History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Dissecting a Book Cover: The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby

| November 16, 2017

We recently went on vacation to one of our favorite spots, the Edgefield Hotel in Troutdale, Oregon. It’s one of the McMenniman’s properties, using the renovated buildings from the old Multnomah County Poor Farm. While we were there, I remembered that one of the trees on the property is the tree that I photographed to […]

Superheroes in Other Times

| November 14, 2017

The first Cobalt City story I ever wrote (which was also the second story I wrote) was a late nineteenth-century look at one of Cobalt City’s legacy superheroes, The Huntsman. Since then, I’ve written another story of The Huntsman that takes place after World War II. Because The Huntsman is a legacy hero, it’s super […]

“Tarnish” to appear at Mirror Dance

| November 9, 2017

Now that the contract is signed, I can talk about my latest acceptance, which I mentioned in my October 2017 recap. My story, “Tarnish,” will appear in the Spring 2018 issue of Mirror Dance. This story first appeared in Unfixed Timelines as one of my historical fiction stories accompanied by an essay about the real history. The […]

Introducing Heroes of Necessity!

| November 7, 2017

My next collection of short stories is in progress! This one is called Heroes of Necessity, and it’s about super heroes who don’t fit into the traditional molds. While the heroes in these stories have powers, most of them don’t have substantial powers, none of the kind that would impact the entire world. But they’re still […]

The Relief of Sending a Book to Editors

| November 2, 2017

I finished off the first draft of Brass and Glass Book 2 at the beginning of September, and turned around a second draft by mid-October. Then it went off to a handful of beta readers, so that I could frantically incorporate some of their changes and send it off to my editors at Razorgirl Press. […]

“The Glorious Dead” reprinted in The Misbehaving Dead

| October 24, 2017

My story of Civil War soldiers and zombies, “The Glorious Dead,” has been reprinted in The Misbehaving Dead, an anthology of stories about dead things that won’t stay dead and buried. My story involves a little bit of voodoo gone wrong, along with a fragment from an actual soldier’s diary while he was at Vicksburg. If […]

Day Job + Writing = Story Ideas?

| October 19, 2017

Before I moved to Seattle, I was pretty sure that archaeology was EXACTLY like it looks in the movies, all digging up ancient civilizations and running around lost temples. No, wait, maybe that’s just how Indiana Jones makes archaeology look cool in the movies. When I moved here, I started working with archaeologists, and though […]

“Interlude C: Obstacles and Opportunities” in Write Like You’re Alive 2017!

| October 17, 2017

During the month of August, I worked on what will eventually become a book called Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse. It’s a bit of an experimental story, told through vignettes and pieces of poetry. I wrote it as a part of the Write Like You’re Alive challenge, hosted by Zoetic Press, which challenges participants to write […]

Volatile Figments: Ghosts and Things that Go Bump in the Night

| October 12, 2017

While only one of the stories in Volatile Figments features a ghost character, several of the stories are about unusual things that go bump in the night, like the servants of elder gods and entities that may or may not be muses. “One for Every Year” is told from the perspective of an ageless ghost […]

More Spooky Reads: Volatile Figments is live!

| October 10, 2017

It’s release day for Volatile Figments, my collection of dark contemporary fantasy (with a little bit of horror) short stories! These are great stories for reading as you get ready for Halloween. Some are less spooky than others, but there are witches, ghouls, ghosts, elder gods, psychics, and creepy muses aplenty! Several of the stories in […]