Ben Van Dongen writes science fiction. He's been writing in this genre for decades with some deviation into crime and horror, but he keeps coming back to wide world of 'what if...' that science fiction embraces. Ben is the author of five novellas in a series called Synthetic Albatross, and is a contributor in two… Continue reading Interview with Ben Van Dongen
Tag: publishing
How to Survive Querying
In my last blog post interviewing Ainslie Hogarth, we talked a lot about writing query letters. I gave examples using the query letter that Ainslie edited that I was going to submit to an agent at a workshop. Soooo, the workshop was this past Sunday...and golly, did I learn a lot! First things first: we… Continue reading How to Survive Querying
Loss, Labour (Quitting Writing) & Luxuriation
LOSS On Friday, July 11, 2025, our beloved Oscar crossed the rainbow bridge. That morning when we awoke, he was in the hallway, puddles of urine and vomit around him. We cleaned him up, took him outside where he was able to go to the bathroom...but then he fell to the deck and couldn't move.… Continue reading Loss, Labour (Quitting Writing) & Luxuriation
VANESSA SHIELDS 