paperback – Page 2

Next Steps: and other stories, my latest ‘invitation’ anthology of short stories is now available. This is a mixed-genre collection of fifteen stories, (no erotica included). The seven tales written by me are based on ‘dialogue prompts’ from fellow authors. The prompts are provided before each of those stories but they are not spoilers, which reinforces the idea that a snippet of conversation does not tell the whole tale.

What else have I been up to?

I recently created paperback conversions of a few more of my eBooks. I’m pleased to say that I now have four paperback anthologies of short stories. My digital anthologies have twelve tales in them which means they wouldn’t be viable as paperbacks. Instead, I’ve spent time revisiting my short stories and arranging them into four collections, each of twenty tales.

As I’ve done with my other paperbacks, I’ve kept the price as low as possible, meaning next to nothing in royalties, but a reasonable price for the reader. There is no set theme or genre in any of these collections, and there is no erotica. For each of the four books, I’ve created a front cover depicting one of the stories and a rear cover which features a small graphic depicting another.

Sylvia: Beyond the Apocalypse, is a spin-off from my popular Light at The End trilogy. The first full draft of Sylvia is now complete and while the manuscript rests among my files I’ll be working on Codename: Foxglove. I may spend a few hours working with Crusader but the main work with Jason Knight and the other characters will be later in the year.

For those of you who like an insight, there are links to the blurbs and the first chapters of each of my new WIP novels at: https://tombensoncreative.com/work-in-progress/

As always, comments are welcome.

Tom

As many of us do, I like to look back and believe I’ve accomplished something in the past year. For me, this was my first full year in retirement—having finished my regular working life in late 2017.

My aim was the same as always, to use my time productively. Apart from reading/reviewing and my literary output, I had a couple of big domestic projects to plan and complete. I wouldn’t concentrate properly on my writing if I didn’t deal with one of my domestic jobs first, so January was written off.

February—I bought Vellum, a quality formatting programme to use with my Mac. Not only was I intent on producing paperbacks—I wanted the interior to look smart, and professional. Before a book was released as a paperback it would be completely revised. The revisions were already underway. My eBooks were also scheduled for the processing through Vellum.

March—Amsterdam Calling; published in paperback.

April—Ten Days in Panama; published in paperback.

May—Curious and Camping: An Erotic Journey; published.

—helped to edit and format Lisa: and other short stories, for my dear friend and fellow author Carmen Lopez.

June—Quiet Night Inn: and other erotic stories; published.

—Commenced work on the conversion of A Life of Choice from five eBooks to a paperback trilogy.

July/August—Continued A Life of Choice conversion.

—Editing and assembling stories for the next IASD anthology (with the invaluable help of several members of the group).

—Completed a large domestic task and fitted in a holiday.

September—Created Tom Benson – Artist, a new website to replace Tom Benson Creative Writer and Artist, which was heavy on admin and light on visitors.

October—Rhyme & REASON: 200 Poems, published. A collection I’d considered for a few years which encompasses my serial poetry and samples from each of my genre-based volumes.

November—Being a Good Girl: An Erotic Novella, published.

November—A Life of Choice: The Trilogy Edition, published. This was a major task, on which I started work back in June. It is the paperback version of my popular five-part eBook series.

December—Sharing: An Erotic Novel, published.

In terms of reading, I set myself a target of fifty books and completed forty-six. I will read two more by the end of year. 🙂

Do I feel as if I’ve met my targets?

I do, and apart from dealing with the occasional injury or extremely bad weather, I maintained my daily early morning cycle ride. Personally, I feel as if I’ve had a good year and I now look forward to continuing with the same enthusiasm as we go into 2019.

(I’ve never produced a ‘flag’ from folded T-shirts before ….) 😀

My aims for 2019 will be set out in my next post … very soon. In the meantime, thank you for being a part of my writing life, in whichever way, large or small. It all counts for me.

A heads-up for all you lovely people who have taken the time to read this post. I have four very different titles being offered free and they’ll be available* from Wednesday 19th through Sunday 23rd December.

*This is, of course, if there are no technical hitches with Amazon.

Have a peaceful end to the old year and a great start to the new one.

Tom