History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

“The Dame with the Boots” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| December 26, 2023

I can always remember where I got my weirdest ideas, and it’s almost always that someone misread, misheard, or misinterpreted something. “The Dame with the Boots” was definitely one of these cases. I think it was something about a pool shark, and for whatever reason, I pictured an actual shark playing pool, and somehow, that […]

My Recent(-ish) Sci-Fi Stories and Collections!

| December 19, 2023

It’s been quite a while since I did a sci-fi roundup of things I’ve published. So here goes! My poem, “Portrait Day at Zapus Zone 9 Academy,” which imagines a school attended by multiple alien species, appeared in Star*Line in October 2022. My flash fiction piece, “Senchado in Microgravity,” was podcast at Manawaker Studios Flash […]

My November 2023 Publications!

| December 7, 2023

I had four new pieces out in November of this year! My flash fiction piece, “The Train Station That Knows What You Need,” came out in Cafe Irreal. This story is super special to me because while we were in Japan back in May, we came VERY near to the train station in question. Sadly, […]

“Intertwined” in Wreathed in Steam

| October 26, 2023

“Intertwined” was my attempt to write a short story that mashed up the Regency period and steampunk. In this story, the main character is a young woman inventor who tires of high society. When she meets a young man with a similar opinion, she is delighted. But things turn quickly … and I’ll leave my […]

“I Need a Hero” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| October 24, 2023

My microfiction story, “I Need a Hero,” is a look at a forgotten god who finds herself in need of a champion for the modern age, and finds a way to locate that champion and retain them. Because it’s so short, there’s not much else I can say about it, other than to note that […]

“Leaders and Followers” in Wreathed in Steam

| August 31, 2023

“Leaders and Followers” is a story I wrote in an attempt to conceal information about the first-person narrator. I can’t say too much more about that goal without giving away the twist in the story, but it’s a fairly short, cozy, fantasy story, and I was pleased at how it turned out. “Leaders and Followers” […]

“Undecided” from Droplets from the Universe

| August 29, 2023

The story “Undecided” was my attempt to write a sci-fi story that used a so-called “soft” science, cultural anthropology, to solve a problem. The story has a lot of other sci-fi tropes–aliens and hard science among them–but the actual crux point is somewhat unexpected. I also adore the characters I wrote for this story–two extremely […]

“Five Days After” in The Sidewalk Diverges

| August 22, 2023

My story “Five Days After” is one of the many stories that I first had the idea for while riding the bus in Seattle. Bus commuting is normally fairly quiet and boring. Many of the people on the bus are just trying to get to and from their day jobs. But sometimes you overhear interesting […]

Review of “A Still Life” by Elliot Wink

| February 15, 2023

Today is a different kind of review than I normally post here! I was invited to take a sneak peek at Elliot Wink’s short story, “A Still Life,” which will appear in Apex Book Company’s Robotic Ambitions anthology, the Kickstarter for which launches on February 21st. Robotic Ambitions will feature stories looking at mechanical sentience, and […]

January 2023 Publications

| February 9, 2023

I had two new pieces out in January 2023, a poem and a short story. The poem was “Embrace,” published in Star*Line. This is a short poem in what seems to be a very unofficial form, in which the first words for eight of the lines are pulled from the eight-word middle line. The poem name […]