Shamon Harper's Blog, page 2
April 6, 2025
Things Are Moving Quickly
Hello March!
Things have been moving quickly of late. I finished my most recent book edit and have passed it to a few trusted beta readers for input. Thus far I am getting some good responses back from it. That is encouraging. There ended up being some significant rewrites in this round of editing. It’s crazy how much the story can change from editing.
I ended up moving entire chapters around in the book. I felt that some things were being revealed too quickly and I knew it required some major reworking. I think I mentioned last month how Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings changed constantly over the course of edits and new version releases. After seeing so much of the story change with my most recent edits, I can see how that could be a thing.
I am much happier with the current story. I am proud of where it sits right now. I know I will get some things I am missing through feedback from my beta readers, and I anticipate some adjustments after that. We are getting close, and that is crazy to think.
While the story is in the hands of some beta readers I figured why not start on the marketing piece for selling the book. When it comes to this piece, I really wanted to work smarter and not harder. I used a lot of Chat GPT to create the ads. It’s insane what Chat GPT can do. I uploaded the current story to it, asked it to give me a overview of the ideal client, and had it create a sales copy for the book. Here is what it came back with for the sales copy:
Dead Station: A Military Zombie Apocalypse Space Opera
A Sci-Fi Thriller Packed with Action, Horror, and Survival
In the cold abyss of deep space, death is only the beginning…
When the crew of the USSCN Týr, an elite special operations warship, is dispatched to investigate a silent mining colony, they expect political unrest or a corporate cover-up. What they find instead is beyond horror.
The once-thriving Kyler Station is now a slaughterhouse. Bodies litter the corridors. Blood paints the walls. And the few survivors left whisper of an infection that turns men into monsters—stronger, faster, and impervious to pain.
For Senior Chief Petty Officer Jackson and his battle-hardened team, survival means following the rules: shoot first, ask questions later. But as the infected close in and the station’s deadly secrets unravel, the mission turns into a desperate fight against an enemy they barely understand.
Something unnatural is spreading. Something relentless. And it's already too late.
Perfect for fans of Aliens, The Expanse, and Dead Space. If you love pulse-pounding sci-fi action, military strategy, and terrifying space horror, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat!
Will they survive the nightmare? Or will they become part of it?
Grab your copy of Dead Station today—before the infection spreads.
I like it, what about you? I also asked it to create some graphics for me based on scenes from the book. Those are below. I will be using some of those in the marketing campaign for Facebook and Instagram ads.
I am also trying to get my hands around Goodreads. I have not been great on that platform, but I can see where it may have some potential. If you are on Goodreads, you can find me at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
I put the same material there that I do here, but if you would rather get it there it’s an option. Anyway, while I am still waiting for input from beta readers I will continue to chase the marketing campaign for the book. I hope your month is a good one.
On a personal note, as this releases I am in Spain visiting one of my kids who lives there and teaches English to school children. It’s nice to get out of the office a bit.
Shamon
Things have been moving quickly of late. I finished my most recent book edit and have passed it to a few trusted beta readers for input. Thus far I am getting some good responses back from it. That is encouraging. There ended up being some significant rewrites in this round of editing. It’s crazy how much the story can change from editing.
I ended up moving entire chapters around in the book. I felt that some things were being revealed too quickly and I knew it required some major reworking. I think I mentioned last month how Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings changed constantly over the course of edits and new version releases. After seeing so much of the story change with my most recent edits, I can see how that could be a thing.
I am much happier with the current story. I am proud of where it sits right now. I know I will get some things I am missing through feedback from my beta readers, and I anticipate some adjustments after that. We are getting close, and that is crazy to think.
While the story is in the hands of some beta readers I figured why not start on the marketing piece for selling the book. When it comes to this piece, I really wanted to work smarter and not harder. I used a lot of Chat GPT to create the ads. It’s insane what Chat GPT can do. I uploaded the current story to it, asked it to give me a overview of the ideal client, and had it create a sales copy for the book. Here is what it came back with for the sales copy:
Dead Station: A Military Zombie Apocalypse Space Opera
A Sci-Fi Thriller Packed with Action, Horror, and Survival
In the cold abyss of deep space, death is only the beginning…
When the crew of the USSCN Týr, an elite special operations warship, is dispatched to investigate a silent mining colony, they expect political unrest or a corporate cover-up. What they find instead is beyond horror.
The once-thriving Kyler Station is now a slaughterhouse. Bodies litter the corridors. Blood paints the walls. And the few survivors left whisper of an infection that turns men into monsters—stronger, faster, and impervious to pain.
For Senior Chief Petty Officer Jackson and his battle-hardened team, survival means following the rules: shoot first, ask questions later. But as the infected close in and the station’s deadly secrets unravel, the mission turns into a desperate fight against an enemy they barely understand.
Something unnatural is spreading. Something relentless. And it's already too late.
