History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

New Spooky Pieces

| June 13, 2024

If you like to read spookier pieces, here’s some of my recent horror and dark publications! Unfixed Timelines 3 includes several historical fiction pieces with darker themes, including “Charcoals from an Unidentified Chicago Artist” and “Green-Eyed Phantom.” Though neither of these are horror, they definitely delve into the darker side of history and fiction. My […]

Poetry in Doorways in the Gloom

| November 28, 2023

There’s a part of me that never really left her goth phase, and sometimes, that comes out in my poetry. I included twelve of my dark poems in Doorways in the Gloom. They range from somewhat tongue-in-cheek on ghosts and death (like “15 Ghosts” or “Definitely Not Haunted”) to dark fantasy (“The Briar Princess”) to something […]

A Few Recent Horror Publications

| March 16, 2023

If you’re looking for something spooky to read, here’s a few of my recent horror and dark publications. “The Divergence in the Woods” is a creepy flash fiction tale of two young women looking for their missing father in the woods. You can find it in Trees. “Chrysopoeia” is a microfiction story of exposing a […]

New Pieces out in November 2022

| December 8, 2022

This past month saw publication of a short story, a couple of pieces of flash fiction, and a poem! “Chrysopoeia,” a flash fiction piece about a charlatan and the person who reveals him for what he really is, appeared in The Dire Dark, which is an anthology of dark fantasy pieces. My short story “Easy […]

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 […]

“Have You Seen Him?” in Unfixed Timelines 2

| January 21, 2021

I’ve had an interest in the King in Yellow of the Lovecraftian Mythos for years, and versions of the King in Yellow have shown up in three of my stories, including “Have You Seen Him?” in Unfixed Timelines 2. In this case, it’s the Yellow Spirit, a demonic entity with whom the protagonist’s father made […]

“A Dark Place” in Denizens of Distant Realms

| September 24, 2019

“A Dark Place” was the first story I sold at semi-pro rates, back in 2014. At that time, it was the most money I’d ever been paid for one of my stories. It originally appeared in a magazine called Fictionvale (which has since closed up shop), and it later reappeared in Disturbed Digest in 2016. This story […]

Volatile Figments: A Different Shade of Darkness

| March 19, 2019

One of the stories in Volatile Figments that I had a lot of fun writing was “Miasma.” It drew upon my time at universities, my theatre involvement, and The King in Yellow. For those unfamiliar with the last of those things, Robert W. Chambers wrote a collection of short stories called The King in Yellow, four of […]

Review of Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters

| December 13, 2017

My latest review for Mad Scientist Journal is now up. Today, I’m reviewing a short story collection, Cry Your Way Home, by Damien Angelica Walters. Though I’ve read some of Walters’ stories before in anthologies, the stories in this collection were all new to me. They’re creepy and beautiful at the same time. Cry Your Way […]

Review of Of Rooks & Ravens

| November 1, 2017

In September, I posted an interview with Nathan Crowder about his new book, Of Rooks & Ravens. Now, I’ve just written a review of the same book for Mad Scientist Journal. You can check out my review here, and you can find his book on Amazon!