History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

My 2025 Awards Eligibility

| December 30, 2025

I’ve had quite a few stories and poems out this year, so here’s a recap of things I’ve published that are eligible for awards consideration! Short Stories “One Person’s Nightmare,” Rescuing Curiosity (2,500 words, contemporary fantasy) “It Can’t Be Sunday Everywhere at Once,” Rescuing Curiosity (3,200 words, sci-fi) “Last Dam Standing,” Analog July/August 2025 (3,000 words, sci-fi/climate change) […]

“Gosutouotchi” and “Remote Control” in Weathering Youth

| December 18, 2025

Because Weathering Youth is my biggest collection to date, I’m grouping the short stories and flash fiction stories in pairs for my posts, based on the way they fall in the collection. This lets me look at the connections between the stories and how I decided to arrange specific stories in the collection! “Gosutouotchi” and “Remote Control” […]

Temperance in A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| December 11, 2025

The Temperance tarot card represents patience, balance, moderation, and harmony. However, it also has an association with art and blending opposites. In A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, this is represented by a haiku and a poem. The haiku, named after the first line, “art that walks careful,” touches on the dangers of hewing to […]

Review of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

| December 3, 2025

T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead (Tor Nightfire, 2022) is, at its core, a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This novella takes the classic tale and puts a new spin on it, lending something of an explanation to the original while taking it in an amazingly cool direction! Rather […]

“Best of Both Worlds” in Chimerical Remembrance

| November 20, 2025

My story “Best of Both Worlds” in Chimerical Remembrance is one of my favorite stories I’ve written. It manages to blend dark elements of a selkie story with a hopeful ending. If you’re a regular reader of the blog or my stories, you know I enjoy writing stories with things in the water that want […]

Non-American Settings in Unfixed Timelines 3

| October 30, 2025

While most of the stories in Unfixed Timelines 3 are set in the United States, I have a few pieces that are set elsewhere in the world. “Eyes of Fire, Eyes of Smoke” is the story of a mother and daughter set in the Andes of South America and relies heavily on the legends of the […]

Have You Checked Out Chimerical Remembrance?

| October 28, 2025

My collection, Chimerical Remembrance: Tales of Contemporary Fantasy, has been out for just over a month now! Within its pages, you’ll find microfiction, flash fiction, short stories, and poetry, with a mix of moods and themes. There are supernatural creatures, unusual places, and a variety of professions, all in settings that look a lot like the […]

Weathering Youth: “Salt Circle” and “Kick in the Door and Improvise”

| October 23, 2025

Because Weathering Youth is my biggest collection to date, I’m grouping the short stories and flash fiction stories in pairs for my posts, based on the way they fall in the collection. This lets me look at the connections between the stories and how I decided to arrange specific stories in the collection! “Salt Circle” and […]

Death in A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| October 21, 2025

The Death tarot card represents transitions, new beginnings, and change. In A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, this is represented by a haiku and a flash fiction piece. The haiku, “Scorching summer heat” (titled after the first line), is a fantastical twist on changing seasons. The flash fiction piece, “The Arroyo Fiasco,” follows a geyser […]

Recent Superhero Fiction

| October 16, 2025

Since my last post about my superhero fiction, I have a couple of new things out. First off, my novella Sure Shot in Cobalt City: Homecoming came out in March. This novella is a stand-alone sequel to Sure Shot in Las Capas: The Case of the Absent Star. The two books can be read independently of each […]