brother’s Keeper is a superhero novelette set in Cobalt City, featuring Triple Threat (Dulcamara, Terra Firma, and Ex Spiravit) teaming up with Caterwaul and meeting a new hero and a new villain. If you liked the characters of Triple Threat in Avatar of […]

“Be Inspired” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| April 9, 2024

“Be Inspired” is a slipstream contemporary fantasy flash fiction story about a woman dealing with an unpleasant romantic relationship and how she emerges from that situation. I can’t say too much else about the story without giving it away, though it does involve the aurora borealis in an unusual location! “Be Inspired” is one of […]

March 2024 Publications

| April 4, 2024

I had one new piece out in March, which was “Dead Planet,” a drabble in Drabbledark III from Shacklebound Books. This is the sixth of my pieces that Shacklebound has published, most of which had been drabbles, and it’s wonderful to have a publisher that accepts mostly that length!

Poetry and Microfiction in Droplets from the Universe

| March 28, 2024

In addition to the short stories I’ve talked about previously, Droplets from the Universe contains a number of joyful sci-fi poems and a couple of very short fiction pieces. The fiction pieces include “Explore Savois,” a microfiction piece written as a tourism enticement for an out-of-the-way planet, and “Life on Pluto,” a very tongue-in-cheek drabble (exactly […]

“Light for Life” in Dead-Starred Futures

| March 26, 2024

“Light for Life” is a microfiction story that looks at a world in which growing plants has become a difficult proposition and the sorts of trades a person needs to make to be able to grow food. It’s certainly a dystopic world, but it also reflects places in our world in which climate change has […]

“Good Fortune” in Wreathed in Steam

| March 21, 2024

“Good Fortune” is a gaslamp fantasy flash fiction piece I included in Wreathed in Steam. It involves fortune telling and things from the depths of the seas, two of my very favorite things. I classify this one as gaslamp fantasy because it’s set in a location that feels very much like it would fit into a […]