History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Review of Dragon Whisperer by Vanessa Ricci-Thode

| July 5, 2023

Dragon Whisperer by Vanessa Ricci-Thode (2nd edition, 2023) is the first book in the author’s Fireborn series. This first book introduces the reader to a fantastical world of magic, dragons, and the people who communicate with them. Dionelle is immune to fire, which makes her uniquely suited to communicate with dragons. Though her new husband, […]

Review of Parallel Worlds by Addison Smith

| June 28, 2023

Addison Smith’s Parallel Worlds: Science Fiction and Fantasy (2023) is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, flash fiction, and drabbles. Though some common themes emerge amongst the stories, there’s also a great amount of variety, ensuring that most readers will find stories they thoroughly enjoy within this collection. Of the stories included […]

“Muss” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| June 22, 2023

My story “Muss” is the story of a girl and her familiar, but it’s also a story about growing up and responsibility, like a number of my stories with younger protagonists are. It’s both sweet and bittersweet, and it presents the protagonist with multiple overt challenges, along with one less obvious challenge. And it’s the […]

Review of Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon

| June 14, 2023

Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon (Apex Book Company, 2023) is a collection of short stories, the majority of which have been previously published. A handful of the stories are co-written with other authors, but all of them display Bacon’s distinctive storytelling voice. Favorites in this collection for me were “When the Water Stops,” a […]

Review of Flower and Thorn by Rati Mehrotra

| June 7, 2023

Flower and Thorn by Rati Mehrotra (MacMillan, 2023) is an absolutely gorgeous young adult fantasy novel set in an alternate sixteenth century India at the beginning of European colonization. With wonderful characters and sensory details, this book is sure to keep you reading long after you should have gone to bed! Irinya is the only […]

Review of The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

| May 3, 2023

Years ago, when I was a kid, my grandma took me to see The Black Cauldron in the theater. This stands out to me mainly because we were the ONLY people in the theater for a weekday matinee. But I recalled enjoying the movie, which I’ve probably seen once or twice since them. Meanwhile, my husband […]

“Unconventional Soulmates” in Conceits of Whim and Fancy

| April 20, 2023

My story “Unconventional Soulmates” came directly from the idea of “what if someone used magic to locate their soulmate, but the soulmate the magic found wasn’t at all who they were expecting?” In this story, which flips back and forth from the POV of the seeker and the found, I also explore how soulmates from […]

Review of The Map and the Territory by A.M. Tuomala

| April 12, 2023

The Map and the Territory by A.M. Tuomala (Candlemark & Gleam, 2022) is a gorgeous secondary world fantasy novel, the first in a series, with lush worldbuilding and spectacular characters. When a strange event destroys the city where Rukha, who also calls herself Fern after a custom of people not using their given names in […]

The Stories of Denizens of Distant Realms

| March 28, 2023

Denizens of Distant Realms is a brief collection, with only six short stories. All of these stories have stuck with me over the years, though, and I’ve even recently been writing another story that fits into the same tangentially shared world of these six stories. If these stories were placed in chronological order, I think […]

Recent Fantasy Publications

| February 21, 2023

If you’re looking for a fantasy story or poem to read, here are a few of my recent fantasy publications, along with some of my collections! My flash fiction piece, “Patience,” appeared in Wyldblood Magazine in October of last year. It’s a brief piece about working to get what you want, but not being impatient about […]