History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Information for Doorways in the Gloom

| March 17, 2022

My next collection, Doorways in the Gloom is now available for pre-order! This collection contains short stories, flash fiction, and poetry with a darker vibe. Some of the stories approach horror, while others are just slightly spooky. Doorways can lead to many marvelous places. In this collection, however, the scenes they reveal are shrouded in gloom […]

Avatar of Freya Out Today!

| March 15, 2022

Today’s the day! Avatar of Freya is now live! If you pre-ordered it (THANK YOU!), you should already have it on your device. If not, you can grab a copy for yourself here! It’s an honor to be chosen as the avatar of a god, raised to the ranks of superheroes in Cobalt City by their […]

Stephen Fry on Meter, Part 1

| March 14, 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 1, Section 1, on spoken English, meter, and iambic pentameter. The beginning of this chapter talks a lot about stressed and unstressed syllables, and how […]

February 2022 Publications!

| March 10, 2022

I had three new pieces out in February, all different sorts and lengths! “Promises Made” was accepted for the Glittery Literary Anthology Four and appeared early in the month. It’s an urban fantasy microfiction story about curses and promises related to the fae. The second one was one of the longest titled stories I’ve had […]

Review of Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging Volume Blue

| March 9, 2022

Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging Volume Blue edited by Atlin Merrick (Improbable Press, 2021) is a great collection of stories featuring an enormous variety of cryptid characters. With cryptids ranging from the familiar to one-of-a-kind, readers will certainly find stories that appeal to them. I found several stories in the anthology that I enjoyed. The lead […]

Reading Beyond the Apocalypse

| March 1, 2022

If you enjoy reading post-apocalyptic stories, you might enjoy a couple of my books! Scenes from a Quiet Apocalypse is a novella with chapters based the major arcana of the tarot deck. Without warning, most of humanity stopped speaking. Acting in silent unison, they overthrew the world in service to an unknown force. Their takeover […]

Norse Mythology in Old Legends and New Fables

| February 24, 2022

There’s a good deal of Norse mythology in Old Legends and New Fables because in a lot of ways, Norse feels the closest to my Germanic roots. I’ve felt an affinity for it for probably 20+ years, and two of my multitude of tattoos are Norse runes. In this collection, the poems “The Three Roosters of Ragnarok, […]

“At What Cost?” in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| February 22, 2022

My story “At What Cost?” has a long history. The idea stemmed from an unusual place I used to work, which was an archival facility in what was once a mine. We referred to it as “The Cave,” because driving in, you went through what looked like the very large mouth of a cave. It […]

Stephen Fry on Poetry

| February 21, 2022

I recently learned that in 2005, comedian and actor Stephen Fry published a book about writing poetry, something he does as a hobby. Though I write my poetry for publication, I thought it might be delightful to learn about writing poetry from someone I adore so much. So I picked up a copy of the […]

“I Believe” in Intercity Illusions

| February 17, 2022

“I Believe” was a story that pretty much poured straight out from start to finish, without much alteration before it was published. It’s a tale of a young girl and her imaginary friends as she grows older, into an adult. It let me write a young character at the beginning who then dealt with what […]