History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Every Hero Needs a Villain

| August 27, 2019

When you’re writing super hero stories, it’s also important to have good villains to send your heroes up against. In Sparx & Arrows, there are all sorts of villains for the heroes to face. When her father is down for the count, Eleanor Castile goes up against a mad scientist (engineer, really) who’s constructed killer steampunk […]

Review of Tales for the Camp Fire

| August 21, 2019

Tales for the Camp Fire is a charity anthology for the victims of the November 2018 fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, California. You can read my review of this horror collection at Mad Scientist Journal, or buy a copy online!

Review of Distaff

| August 14, 2019

I’ve just reviewed Distaff, which is a collection of nine sci-fi stories by women authors. You can check out my review at Mad Scientist Journal. It’s a nice quick read, too, which releases tomorrow at WorldCon. If you’re in Dublin, check it out there! If not, grab yourself a copy online!

“Hashtag TPE” out now!

| August 1, 2019

Broken Eye Books has begun posting the stories in It Came from Miskatonic University to their Patreon, and my story, “Hashtag TPE,” is available now! It’s the story of a campus tour leader trying to keep all of her charges alive (and get them to enroll) during a tour of the Miskatonic University campus. This […]

Minimal Powers for Maximum Potential

| July 23, 2019

When I originally wrote “Fortissimo Possibile,” it was for a specific anthology call that wanted stories of super heroes with minimal or “useless” powers. But even the most minimal of powers can actually be useful–it’s just all in the way they’re applied. At first glance, Leila, the main character of “Fortissimo Possibile” is a divorced […]

She Puts the Sparx in Sparx & Arrows

| June 20, 2019

Kara Sparx was a character in Cobalt City that I attached myself to early on. She was mostly a minor background character in some of the initial Cobalt City books, but I wanted to do more with her. After all, she was a nerdy techie with a cool robot, and who did a lot of […]

Review of Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks

| June 19, 2019

My newest book review is up at Mad Scientist Journal. Today, I’m reviewing Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks, which is the sequel collection to Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures, which I reviewed back in January. Wireless is three more stories featuring the same characters as Murder on the Titania, and they […]

Out Now: “One-Tenth”

| June 11, 2019

I’ve got another story out as of the beginning of June. The Eastern Iowa Review picked up my short science-fiction story, “One-Tenth.” I don’t remember what inspired me to write this story, but I do know that it was one that I started to write and then didn’t know how to finish. After letting it […]

Heroes of Necessity: Running in Seattle

| June 6, 2019

I got the idea to write “Origin Story” while I was driving behind a car with multiple marathon stickers plastered across its back end. Seeing all of those stickers made me think what Seattle would be like if the zombie apocalypse hit. Would we get fast zombies simply because there are so many runners in […]

Recent Stories

| May 30, 2019

Two of my stories have come out recently! “I Believe,” which is a flash piece about imaginary friends, is out now at The Future Fire. It’s very short and very sweet, and won’t take you long at all to read! I’ve mentioned the Bargains anthology from Pine Float Press before, but it’s now available at […]