I’m exhausted, but content as we are teased to the end of the writing year.

In many ways, this has been a productive and enjoyable year. My writing aims were achieved with the exception of two areas.

– I placed a variety of my titles on Kobo for four months and saw nil return for my efforts.

– I postponed tackling paperback to allow more time for producing my target titles.

What were my reading and writing achievements?

– I read thirty books – twenty of which, were by IASD authors.

– I published all seven titles which I had either in progress or intended for this year.

– I created the early stages of Codename: Nightshade, a standalone thriller which is a spinoff from the Beyond The Law trilogy.

 

– In March, I separated my erotica titles from this blog and set up Tom Benson – Erotica

– In July, my study received a makeover, and I got an early birthday pressie – a Mac.

– In September, our son, Andrew treated me to a four-day break in Prague, Czech Republic – to celebrate my retirement year. This spawned the idea for a new thriller — Czech Mate. Many photos were taken and pages of notes written in research.

 

 

 

 

– In the first week of November, I turned 65 and finally retired from regular work. Another celebration trip was made, and on this occasion, I went to Edinburgh, Scotland with my wife. While there I took photos, made more notes and walked miles in research for Czech Mate. The main character is from Edinburgh. 🙂

 

– As this year comes to a close I will cease to hand out my work for free. For over two years I’ve given away one, or a number of titles for a weekend each month. How much impact the venture has had on my sales is unclear, but somewhere along the way I’ve had reviews from folk generous enough to give their time. My freebies were worthwhile for that if nothing else.

 

– When December got underway I dropped the price of A Life of Choice: Part One. Now that the series is complete and there are a few sales, I thought it might stimulate interest if the first volume in the series was only 99p (and equivalents).

 

– During December, my Highland Games erotica novellas are available at 99p each. If you haven’t ventured into reading this genre, you know what they say — don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. 😀

 

 

 

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– Throughout the year I was proud to be a part of, and play my part in the Admin of the Indie Author Support and Discussion (IASD) group. For me, this involved assisting in the maintenance of the group website, and the updating of the monthly Featured Author.

– During 2017, I continued as mentor for my distant friend, Carmen, to help produce her first collection, Alone: and other short stories. The stunning cover was designed by Carmen’s partner, Bryce. I supplied three of my stories to support this debut title.

Carmen was my key resource and support during the writing of Ten Days in Panama. She is also one of the guest authors in my collection, The Welcome: and other Sci-Fi stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What lies ahead for my new writing year?

All will be revealed in my first post of 2018, but suffice to say, I’m going to be busy.

I will take this opportunity to thank all who read my work, and those who make the effort to read my thoughts and check on my progress. I sincerely hope your old writing year has been good to you, and your new year will be better yet.

Tom