History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Coming Soon: Utter Fabrication

| June 27, 2017

Right now, we’re getting toward the home stretch for the latest Mad Scientist Journal anthology, Utter Fabrication. I’m one of the co-editors on our anthologies (along with my husband), and the process eats up a good deal of our writing time. But once we’ve read all of the slush, selected the stories, sent out the contracts, and […]

Sometimes I Write Horror … sorta

| June 20, 2017

I don’t write a whole lot of true horror, because I don’t have a ton of experience with it. I do, however, write a number of slightly marginally creepy things. In this case, I wrote an epistolary YA novella set at a girls’ summer camp in the early 2000s. It’s a weird mix of almost […]

Fun for Friday: The Origin of the Slush Pile

| June 16, 2017

Last summer, my brother and I were sitting at my mom’s kitchen table, both trying to get some work done, and I said something about needing to read slush. He didn’t believe this was a thing, so I looked up the origins of the term “slush pile” to prove him wrong. (Because that’s what we […]

Funding Now: 2018 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide

| June 15, 2017

Last year, my story “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue” appeared in the 2017 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide. I’m thrilled to be back for 2018 as well, with “Far from Home,” which is one of the very few sci-fi-ish stories I’ve written. The Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide series includes stories that are meant for children regardless of […]

Story sale news!

| June 8, 2017

I’m excited to announce that my story, “Salt in Our Veins,” will be reprinted in the Goddesses of the Sea anthology from Fantasia Divinity Magazine! I think this anthology is going to be a great fit for my story! I’ll be sure to post more details when I have them!

Upcoming projects

| June 6, 2017

Since posting my May recap, I’ve come up with a few projects that I’ll be working on the coming months. My goal is to put out a new ebook every couple of months for the rest of the year. The first of these was Unfixed Timelines, which collected a bunch of my alternate history stories with […]

Unfixed Timelines available for pre-order

| May 23, 2017

If you like alternate histories, you’ll love Unfixed Timelines! I’ve collected five of my alternate history stories into this collection, along with brief essays that talk about the real history of the events and places that I have written about. Three of the stories, “Donning the Helm,” “Veli Tis Artemidos,” and “Salt in Our Veins” are […]

Brass & Glass Book One available for pre-order tomorrow!

| March 24, 2017

Razorgirl Press has announced that as of tomorrow (my 42nd birthday, no less), my novel Brass & Glass: The Cask of Cranglimmering, will be available for pre-order on Kindle! The book will go live on April 1st! If you like steampunk, action, adventure, pirates, whiskey, or weird monsters, you should definitely check this out! You can […]

2016 publishing

| December 8, 2016

It’s the time of the year when authors are making lists of the stories and other items that they published in 2016, which are eligible for awards. And while my list is not extensive, I thought I’d do one nonetheless! Short Stories “Origin Story,” Black Girls Magic Lit Mag (January 2016). “Salt in Our Veins,” […]

Untethered Authors Disclose Their Story Inspirations for the Anthology (two involve Clippy!)

| October 17, 2016

Where do authors get their story ideas, anyway? In honor of the book release for Untethered: A Magic iPhone Anthology, four authors divulge their inspirations. Untethered: A Magic iPhone Anthology is a fictional collection of twenty stories about the intersection of magic and tech, so real life phone interaction must have meant something, right? Maybe. […]