History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

The Nineteenth Kentucky Essay at Fantastic History!

| July 14, 2020

Catherine Schaff-Stump is hosting some of my articles about the real history behind my stories from Unfixed Timelines at her Fantastic History blog. The second post, “The 19th Kentucky,” is up now! The characters in my story, “The Glorious Dead,” were members of the 19th Kentucky, and one of those characters, James J. Ray, was […]

Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse when You Feel Like You’re in the Apocalypse

| July 9, 2020

When you’re in the midst of an uncertain time, it can be difficult to read some types of books. Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse may best fit into the category of “post-apocalyptic,” but I like to think of it as an apocalypse with a bit of hope–a little taste of hopepunk, if you will. Sure, the […]

“For the Weird Girls Who Want to Be Mermaids” Out Now!

| July 7, 2020

I’ve got a flash fiction piece out in a literary magazine, for their Literary-Speculative Issue. The story is “For the Weird Girls Who Want to Be Mermaids,” and you can find it at Orca: A Literary Journal. I wrote the bulk of this story on a plane, though it underwent some big revisions later to […]

Out Now: Coast to Coast Stars

| June 30, 2020

Coast to Coast Stars is now available in ebook format through all the usual retail sources! You can enjoy five short stories of super heroics and bystanders, including my first story told from the perspective of a scientist as she goes through the stages of becoming a villain. Two of the stories feature cameos by […]

New Haiku at Frozen Wavelets!

| June 25, 2020

I’ve got a new haiku in the latest issue of Frozen Wavelets. You can find it in the Sparse Wavelets section. I don’t write a lot of haiku, but this was one of a handful I wrote one day. This makes the third one to be published!

Coming in August: What If I’m a Merfolk?

| June 23, 2020

I spent May writing poetry for Mermay, which resulted in a bunch of new merfolk-themed poems. I’m teaming those up with a few other merfolk-themed poems and short stories, and collecting them as What If I’m a Merfolk? I don’t have my cover art yet, or I’d be sharing that today. Instead, I can tell you […]

The Shared World of Denizens of Distant Realms

| June 18, 2020

I wrote all of the stories for Denizens of Distant Realms independently of one another, and over a series of years, but as I wrote some of the later stories, I thought about the elements of each of them and realized that they could very well have taken place in the same world. There’s magic in […]

Camp Haunt for a Summertime Read

| June 16, 2020

It’s summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, but it may not feel like it is if you’re limiting your contact with the outside world. If you want to relive the highs and lows of summer camp, with some extra creepy aspects, check out my epistolary novella, Camp Haunt. It’s exclusively available at Channillo, and it’s broken up […]

Coast to Coast Stars Available for Pre-Order!

| June 11, 2020

My latest collection, Coast to Coast Stars, will be out on June 30, 2020, and you can pre-order it now! This will be an ebook only publication of five superhero short stories and flash pieces, most of which take place in Cerulean City. (One story takes place in Cobalt City.) Cerulean City, California. Home to the […]

“Beer City” at Fantastic History!

| June 2, 2020

Catherine Schaff-Stump is hosting some of my articles about the real history behind my stories from Unfixed Timelines at her Fantastic History blog. The first post, “Beer City,” is up now! The history of the incident I portray in “Veli tis Artemidos” is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever researched. It involved mostly looking at […]