dawn.vogel | November 22, 2021
Today, I’ve invited Arturo Serrano to talk a little bit about how he chose the historical figures he included in his upcoming book, To Climates Unknown. (Available this Thursday!) One of my first steps when I was preparing the overarching storyline of To Climates Unknown was to do a sweeping search for historical events coinciding with the Mayflower. […]
dawn.vogel | November 9, 2021
I write a lot of historical fiction, but almost all of it can be found in two collections: Unfixed Timelines and Unfixed Timelines 2. Both of these collections include both my stories and brief essays on the history that inspired them. Of course, I’ve got more historical fiction than is in these two slim volumes, so at some […]
dawn.vogel | July 26, 2021
I was talking to a newer author of historical fiction recently, and one of the questions they had for me was how much historical research do you need to do before writing historical fiction? My terribly unhelpful answer is, of course, it varies. If I’m writing a short story that’s tied to historical events in […]
dawn.vogel | July 14, 2021
The Silence of Bones by June Hur (Feiwel & Friends, 2020) is a historical young adult mystery set in early nineteenth century Korea, full of rich detail and wonderful characters. The mystery is also phenomenal, and it will keep you guessing all the way to the reveal! Damo Seol is an indentured servant, bound to […]
dawn.vogel | December 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 fifth post, and the last one of my guest posts for 2020, “A Series of Small Walls,” is up now! There’s an old Eddie Izzard bit about how archaeologists are always […]
dawn.vogel | November 25, 2020
Among the Red Stars by Gwen C. Katz (Harper Teen, 2017) is a historical fiction novel featuring the Night Witches, the Russian women pilots who flew daring nighttime missions. While the details of the plot are slightly fictionalized, the novel adheres closely to the reality of the history of the Night Witches. The story revolves […]
dawn.vogel | November 17, 2020
The Night Witches were a fascinating and talented group of Russian female pilots during World War II who flew tiny, fragile, slow planes. They made a major impact on the Russian war effort, and they suffered only a small number of casualties in spite of the odds. I’m a sucker for any stories of historical […]
dawn.vogel | September 17, 2020
The very first time I was asked to write in the Cobalt City Universe, I looked for a corner that I could carve out as my own. I started out writing the first female incarnation of the Huntsman, one of Cobalt City’s legacy super heroes. After dabbling with some other characters, I returned to the […]
dawn.vogel | April 29, 2020
The Witches of St. Petersburg by Imogen Edwards-Jones (Harper Paperbacks, 2019) is a beautifully crafted novel of historical fiction, holding closely to actual historical events while concocting a more fantastical explanation behind some of them. Set during the reign of Russian Tsar Nicholas, the story revolves around two Montenegrin princesses, Militza and Stana, who have […]
dawn.vogel | April 20, 2020
If you’re writing alternate history, historical fiction, or even fantastical history, check out Historic Cities as a great source of historical maps. The primary page makes it look a little Eurocentric, but if you click through to the list of city names, you’ll see maps for non-European countries as well!
