History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

My Books for Children!

| October 28, 2021

I write quite a bit of stuff for younger readers, but much of that is short stories that are scattered here, there, and everywhere, including throughout my collections. But I also have two books that are explicitly for younger readers. The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby is a middle grade book featuring girl detectives Chrysanthemum […]

Coming This Fall: Chrysanthemum and Marigold Marsh, Girl Detectives

| July 1, 2021

If you enjoyed my middle grade detective mystery, The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby, you’re going to enjoy the book I’m putting out this fall: Chrysanthemum and Marigold Marsh, Girl Detectives. This book will collect three Marsh sisters stories: “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue” (their first appearance, and the first story I ever published) […]

Review of Planet Fleep by Sherry D. Ramsey

| February 17, 2021

Sherry D. Ramsey’s Planet Fleep (2018) is written for kids between the ages of 9 and 12, but it’s an enjoyable book for older readers as well! With action, adventure, and science, it’s a brief but fun book about family and exploring a potentially dangerous planet with only wits and a teacher robot to protect the […]

Thinking about Book Gifts for Kids?

| November 19, 2020

If you’ve got kids on your holiday gift list this year, I’ve got a couple of recommendations from my writing! Spiders of the Shifting Swamp is a children’s book, complete with illustrations and large print. It’s a story that can be read to younger kids, but that younger readers can probably manage on their own, […]

Review of Tamora Carter: Goblin Queen by Jim C. Hines

| September 2, 2020

Tamora Carter: Goblin Queen by Jim C. Hines is an exciting middle-grade urban fantasy book with plenty of mythical creatures and adventure for the young protagonist and her friends! Tamora Carter’s best friend Andre is missing, and she’s hopeful that he’ll be found. Until he is, she’s still got roller derby(*) practice and taking care […]

Comic Review: The New Brighton Archeological Society, Book 1

| July 1, 2020

We picked up The New Brighton Archeological Society, book 1 because a) it had an airship on the cover, b) cute kids having adventures, and c) archaeology (which I insist upon spelling with the extra “a”, even if the book does not). It primarily came through on points a and b, with not much archaeology to […]

Mechanical Cats and Mystery!

| March 5, 2020

Chrysanthemum and Marigold Marsh, girl detectives, investigate a break-in at their family’s mechanical garden, and discover the culprit is a mechanical cat. After learning that the mechanical cat has only a limited power supply, they must find the cat to return it to its owner. But Dover is a big place, and there are Built […]

Gifts for Kids: The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby

| December 12, 2019

The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby is one of my books that I market as middle grade, but what does that actually mean? In general, they are books that are meant for 8-12 year old readers, but they also feature different themes than a young adult, or YA, book would. A middle grade book generally […]

The Marsh Sisters and Their Adventures

| October 3, 2019

The Marsh sisters, Chrysanthemum and Marigold, were the first characters I wrote when I started getting serious about my writing. Since then, they’ve dealt with a thief in the mechanical garden in “The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue,” a clockwork monkey acting up in “The Marvelous Matter of the Mischievous Monkey,” and a missing […]

“Princess Last Picked” out now!

| April 18, 2019

Swords, Sorcery, & Self-Rescuing Damsels is out this week, including my story, “Princess Last Picked.” As I mentioned before, it’s a sweet middle grade story about a princess and her friends saving the day. It’s set in a quasi-Celtic fantasy world, and involves cleverness winning out over strength and magic. I had a lot of […]