History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Eyes of Fire, Eyes of Smoke” in Unfixed Timelines 3

| March 19, 2024

“Eyes of Fire, Eyes of Smoke” was a story that started with the title. I combined that with the idea of writing a story about a legendary monster not often seen in fiction, the pishtaco or kharisiri of Andean legends. With that figured out, I went from there to write a historical fantasy story about […]

New Urban Fantasy Stories

| March 14, 2024

I’ve had a number of new and reprinted urban fantasy pieces come out since my last post on the subject. Here’s where you can find them! My flash fiction piece “The Train Station That Knows What You Need” is a somewhat surreal, slipstream story about a train station in Japan, which was published in Cafe […]

“When Science and the Gods Fail” in Dead-Starred Futures

| February 29, 2024

“When Science and the Gods Fail” is a microfiction story about a robot who takes matters into their own hands when calamity strikes. However, since this is one of my darker sci-fi stories … well, I’ll let you guess at the ending, but I won’t say anything more than that. “When Science and the Gods […]

“Twelve Essential Things …” in Wreathed in Steam

| February 27, 2024

One of the stories in Wreathed in Steam has the longest title of my published pieces to date: “Twelve Essential Things Found in Commander Scarlett Archer’s Spacesuit Pockets (And Some Which Were Not)”. I normally shorten it to “Twelve Essential Things …” for obvious reasons. The title pretty much tells you the plot of the story, […]

“The Waypost Tree” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| February 22, 2024

“The Waypost Tree” is a very brief flash fiction piece about a wizard and familiar after the wizard learns something new about her familiar. Told from the familiar’s point of view, it’s a significant moment conveyed in very few words. “The Waypost Tree” can only be read in Conceits of Whim and Fancy!

Review of Darkling Dreams by Addison Smith

| February 21, 2024

Addison Smith’s Darkling Dreams (Shacklebound Books, 2024) is a collection of drabbles–stories of exactly 100 words. The themes in these stories are often dark and sci-fi, but they show an incredible mastery of the drabble format in their breadth and scope of approaches to this tricky length. I was familiar with some of Smith’s drabbles through […]

“Consequence” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| February 20, 2024

“Consequence” is a drabble, exactly 100 words, in which a superhero is faced with a choice about her power. I can’t say more about it than that, without giving away too much of the story! “Consequence” originally appeared at Martian: The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but it’s also available in The Sidewalk Diverges.

Newer Steampunk Stories!

| February 13, 2024

It’s been a while since I posted about my steampunk stories, so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do! Back in December 2022, Factor Four Magazine published “Don’t Count Your Sprite Shards Before They’re Caged,” a flash fiction piece involving an airship, a captain, and her crew pursuing a dangerous energy source. While some […]

“The Experiment” in Unfixed Timelines 3

| February 1, 2024

“The Experiment” is a very brief flash fiction piece in which a young girl conducts a magical experiment during the Dust Bowl era, much to her mother’s chagrin. I can’t say much more than that without giving too much  of the story away. If you’re not familiar with the Dust Bowl era, you can check […]

“Kleptoparasitism” in Dead-Starred Futures

| January 30, 2024

While “Kleptoparasitism” isn’t the darkest of stories in Dead-Starred Futures, it is set in a potential dystopian future in which insects are a widespread protein source. It’s a microfiction story about how a visit to a location where insects are processed might go awry. If you like the idea of this story, check out Dead-Starred Futures […]