Perfect for fans of Aliens, The Expanse, and Dead Space. If you love pulse-pounding sci-fi action, military strategy, and terrifying space horror, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat!
Will they survive the nightmare? Or will they become part of it?
Grab your copy of Dead Station today—before the infection spreads.
I like it, what about you? I also asked it to create some graphics for me based on scenes from the book. Those are below. I will be using some of those in the marketing campaign for Facebook and Instagram ads.
I am also trying to get my hands around Goodreads. I have not been great on that platform, but I can see where it may have some potential. If you are on Goodreads, you can find me at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
I put the same material there that I do here, but if you would rather get it there it’s an option. Anyway, while I am still waiting for input from beta readers I will continue to chase the marketing campaign for the book. I hope your month is a good one.
On a personal note, as this releases I am in Spain visiting one of my kids who lives there and teaches English to school children. It’s nice to get out of the office a bit.
Shamon
April 2, 2025
Sneak Peek and Editing!
Hello There!
So it’s been a hectic month. It's hectic in a good way though. I have working a lot on the book editing this month. I really got a ton of work done in that area. I think I will be finished with that portion very soon. The editing process has pushed me to make some major changes to the story. While doing some editing research I came across an article by Christopher Tolkien, the son of Author J.R.R. Tolkien discussing his father’s editing process. J.R.R. Tolkien’s editing process never actually ended. I find this very relatable and very interesting. He edited most of his work, and later his son Christopher edited much of the work released posthumously.
J.R.R. Tolkien couldn’t afford to pay for an editor or a typesetter for his work so he did most of that himself to save the money. This led him to continue editing the work almost every time a new edition or special edition was released. You can trace many of the changes in Lord of The Rings by reading different editions of the work. As he would expand the overall universe of Middle-Earth and its lore, he would incorporate many of those concepts into later versions of the Lord of the Ring’s ever-evolving manuscript. Early editions of the Lord of The Rings are vastly different than later versions. While the main points of the story never changed, the story as a whole evolved to be richer in lore and backstory. He considered the work living and ever-evolving, but I am guessing there was a huge amount of perfectionism on his part involved.
This whole construct seemed to crazy to me until I started massaging my own story and molding it to be something better than I started with. I almost understand what that feels like when I look over a chapter and see how it fits relative to the previous chapters and chapters to come. It takes me through a process of how do I make this pacing flow better?, or How do I really like how this is being said here? I start to get a sense of the story never really being complete, much like Tolkien discussed. It has also brought a whole new meaning to the idea that a “manuscript is never finished, it is only abandoned by the author.”
So what does all this mean? Well, after a bit of overwhelm, thinking of all the stuff I have to do in order to get this story out into the world, I came to the conclusion that the story has to be finished first. That seems pretty rudimentary on the surface level as I type that out, but I was starting to get the cart before the horse a bit and really dig into the marketing process. Right now the focus is singular. Finish the editing and get the book into the hands of some beta readers. Right now that is all I am focusing on. That helped me to really circle the wagons in January and get a lot of the editing done. I am getting very close on that front.
Where does it go from here? After the editing, I will be sending it to a few trusted beta readers for feedback. Once I get some feedback I will see where that fits and make any adjustments that I feel are necessary.
After the editing is finished I will be setting up a new lead magnet for my marketing plan. I already have that pretty much ready to go. It’s the first bit of the book, a backstory if you will that sets up the lead character. The short story VEHO will be disappearing from my lead magnet and I will be shifting toward the book. VEHO will continue to be available on Amazon.
You all are getting a sneak peek of that new lead magnet. If you want to read it, click on the button below. The graphic was created when I fed the short story into ChatGPT and asked it to create a graphic of the scene of the story. I was pretty impressed with what it returned.
DEAD STATION A MILITARY ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SPACE OPERA - PREAMBLE
You can download the PREAMBLE at https://shamonwrites.com/
Shamon
So it’s been a hectic month. It's hectic in a good way though. I have working a lot on the book editing this month. I really got a ton of work done in that area. I think I will be finished with that portion very soon. The editing process has pushed me to make some major changes to the story. While doing some editing research I came across an article by Christopher Tolkien, the son of Author J.R.R. Tolkien discussing his father’s editing process. J.R.R. Tolkien’s editing process never actually ended. I find this very relatable and very interesting. He edited most of his work, and later his son Christopher edited much of the work released posthumously.
J.R.R. Tolkien couldn’t afford to pay for an editor or a typesetter for his work so he did most of that himself to save the money. This led him to continue editing the work almost every time a new edition or special edition was released. You can trace many of the changes in Lord of The Rings by reading different editions of the work. As he would expand the overall universe of Middle-Earth and its lore, he would incorporate many of those concepts into later versions of the Lord of the Ring’s ever-evolving manuscript. Early editions of the Lord of The Rings are vastly different than later versions. While the main points of the story never changed, the story as a whole evolved to be richer in lore and backstory. He considered the work living and ever-evolving, but I am guessing there was a huge amount of perfectionism on his part involved.
