Blog Post No. 505
I used to be a night owl. Throughout my childhood, I always had trouble falling asleep. I’m a light sleeper, too so any other activity in a house full of people older than me, would wake me up. I remember listening to my old tape player, setting up stuffed animals on my bed, and playing pretend long into the night. By the time I was in high school, I would usually get five (or if I was lucky) six hours of sleep a night. Like a classic teenager, I would stay up late (past my super early bedtime) and struggle with getting up in the morning. Continue reading “Late at Night”
Now that I’m back into the swing of writing short stories (one finished, one almost finished) I’ve started to get caught up in thinking about the process of writing again. I’ve only done the first drafts of those shorts and I know that there is a lot to fix in them. I’m in no rush to do the second drafts. I tend to have the best results when I wait at least a month before getting into editing. For these stories, it may be longer since I’m going to jump back into the Invasion Novel as soon as the first beta read is back. 
My first love of books came from reading Philip K. Dick short stories in high school. I loved the creative ideas and the tight prose. I had an idea that I wanted to tell stories before discovering those collections, but after reading them, I started to see the possibility of becoming a writer.
I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I decided I wanted to be a writer. I wasn’t a big reader as a kid and it was a while before I started to discover the type of books I really enjoyed. (I’m pretty sure the first book I read in a day was Sphere when I was home sick from grade school). I do remember always thinking up stories and imagining myself in my favorite movies as a kid. Maybe the first time I ever actually said I wanted to be a writer was in high school. The point is, that ever since I’ve wanted to be a writer, I’ve been on the lookout for compact, portable, distraction free writing solutions.
Welcome to the far side of 500 posts. Usually in the middle of June, I write a little post for my birthday. It’s usually short and sweet (like a little break for both of us). I may have a comment on the concept of birthdays, or my personal experience with my own annual holiday. Maybe I come up with something specific for the year (like last year’s 
This is it. What everything (ever in the universe from the big bang to the moon landing) has been building towards. It’s the long anticipated 500th post on this blog. Before I get too deep into what is likely going to be a long and esoteric post, I want to thank Justin Cantelo, 
Alright, picture this: It’s early, like, the sun isn’t up yet early. The day is promising to be a hot one, but the chill from the night before is still in the air. I’m standing in front of my house, a small suitcase and a bag of books on the ground beside me and a Monster energy drink in hand (with a few more tucked into my suitcase). I’m anxious. Toronto is a four-hour drive (through some of the most boring landscape ever spewed from the Earth) and the event, a reading at a bar for a genre publisher, will not pay near enough to cover the costs of the trip. I can’t even say I’m looking forward to the event itself. I’ve always been an introverted person and the idea of standing before a group of strangers and reading aloud is not an appealing one. So, yeah, I’m anxious. And then I see the red pick-up truck turn the corner of my street and that anxiety begins to dissipate like the nighttime chill. A moment later, Ben is parked in my driveway, my bags are loaded and I’m climbing into his truck. Some sort of joke has already been cracked, as has my Monster, and with a last glance at my house, we’re off. And now I’m no longer anxious, but exited (and not just because Ben is a good-looking guy either!). I’m excited for the hours I get to spend with my friend with nothing but conversation to fill the time. 
I will admit that when my friend Ben asked me to contribute to his blog, I was a little intimidated. You see I’ve known Ben for over half my life at this point, freaking insane. He is my OG creative partner along side Mr. 
There are only four more weeks until I reach 500 posts on this site. I’m still working on what that will exactly look like (without it being way too long). In the mean time, I’ve been hard at work cajoling friends to write guest posts for me to fill in the gap from now until the big day (which is June 23rd if you want to mark it in your calendars). I asked the guest bloggers to write about working with me and/or this blog, but I tried to leave the subject open enough in case they came up with something a little different. I also pointed out that I’m open for them to be less than favourable, but I mostly said that to appear to be gracious. 
Ben Van Dongen 