History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Coming in May: A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages

| April 16, 2024

I’ve got a new collection, A Tarot of Sorcery and Sages, coming out in May of this year! It collects fantasy  stories and poems along a theme of the major arcana of the tarot. The tarot provides wisdom to seekers of esoteric knowledge. In this collection of fantasy stories and poetry, the cards of the major […]

Write Hive 2024 Panelist!

| April 15, 2024

This month in June, I’m going to be speaking on panels at the WriteHive Conference, which is a free, online conference for writers! The panels I’m speaking on are about short stories and history in fiction, and I’ll be moderating a panel on developmental editing. I’m very much looking forward to discussing these things with […]

Review of The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie

| February 28, 2024

The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Henry Herz (Blackstone Publishing, 2023), is a speculative fiction anthology that blends historical fact about Marie Curie’s life as a young woman and fantastical, science fiction, and horror elements to present new and intriguing experiments a young Marie might have undertaken. Most […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Bikes in Space 11!

| February 14, 2024

The Kickstarter for volume 11 of Bikes in Space has launched. I’m a fan of this series from Microcosm Publishing, and I’m pleased to announce that my story, “The Storyteller,” will appear in Bikes, the Universe, and Everything! The theme for this volume is bikes and books, so I wrote a post-apocalyptic story in which bikes […]

My 2024 Goals!

| January 9, 2024

Time to look at my 2024 goals! I’m primarily focusing on shorter fiction in 2024, as I did in 2023, though I am already brainstorming a couple of of novellas that I might want to write as well. We’ll see if those pan out, though! If I do stick with my focus on shorter fiction, […]

My 2023 Awards Eligibility Post

| January 3, 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 for my short stories and novelette this year, because different awards require different word counts, and it’s easy for me […]

Review of Resurrections by Ada Hoffmann

| December 20, 2023

Resurrections by Ada Hoffmann (Apex Book Company, 2023) is a wonderful collection of speculative fiction stories and poetry, ranging through a variety of themes and lengths. Many of the pieces feature neurodiverse and/or queer characters, either explicitly or implicitly. The collection as a whole is brilliantly assembled, with many of the stories arranged in such […]

Review of Skin Thief by Suzan Palumbo

| November 29, 2023

Skin Thief by Suzan Palumbo (Neon Hemlock, 2023) is a collection of dark and atmospheric stories, the majority of which have been previously published in major speculative fiction magazines. The stories contain a variety of themes including family (particularly sisters, but also mothers and daughters) and Trinidadian culture. Stories I really loved in this collection […]

My Latest Fantasy Publications

| November 16, 2023

If you’re looking for a fantasy story or poem to read, here are a few of my recent fantasy publications! Back in March, Wyngraf published my flash fiction story, “The Truth of Their Tunes.” This was a piece inspired by a piece of music, specifically Radiohead’s song “Creep.” Though the lyrics don’t come up in […]

Review of Tea Leaves by Jacob Budenz

| September 27, 2023

Tea Leaves by Jacob Budenz (Amble Press, 2023) is a collection of short stories with mostly queer protagonists and filled with a delightful surrealness across the various worlds and characters of the stories. I first became familiar with Jacob’s writing when he submitted the story “Seen” for DefCon One’s I Didn’t Break the Lamp anthology, which […]