History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Review of Awaken the Daughter by Jeremy Flagg

| January 18, 2023

Awaken the Daughter by Jeremy Flagg (Brave New Worlds, 2020) is an alternate history superhero novel. It is the first book in The Dawning of Superheroes series, part of the larger Children of Nostradamus world, and it is filled with delightful historical detail and great characters you will love to root for as they work […]

Recent Heroic Stories

| December 27, 2022

Not all of my heroic stories involve superheroes, though some of them do. Here’s a sampling of some recent releases involving heroic characters. If you like audio stories, check out “Friday Jones’ Helpful Advice for Preventing Your Super-Genius Roommate from Becoming a Supervillain,” which was podcast at Manawaker Flash Fiction Podcast this past March. You […]

Flash Fiction in Avatar of Freya

| September 29, 2022

In addition to the two longer stories in Avatar of Freya, I also included two flash fiction pieces featuring Friday Jones and friends! “Friday Jones’ Helpful Advice for Preventing Your Super-Genius Roommate from Becoming a Supervillain” features Friday and her college roommate, Janella, aka Johnny Turbo, who is a mechanical genius with a super suit she […]

“Dead Souls” in Avatar of Freya

| August 23, 2022

“Dead Souls” was a story that I wrote specifically for Cobalt City: Dragonstorm, a small anthology of stories about a dragon invasion of Cobalt City that the founder of the shared universe wanted to put together. But the roots of the story came from an earlier Cobalt City story I’d written, “Double Angel,” which introduced Evan […]

“Double Angel” in Avatar of Freya

| July 21, 2022

“Double Angel” started out as a Drawlloween prompt that I turned into a Cobalt City story. This was the first of the Friday Jones/Dulcamara stories I wrote, with the main character based on the character I’d played in a Cobalt City University game. She wound up being the sensible one of the group and was […]

TV Recommendation: Ms. Marvel

| July 20, 2022

If you haven’t been watching Ms. Marvel, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I am a big fan (as you might perceive based on these signed issues on my wall), so I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Now that it’s here, it’s easily one of my favorite, if not […]

Reading Alternate History

| June 30, 2022

My published alternate history (which I prefer to call fantastical history) can primarily be found in two collections: Unfixed Timelines and Unfixed Timelines 2. Both of these collections include stories along with brief essays on the history that inspired them. I’ve got plans for an eventual third volume in this series, and at that point, I plan […]

Superhero Reading

| May 26, 2022

I’ve got more superhero books available than any other genre of books I’ve published! Check out all the possibilities. Heroes of Necessity is my collection of women becoming unlikely superheroes. All four of the women in this collection have powers, but only one of them would consider herself a superhero (and she considers herself more […]

Review of Wistful Ascending by JCM Berne

| March 23, 2022

Wistful Ascending, the first book in the Hybrid Helix series by JCM Berne (The Gnost House, 2020), is an action-packed sci-fi/superhero novel with a fantastic cast of characters and plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing! Rohan is a Hybrid, the offspring of a human and an alien race called the il’Drach. That alien […]

Avatar of Freya Out Today!

| March 15, 2022

Today’s the day! Avatar of Freya is now live! If you pre-ordered it (THANK YOU!), you should already have it on your device. If not, you can grab a copy for yourself here! It’s an honor to be chosen as the avatar of a god, raised to the ranks of superheroes in Cobalt City by their […]