History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Earworm” in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| January 11, 2022

“Earworm” was a story I wrote for a very specific anthology call that involved “space opera” in a more literal sense than the genre typically means. So my main character was the alien beatbox for an operatic vocal group. As I’ve talked about before, the inspiration for the story was related to K-pop videos, even […]

December 2021 Publications

| January 6, 2022

I had two very short pieces out in December 2021. You can find “First Rights” in the December issue of Utopia Science Fiction. This is a flash fiction piece involving space salvage and a reunion between former lovers. The other story is “Seeds of Knowledge,” which appeared at Theme of Absence. This one is a […]

“Maija Spencer, Internet Witch” in Intercity Illusions

| December 30, 2021

Another one of my Drawlloween stories, I have vague memories of “Maija Spencer, Internet Witch” being written either on a plane or in a car (the plane while moving or the car while parked) on a trip to Missouri in 2018. Either way, I wrote it quickly and then cleaned it up later. It’s still, […]

Dark and Creepy Books

| December 28, 2021

If you want some creepy, spooky, or otherwise dark reads for your to be read pile, I’ve got two of options for you! Volatile Figments is a collection of contemporary fantasy short stories in which the protagonists deal with the darker side of the supernatural. There are some horrific moments in some of the stories, […]

“One-Tenth” in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| December 23, 2021

“One-Tenth” was one of my early attempts at writing science fiction that had a solid science background behind it. It also involved more math than I enjoy. But the end result turned out pretty good, presenting a statistician with an ethical challenge: how do you choose who lives and who dies when supplies are inadequate […]

“The Sky Rock” in Old Legends and New Fables

| December 21, 2021

Sometimes, you’ve just got to write a silly story with talking birds and poop as the punchline. And that is, in its essence, “The Sky Rock.” It’s a very irreverent look at what Huginn and Muninn, Odin’s ravens, might get up to while they’re surveying the world for their boss. It’s a slightly different tone […]

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 […]

Unfixed Timelines 2 Launching on Channillo!

| December 14, 2021

It’s been a little while since I’ve launched a book on Channillo, but as of today, you can read the first story in Unfixed Timelines 2, “Nochnaya Serenada,” on Channillo with a subscription! Each Tuesday through the middle of March, I’ll post a new story or essay on some of the historical elements of the stories, […]

My November 2021 Publications

| December 9, 2021

I only had a couple of new stories out in November, far fewer than the abundance of October! My flash fiction piece, “There Is No ‘I’ in Heavenly Host,” came out in Friends Journal at the beginning of the month. This was for their special speculative fiction issue, and I got the idea for it […]

My 2021 Publications Recap

| November 30, 2021

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. I had a TON of flash published, which does not currently get its own category in award nominations (it qualifies as “short” for those purposes), but I like to separate […]