History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Magical Menagerie

| August 21, 2018

One of the panels I was on at SpoCon was called “The Magical Menagerie,” which I described as the panel on monsters. I introduced myself as an author who loves vampires and also “things that live underwater that want to kill you.” I shared the panel with Dorian Graves and Sanan Kolva. Our conversation was […]

“Parcel Post” in Frostfire Worlds

| August 14, 2018

The August 2018 issue of Frostfire Worlds includes my story, “Parcel Post.” Frostfire Worlds is a magazine of stories for kids, and in my case, my story is also about kids. The idea for “Parcel Post” started with the fun fact that in the early twentieth century (roughly around 1913), you could mail small children. Sort […]

Review of Once Upon a Fact

| August 8, 2018

I’ve got another book review up this week at Mad Scientist Journal, for an anthology of futuristic fairy tales called Once Upon a Fact. If this sounds like the sort of thing you might enjoy, you can check out my review here!

“The Glorious Dead” in Bards and Sages Quarterly!

| July 10, 2018

The latest Bards and Sages Quarterly is now out, and it includes my story “The Glorious Dead,” the story of cousins and zombies in the American Civil War. Bards and Sages published one of my longer stories as a stand-alone last year, and it will be appearing in a collection from them later this year. I’ll […]

Review of Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers

| June 27, 2018

My latest review is up at Mad Scientist Journal, this time for Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers. This is an anthology of solarpunk stories, defined by the publisher as “a type of optimistic science fiction that imagines a future founded on renewable energies.” If you like your science fiction positive and optimistic, this is a fantastic little collection […]

Telling a Story Another Way

| June 25, 2018

I recently learned about wooden maps of Greenland’s coastlines, made by the native inhabitants for storytelling rather than navigation. And while I’m pretty sure that most magazines wouldn’t let you submit woodworking as a short story, it does present an interesting lesson for writers nonetheless. Sometimes, the trick to telling a story isn’t to change […]

Review of As Told by Things

| June 13, 2018

My latest MSJ review is up today, this time for an anthology called As Told by Things! Much like it sounds, it’s a collection of stories from the perspective of inanimate objects, and it’s just as delightful as that sounds! You can read my review here!

“The Cobbler’s Daughter” to be published in MYTHIC Mag

| May 24, 2018

Now that the contract is signed, I’m pleased to announce that my story, “The Cobbler’s Daughter,” will appear in the Summer 2018 issue of MYTHIC Mag. It’s a lovely little story about a magical pair of shoes, set in a not entirely historical India. I’ll post again when it’s live!

Stuck in the Middle with You

| May 14, 2018

Last week, I talked about beginnings. Today, I’m thinking about what happens when you get stuck in the middle of the story. Sometimes, my stories grind to a halt around the middle when I’ve been writing for a while. Pinpointing the reason for this isn’t always easy, but for me, at least, I often find […]

What Makes a Hero?

| April 19, 2018

Is a hero defined by their actions or by their powers? I’m inclined to think it’s the former, because there are a lot of “super heroes” who don’t actually have superpowers. Batman, Hawkeye, and many others just have training and skill, rather than powers that come from some weird source. By that token, even the […]