History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Review of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein

| May 6, 2026

Izzy Wasserstein’s These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (Tachyon Publications, 2024) presents a mystery that brings a former commune member who left on bad terms back into contact with her former community. Set in a near-future dystopia where corporations and climate change have caused most of humanity to suffer, it also looks at themes of family […]

Review of Dream the Deep by Clara Ward

| April 22, 2026

I thoroughly loved Clara Ward’s Be the Sea, so I was excited to read their novella, Dream the Deep (Atthis Arts, 2026). Set on a near-future Earth that the wealthy and privileged have fled, it takes place over a few days and features a number of people who are being left behind. Ren is a non-binary […]

March 2026 Publications

| April 9, 2026

I had four new pieces out in March this year, which definitely deserves its own post! My story “Give Me Back My Moon,” which was inspired in part by a song from my favorite female K-pop idol, was published in the spring issue of The Colored Lens. It’s a short fantasy story in which a […]

Interview with Kit Anderson

| April 6, 2026

Today, I’m chatting with Kit Anderson, author of the Nebula Award finalist graphic novel Second Shift! DV: Tell us a little about yourself and your writing. KA: I’m a cartoonist from Colorado who lives with her partner and elderly dog in a small town outside of Zürich. I keep my writing mostly to comics, but […]

Review of Luminescent Machinations

| October 22, 2025

Luminescent Machinations: Queer Tales of Monumental Invention, edited by Rhiannon Rasmussen and dave ring (Neon Hemlock, 2023), is a fantastic anthology of speculative fiction stories (mainly sci-fi, but not entirely) featuring queer characters and filled with mecha and other technologies that are deeply integral to the stories. As usual with anthologies, I have a handful […]

Fun for Friday: Weird (and Spooky) October Science

| October 3, 2025

Time for more weird science to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! With this month being October, I thought it might be fun to focus more on spooky science, and the internet provided! The U.S. Department of Energy has a list celebrating spooky science from last October, which gives some brief summaries of […]

Review of The Oblivion Bride by Caitlin Starling

| September 10, 2025

Caitlin Starling’s The Oblivion Bride (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a gorgeous science-fantasy novella with some Gothic and surreal elements worked into an incredible world. Lorelei is one of a very small number of members of her family who hasn’t been killed by the family curse, which no one has been able to figure out. In order […]

Fun for Friday: Weird September Science!

| September 5, 2025

Time for more weird science to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! For this month, I’m starting out with September Thinkers and Tinkerers from Getting Nerdy! This article has September birthdays and inventions from the world of science. Next up is Scientific American’s Science History from 50, 100, and 150 years ago, […]

Joyful Science Fiction

| August 26, 2025

I’ve published several collections of science fiction stories and poetry, ranging in topics and moods. Droplets from the Universe is where I collected the most joyful, humorous, and often hopeful stories of possible futures. This collection has a heavy concentration of poetry, and those poems include spacefaring people reminiscing about life on Earth, as well as […]

Fun for Friday: Weird August Science!

| August 8, 2025

Welcome to my new monthly Fun for Friday theme, weird science! (Not to be confused with the movie of the same name.) Toward the beginning of each month, I’ll share some links to articles about unusual discoveries, inventions, and other science facts. If you’re a sci-fi writer, perhaps one of these items will give you […]