History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Patreon in 2025

| January 9, 2025

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’ve got a book coming out this year in March, and backers at $3 a month or higher […]

Do You Know a Kid Who Loves Spiders?

| December 31, 2024

We met up with a former co-worker of Jeremy and her young daughter at one point, and somehow got on the topic of my writing. Because I’m really good at talking to kids, I wound up addressing most of my comments to the daughter, whose eyes got bigger and bigger as I told her about […]

My Latest Urban Fantasy Pieces

| December 19, 2024

I have a handful of new urban or contemporary fantasy pieces out since my last post about that genre! My poem, “Bad Luck for the Fates,” which appeared in Asimov’s in April 2024, has a somewhat mythological basis in the Fates, but the setting is decidedly contemporary. There are a couple of contemporary fantasy pieces hiding […]

My 2024 Publications for Awards Consideration

| December 4, 2024

It’s the time of year when folks start posting lists of their stories and books from the past year that are eligible for award nominations, like the Nebulas, Hugos, and more. I’m including word count, because different awards require different word counts, and it’s easy for me to grab those so you don’t have to […]

My November 2024 Publications

| December 3, 2024

I had two new pieces out in November this year: a flash fiction story and a poem. My flash fiction piece was “We Dream in Color,” a post-apocalyptic story with queer characters, in Toad Shade Zine. This one came out of a one-hour flash fiction writing challenge and was inspired by an image of a […]

October 2024 Publication!

| November 5, 2024

I had one new story out in October this year–“Child’s Play” appeared in Bullet Points volume 7. This is a story involving a woman who’s on the run and the kids who inadvertently get caught up between her and her pursuers. It combines the military sci-fi theme of Bullet Points with a somewhat sweet story of […]

My Historical Fiction from Last Year

| September 19, 2024

I haven’t posted a summary of my historical fiction for a while, in part because there hasn’t been much to post. But last October, I released Unfixed Timelines 3 and Unfixed Timelines Omnibus. The former includes seven stories and one poem, several of which were previously published, along with essays about the history I altered […]

Following Barren from Beginning to Novella

| August 1, 2024

My novella Barren started life as a short story. The story version, which I started brainstorming in 2013, had a different sort of apocalypse in which only plants had stopped growing. My main character, Lemy, was a much younger woman in the story, having been born after the point when the sea levels rose, creating the […]

Coming Later in 2024: Two Stories in Rescuing Curiosity!

| June 19, 2024

During the 2024 WriteHive online conference, they announced the table of contents for the upcoming Rescuing Curiosity anthology, and I’m pleased to say that TWO of my stories made the list! “It Can’t Be Sunday Everywhere at Once” is a sci-fi story involving refugees on a long-term space voyage and how one young woman came up […]

My May 2024 Publications!

| June 6, 2024

I announced this last week as well, but my one May publication was my story, “The Storyteller,” in Bikes, The Universe, and Everything from Microcosm Publishing. This is the eleventh volume of the Bikes in Space series, but the first one I’ve placed a story in. My story involves a post-apocalyptic culture that relies on bicycles […]