History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Dakota Travis: Saurallero Extraordinaire in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| April 19, 2022

“Dakota Travis: Saurallero Extraordinaire” started with a title prompt, which was originally “Call Me a Sissy, But I’m Going to Ride this Dinosaur Side-Saddle.” The original title was perfectly evocative, inspiring me to write the obituary for a man who had died (of old age, mind you), but was known for this delightful utterance (which […]

March 2022 Publications

| April 7, 2022

I’ve had a bunch of publications in March, and all of them are smaller pieces! “The Fall of Ocrone” was published in Martian last year, but recently, the Superfast Stories YouTube Channel produced an audio and video version of my story! It’s a quick sci-fi listen/watch (it’s only 100 words), and I love how it […]

“Senchado in Microgravity” in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| March 29, 2022

“Senchado in Microgravity” began as a flash fiction piece based on a prompt of a very specific tea set. The image was super evocative, and MANY of the people who saw that prompt wrote stories about the “fishy tea set.” (The set had a goldfish theme, including as small sculpted goldfish at the bottoms of […]

Review of Wistful Ascending by JCM Berne

| March 23, 2022

Wistful Ascending, the first book in the Hybrid Helix series by JCM Berne (The Gnost House, 2020), is an action-packed sci-fi/superhero novel with a fantastic cast of characters and plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing! Rohan is a Hybrid, the offspring of a human and an alien race called the il’Drach. That alien […]

February 2022 Publications!

| March 10, 2022

I had three new pieces out in February, all different sorts and lengths! “Promises Made” was accepted for the Glittery Literary Anthology Four and appeared early in the month. It’s an urban fantasy microfiction story about curses and promises related to the fae. The second one was one of the longest titled stories I’ve had […]

“At What Cost?” in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| February 22, 2022

My story “At What Cost?” has a long history. The idea stemmed from an unusual place I used to work, which was an archival facility in what was once a mine. We referred to it as “The Cave,” because driving in, you went through what looked like the very large mouth of a cave. It […]

Sci-Fi Reads

| January 27, 2022

If you’re a sci-fi fan, I’ve got one sci-fi collection that might appeal to you! New Moons Under Which to Sleep contains mainly previously published sci-fi short stories, flash fiction pieces, and a couple of poems, plus a couple of poems that were new to the collection. I’ve had a bunch of other very short […]

Fun for Friday: Sci-Fi and Post-Apocalyptic Images

| January 21, 2022

This week’s Fun for Friday is sci-fi and post-apocalyptic images! The first image is an illustration from the mid-twentieth century speculating on what space travel would be like. It depicts three men, two of whom are seated at a table and one of whom is floating horizontally toward the table. They appear to be engaged […]

“Earworm” in New Moons Under Which to Sleep

| January 11, 2022

“Earworm” was a story I wrote for a very specific anthology call that involved “space opera” in a more literal sense than the genre typically means. So my main character was the alien beatbox for an operatic vocal group. As I’ve talked about before, the inspiration for the story was related to K-pop videos, even […]

Review of You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

| November 24, 2021

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo (Tor Books, 2021) is a action-packed sci-fi novel of found family, peril, and cooking, blended together in a remarkable and entertaining way. Niko and her restaurant staff are military veterans who managed to break away from their old lives by convincing the military that Niko is a culinary artist. […]