History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“Just Add Holy Water” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| April 25, 2024

“Just Add Holy Water” is a fantasy short story featuring a young protagonist working alongside a reanimated skeleton to solve a problem. It’s a mix of fun and peril for the characters, but it all works out in the end–just perhaps not how you might expect. This story originally appeared in Death’s Sting: Where Art Thou? […]

Coming in May: A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| April 16, 2024

I’ve got a new collection, A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, coming out in May of this year! It collects fantasy  stories and poems along a theme of the major arcana of the tarot. The tarot provides wisdom to seekers of esoteric knowledge. In this collection of fantasy stories and poetry, the cards of the major […]

Review of Finding Echoes by Foz Meadows

| April 3, 2024

Foz Meadows’ novella Finding Echoes (Neon Hemlock, 2024) is a secondary-world fantasy story packed with great characters (queer and otherwise) and worldbuilding, plus a whole load of feelings. Snow has the ability to speak with the dead, getting information from them and sometimes helping them move on. When his ex-lover Gem shows up in need of […]

Plans for My Patreon in 2024!

| March 12, 2024

Have you checked out my Patreon? It’s a way for my fans to support my writing and learn about what I’m working on! I share updates about my works in progress, including snippets of stories for my patrons! I’d love to reach my goal of making a monthly video of me reading one of my […]

Review of The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie

| February 28, 2024

The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Henry Herz (Blackstone Publishing, 2023), is a speculative fiction anthology that blends historical fact about Marie Curie’s life as a young woman and fantastical, science fiction, and horror elements to present new and intriguing experiments a young Marie might have undertaken. Most […]

“The Waypost Tree” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| February 22, 2024

“The Waypost Tree” is a very brief flash fiction piece about a wizard and familiar after the wizard learns something new about her familiar. Told from the familiar’s point of view, it’s a significant moment conveyed in very few words. “The Waypost Tree” can only be read in Conceits of Whim and Fancy!

Have You Considered Backing My Patreon?

| February 8, 2024

Have you considered backing my Patreon? It’s a way for my fans to support my writing and learn about what I’m working on! I share updates about my works in progress, including snippets of stories for my patrons! I’m also very open to ideas of what people would like to see there, especially now that […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Aether Beyond the Binary

| January 17, 2024

If you’re looking for an awesome anthology to back, check out Aether Beyond the Binary from Duck Prints Press! It’s got aetherpunk (magic-powered technology) stories with characters outside the gender binary. In addition to the anthology, there are a bunch of great add-on items, from stickers to wands, along with more things to read! This Kickstarter […]

“Nectar Shortage” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| December 21, 2023

Sometimes, a story starts with a writing prompt in a workshop, and then you wind up frantically typing the rest of the story in your hotel room after the workshop instead of whatever you had planned next. That’s how “Nectar Shortage” came about. It required a good deal of editing and reworking, but the bones […]

My November 2023 Publications!

| December 7, 2023

I had four new pieces out in November of this year! My flash fiction piece, “The Train Station That Knows What You Need,” came out in Cafe Irreal. This story is super special to me because while we were in Japan back in May, we came VERY near to the train station in question. Sadly, […]