History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Let’s Talk Historical Fantasy!

| March 28, 2019

On Saturday, March 30th (that’s this Saturday!), I’m taking part in a Facebook event for authors of historical fantasy. Along with three other historical fantasy authors, I’ll be talking about my writing in that genre. My slot is from 1:30-2:00 Pacific time, and the whole event runs from 1:00-3:00 Pacific time! You can find out […]

Guest Post: Catherine Schaff-Stump on Acceptable Anachronism

| February 4, 2019

Acceptable Anachronism By Catherine Schaff-Stump Sometimes when you look at visions of the future, you cannot help but see the past. The two examples that come immediately to my mind, child of the 1970s that I am, are The Jetsons and EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth. The future comes in flavors of mod miniskirts, polyester jumpsuits, and […]

Alternate History in Unfixed Timelines

| January 29, 2019

I’ve been racking up another bunch of finished historical fantasy stories, which means that sooner or later, I’ll be putting together another Unfixed Timelines collection (probably titled Unfixed Timelines 2). The exact contents will depend on sales of stories and reversions of rights, so I don’t know yet what sort of essays I’ll be writing for those […]

Review of Murder on the Titania by Alex Acks

| January 2, 2019

My newest book review is up at Mad Scientist Journal today, wherein I review the delightful Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks. This book was right up my alley, involving airships, piracy, and wonderful characters. Toss in some alternate history as well, and I was quite pleased with this collection of novellas and one short story! If this sounds […]

Winter Reads: Unfixed Timelines

| December 18, 2018

If you’re a fan of history and alternate histories, check out Unfixed Timelines! Within, you’ll find a mix of short alternate history stories and essays about the real history that the stories are based on. There are zombies and aliens and witchcraft and more, but there are also notes on a regiment during the Civil War, […]

Historical Fact and Historical Fiction

| November 5, 2018

Today, I’ll be returning home from an annual gaming convention. By some luck of the draw and my interests, I wound up playing in three quasi-historical games this year. Two of the three were alternate history games, one with a fairly close correlation to the Wild West, but with a heavy splash of horror, and […]

Unfixed Timelines Stories and Essays

| August 30, 2018

There’s a part of me that still misses academia. When you spend a large chunk of your adult life in an environment, it’s bound to leave some lasting marks on you. I didn’t love teaching, and I wouldn’t have loved the rat race that is tenure, but I liked research and writing and being adjacent […]

“Parcel Post” in Frostfire Worlds

| August 14, 2018

The August 2018 issue of Frostfire Worlds includes my story, “Parcel Post.” Frostfire Worlds is a magazine of stories for kids, and in my case, my story is also about kids. The idea for “Parcel Post” started with the fun fact that in the early twentieth century (roughly around 1913), you could mail small children. Sort […]

Unfixed Timelines

| June 12, 2018

I’ve been doing more historical research at work recently, which typically means that I’ll likely come up with an idea for another alternate history story in the near future. I’ve written a total of 10 alternate history stories, roughly 18% of the stories I’ve written (and that doesn’t include my three Cobalt City stories that […]

Review of Long Hidden

| April 18, 2018

It’s been on my to-read list for quite some time, but I finally have read and reviewed Long Hidden, edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older. It’s an anthology of 27 alternate history speculative fiction stories featuring marginalized characters. If you’re curious to see what I thought of it, check out my review at Mad Scientist Journal!