History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Review of Unf#ck Your Writing by Joe Biel and Faith G. Harper

| December 26, 2022

I recently got a big stack of writing craft and books through a Microcosm Publishing Kickstarter, so I’ve decided to work through several of them for reviewing on my blog. Unf#ck Your Writing is a guide to how authors can produce their best works, but it’s not about the nitty gritty of grammar and prose […]

TV Recommendation: Wednesday

| December 21, 2022

As probably no surprise to anyone who knows me, I loved the new Wednesday series on Netflix. Jenna Ortega is perfect as the lead character, and I enjoyed most of the supporting characters as well. (Especially Enid. Enid and Wednesday’s shared room is basically the warring halves of my soul–cute and colorful vs. dark and macabre.) […]

Review of Broken Sky by Morgan K. Bell

| December 7, 2022

Broken Sky by Morgan K. Bell (2022) is the first book in their fantasy series Skies of Cyrna. It’s a fast-paced adventure with airships, dragons, and a whole lot of magic. Dorian Valmont is the ward of a powerful noble, so when he shows up looking to become an aeronaut, no one expects him to […]

Movie Recommendation: Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

| November 23, 2022

Yes, Cold Comfort Farm is old enough to rent a car (and then some), but I only saw it recently. Jeremy has been trying to get me to watch it for a while, but the stars finally aligned where I was in the mood for something slightly weird and slightly funny. And this fit the bill. […]

Review of Apex Magazine: 2021

| November 16, 2022

Apex Magazine: 2021 collects the stories published in Apex Magazine in 2021 into a single volume. Containing eight issues worth of new stories, this is a thick volume with a wide array of speculative fiction stories ranging from humorous to heartbreaking. It’s hard to select only a few favorites from a collection such as this. […]

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To, November 2022 Edition

| November 9, 2022

Reading: Primarily books to review, though I also just got a huge stack of craft books from a Microcosm Publishing Kickstarter, so I’ve got those to wade through as well! Watching: Since my last post, we finished She Hulk, which we loved all the way through (yes, even the last episode, which was strange but […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: LOLCraft from Dragon’s Roost Press

| November 2, 2022

Another press who will be printing one of my stories has launched a Kickstarter for their anthology! Dragon’s Roost Press is publishing LOLCraft, which will include my story, “Hashtag TPE,” a humorous look at a college tour at Miskatonic University. Their backer options include ebook and print versions of this anthology, along with some of the […]

Review of The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

| October 26, 2022

The Hacienda, Isabel Cañas’s debut novel (Berkeley, 2022), is a gorgeous Gothic novel set post-Mexican War of Independence. Far removed from the typical Gothic settings of Western Europe, this novel draws upon the universal language of dread and presents a world filled with chilling horror. Beatriz is the second wife of a wealthy landowner, having […]

Review of Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

| October 12, 2022

I’m an unabashed fangirl of the Locked Tomb series, so I devoured Nona the Ninth (Tordotcom, 2022) almost as soon as it was available. As the third book in the series, you’re going to want to have read Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth (which I weirdly have not reviewed) before you tackle this book. But similar […]

Review of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and Caytee by Suzanna Kanto

| October 5, 2022

I grabbed a Kindle copy of Caytee by Susanna Kanto (Caudex Books, 2022) recently because it was touted as a modern retelling of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. As I’d wanted to read Northanger Abbey for a while, but often find Jane Austen’s writing style a little difficult to dig into, I thought this would be a […]