History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Kinuyo-yo” in Intercity Illusions

| November 1, 2022

My story “Kinuyo-yo” started with a couple of images, which involved a brightly colored boat, a sense of motion, and not much evidence of a means of propulsion. It turned into a story about an unusual young girl living in a flooded city and figuring out ways to make one of her weird hobbies into […]

Recent Spooky Stories

| October 27, 2022

If you’re looking for some spooky reads of short stories, here are a few of my recently released dark and horror stories! “Memento Mori” appears in Queer Weird West Tales. This story involves Calamity Jane and the detritus of Wild Bill Hickok’s life, along with some surreal and spooky events related to the two. “Dangers […]

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 […]

Spooky Stories and Novella

| October 25, 2022

If you’re looking for some spooky Halloween reads, I’ve got a few options available! Volatile Figments is a collection of six dark contemporary fantasy short stories in which the protagonists deal with the supernatural. They generally tend toward dark contemporary fantasy rather than horror, so they’re spooky without being terrifying. Doorways in the Gloom is […]

Stephen Fry on Rhyme, Part 3

| October 24, 2022

As I mentioned previously, I’m working through Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled very slowly to absorb as much wisdom as I can about writing poetry. This week’s post covers Chapter 2, Section 3, on rhyme. This section of the chapter talked a lot about bad rhymes, which might be better called “forced” rhymes. The words technically […]

“Superstitions” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| October 20, 2022

“Superstitions” started as a Drawlloween piece that turned into a story about a woman following in her father’s footsteps as a ship’s captain, but struggling in a sexist line of work. Her solution to the problem isn’t necessarily the one she planned, but it works out in the end. Conceits of Whim and Fancy contains […]

“The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue” in C. & M. Marsh, Girl Detectives

| October 18, 2022

“The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue” was the first story I had published, so it’s got a very warm place in my heart. It’s the first story of Chrysanthemum and Marigold Marsh and the mechanical garden they live in. The mechanical garden was inspired by a friend’s child mishearing “botanical garden” as “mechanical garden,” […]

Post-Apocalyptic Reads

| October 13, 2022

I have two post-apocalyptic novellas: Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse and Barren. The former is a much more recent apocalypse, one that hits just before the book begins. The latter is an apocalypse that hit within the main character’s lifetime, but she’s lived in a post-apocalyptic world for longer than she spent in the pre-apocalyptic world. If […]

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 […]

“Memorandum from the Panel for the Identification of Consequentially Chosen Youth” in Intercity Illusions

| October 11, 2022

“Memorandum from the Panel for the Identification of Consequentially Chosen Youth” is not the longest title I’ve written, but it’s among them. But this flash fiction piece needed a slightly ridiculous title to go with the tongue-in-cheek “PICCY” organization detailing what should and should not be done when you’re looking for a Chosen One. The […]