Blog Post No. 503
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.
My first foray into writing was to finish some short stories over on Adventure Worlds Press. They were terrible, but full of ideas that had been brewing in the back of my mind for years. Taking the best of what I was writing at the time, Christian and I put together my first book (his second) No Light Tomorrow. It’s just a little short story collection and I’m a much better writer now, but I’m still proud of that book. Continue reading “Short Stories or How the Hell do I Write That?”
Back when I was in high school, I got into the habit of spending hot summer days in the basement sitting on an old couch and watching movies on my parent’s first VCR. It was a huge grey beast that cost them something like a thousand dollars when they bought it. Years later it was relegated to the basement with the same old TV from the 
As September approaches and my focus shifts to the next book in The Synthetic Albatross Novella Series, I’ve been thinking more and more about my previous novellas. Then, I realized that I hadn’t done a behind the writing for Neon Heart (or I did and I forgot). So, I figured, now would be a good time for one. A long time ago, I didn’t really like reading that much. I would enjoy certain books and when I found one that tickled my fancy, I would devour it, but getting me to read wasn’t easy. Then one day, when I was watching Blade Runner for probably the fifth or sixth time, I noticed at the end of the credits that it was based off of a book. (I’m getting somewhere, just stick with me). I had read some Star Wars books, but other than my love for sci-fi movies and television, I didn’t really know much about the genre. (The literary genre at least). The book at the end of the movie was called, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and trying to get a copy of that thing when the only bookstore I knew of was the Coles at the mall was not easy. I had to endure countless bad jokes and confused faces. 
Ben Van Dongen 