In July 2014 my author website went live. I had three novels to promote on there, plus two books of short stories and five books of poetry.
It was the first week in August 2014 when I first came up with the idea for my next story, so I made some simple notes in my trusty notebook.
What did I write as the basis for the new book?
Vigilante, young female, NYPD, trigger – family connection, short time scale, fast pace, outside influence.
Okay, so that wasn’t much to go on, but as any writer would agree; it was enough.
The mention of outside influence was essentially because I was asking for ideas from anybody to keep the story going after the first chapter. There wasn’t much of a response on the ideas side of things, but I did have suggestions from several people that I should go it alone to maintain my writer’s ‘voice’.
I gave myself an estimated publishing date of mid-December 2014.
Why so tight on time?
I know I feel more of an incentive, so work more efficiently when under pressure. I completed the first draft six weeks later.
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It is now 16 weeks since I started and I’ve completed the fourth draft. I’ve just finished editing my latest printed copy of the manuscript and gone back to the screen to make my amendments – again.
For a couple of days, I’ll be working through the whole file to check punctuation, grammar and suchlike. One minor issue I’ve created for myself is that this novel is Americanized. The story, characters, and locations are American, so why would the spelling and phraseology be any different? I particularly want it to appeal to the people who live where the story is set.
The file will rest for a week before I complete final checks.
Towards the end of the first week of December I’ll print the manuscript and read it again.
Monday 8th December I’m aiming to publish my new creation, ‘A Taste of Honey’.
The first five chapters are now updated on my blog as a taster.
Thank you as always for being patient with my absence from the blogging community, and thank you for reading.
Any comments are welcome as always.
tombensoncreative.com 
Tom, I recently read a manuscript written by a fellow blogger from the UK. As you know, I’m from the US, and certain words and phrases used by my fellow blogger didn’t translate too well; some even sounded ridiculous. I think you’ve done a wise thing in Americanizing your novel, particularly since you want it read by Americans.
Best of luck with it, my friend.
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Hi Kath and thank you for dropping by. I feel as if I’ve been out of touch for months. It did feel strange trying to get everything to sound right in this story, but once I was underway I used another American to watch for anything that stood out. She only found a couple of things and I’m pleased to say they were minor.
I’ve used a couple of the big US car manufacturers and two of the gun companies but I haven’t had a response from them yet regarding the use of their names. There isn’t so much a ‘copyright’ issue but the names are obviously ‘Registered Trade Mark’ items. At the present I’m considering them as being ‘in the public domain.
Until later.
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Tom, you have done the right thing in Americanizing your novel since that is where it is set. It would indeed read strangely if you used British spellings and dialect. Well done for being brave enough to do this.
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Thanks Nikki. I introduced small ideas at the outset and then decided it would be counter-productive to think like a Brit, but write with the US in mind. It will take some US reviews to see if I hit the mark. 🙂
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