History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Pirates of the Mediterranean Essay at Fantastic History!

| September 24, 2020

Catherine Schaff-Stump is hosting some of my articles about the real history behind my stories from Unfixed Timelines at her Fantastic History blog. The third post, “Pirates of the Mediterranean,” is up now! I wrote my story “Salt in Our Veins” based on a call for submissions that necessitated a Mediterranean setting and fae of […]

Unfixed Timelines 2 Cover Art!

| September 1, 2020

Much like when I published the first Unfixed Timelines, the cover art for Unfixed Timelines 2 is also a mashup of historical images related to the stories within this collection. Astute observers might recognize a couple of the Romanov Princesses, though most of the other images are fairly obscure (and obscured). While Unfixed Timelines 2 will be, like […]

Review of The Sparrow in Hiding by J. Kathleen Cheney

| April 8, 2020

The Sparrow in Hiding by J. Kathleen Cheney (2016) is a historical fantasy novella that blends Russian history and fairy tale into a gorgeous story about secrets, love, and recovery. The story is told from the perspective of two characters, Irina and Evgeny. Irina is a wealth young widow staying at her family’s summer estate, […]

Guest Post: History, Alternate History, and Ahistoricity

| September 30, 2019

Today, I’m hosting a guest post from author Laurence Raphael Brothers, who has a few things to say about writing historical fiction, alternate history, and ahistoricity, in relation to his recently released book, Twilight Patrol! ~ When you set out to write a historical novel, of course you don’t want to get anything wrong. Well. Not […]

Zombies in Unfixed Timelines

| September 17, 2019

All of the stories in Unfixed Timelines have some sort of fantasy or science-fiction element to go along with the history. In “The Glorious Dead,” it’s zombies at Vicksburg. “The Glorious Dead” is one of the earliest stories I wrote, and I had a pretty solid idea for it from the beginning. Many years ago, […]

Nineteenth Century Pageantry in Unfixed Timelines

| July 30, 2019

In nineteenth-century America, pageantry became “a thing.” Many of the pageants had backgrounds in nativism and nationalism, and others delved into racist and classist origins as well. But in spite of (or perhaps because of) heir origins, they can be a fascinating look at American culture in that time period. They’re also FULL of all […]

The “What-Ifs?” of Alternate History and Historical Fantasy

| May 14, 2019

While I don’t often write the traditional sort of alternate history that posits a major change in the timestream (like a different outcome in a war or election), even within the alternate history and historical fantasy that I do write, there are often “what if” moments. The big difference is that my “what ifs” tend […]

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 […]