This whole construct seemed to crazy to me until I started massaging my own story and molding it to be something better than I started with. I almost understand what that feels like when I look over a chapter and see how it fits relative to the previous chapters and chapters to come. It takes me through a process of how do I make this pacing flow better?, or How do I really like how this is being said here? I start to get a sense of the story never really being complete, much like Tolkien discussed. It has also brought a whole new meaning to the idea that a “manuscript is never finished, it is only abandoned by the author.”
So what does all this mean? Well, after a bit of overwhelm, thinking of all the stuff I have to do in order to get this story out into the world, I came to the conclusion that the story has to be finished first. That seems pretty rudimentary on the surface level as I type that out, but I was starting to get the cart before the horse a bit and really dig into the marketing process. Right now the focus is singular. Finish the editing and get the book into the hands of some beta readers. Right now that is all I am focusing on. That helped me to really circle the wagons in January and get a lot of the editing done. I am getting very close on that front.
Where does it go from here? After the editing, I will be sending it to a few trusted beta readers for feedback. Once I get some feedback I will see where that fits and make any adjustments that I feel are necessary.
After the editing is finished I will be setting up a new lead magnet for my marketing plan. I already have that pretty much ready to go. It’s the first bit of the book, a backstory if you will that sets up the lead character. The short story VEHO will be disappearing from my lead magnet and I will be shifting toward the book. VEHO will continue to be available on Amazon.
You all are getting a sneak peek of that new lead magnet. If you want to read it, click on the button below. The graphic was created when I fed the short story into ChatGPT and asked it to create a graphic of the scene of the story. I was pretty impressed with what it returned.
DEAD STATION A MILITARY ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SPACE OPERA - PREAMBLE
You can download the PREAMBLE at https://shamonwrites.com/
Shamon
March 31, 2025
New Year… Time Flies!
Hey there,
Well, it’s a new year and I can not believe it. I have been at this project officially for a year now. That seems insane to me. While this is not my day job by any means, it has been amazing to see this project grow from a simple concept on how you write a book and release it to this creative project that I have spent so much time working on. When I look back over the year so much has happened.
1. I started this whole project right after the new year last year. It started with opening a bank account for this project, purchasing a domain name to build out the concept and have a place for updates and blogs to be housed, and playing around with ideas for the story.
2. I wrote VEHO: A BACKSTORY the short story that can be downloaded about a crew of space miners that come across something terrible.
3. I created a simple website for the project (shamonwrites.com).
4. I set up a mailing list to start building an audience for this project.
5. I set up an Amazon Author account to put VEHO on Amazon Kindle.
6. I researched the hell out of Facebook Ads in order to start building a mailing list. This also led me to create the ads and get them going.
7. I started to research and write the book that will become the first book in the series. DEAD STATION
8. I wrote the book, this was insane in itself.
9. I started researching self-editing books.
10. I edited VEHO: A BACKSTORY and released it to get a feel of how the editing process works.
11. I started editing the book.
12. I continue to edit the book.
13. I continue to keep you up to date with my progress on this whole project.
When I hit October I was pretty down on myself for not having this whole thing done. I was at a low point with the project because I always envisioned myself releasing it around November, but I was a bit naive and foolish to think that.
I have a lot to do this year in order to release this book.
1. Research book launching campaigns and marketing
2. Finish editing the book
3. Type set the book
4. Upload the book to Kindle Direct Publishing
5. Create a marketing plan for the book
6. Create ads to sell the book
7. Migrate the ads I currently run for list building to now sell a book
8. Release this beast into the world!
9. Review what worked and didn’t work in this project.
10. Start the second book and implement improvements to the process.
My goal, and I know I should not even say this… is to release sometime this summer. Ugh, saying it was probably a huge mistake. Don’t hold me to that…
All in all it was a very productive year for this project and I have so much enjoyed the whole thing. This next year will see that come to conclusion.
I will be releasing the preamble portion of the book as a lead magnet in the very near future. This will be something I share with you first since you have stuck with me for so long.
Shamon
Well, it’s a new year and I can not believe it. I have been at this project officially for a year now. That seems insane to me. While this is not my day job by any means, it has been amazing to see this project grow from a simple concept on how you write a book and release it to this creative project that I have spent so much time working on. When I look back over the year so much has happened.
1. I started this whole project right after the new year last year. It started with opening a bank account for this project, purchasing a domain name to build out the concept and have a place for updates and blogs to be housed, and playing around with ideas for the story.
2. I wrote VEHO: A BACKSTORY the short story that can be downloaded about a crew of space miners that come across something terrible.
3. I created a simple website for the project (shamonwrites.com).
4. I set up a mailing list to start building an audience for this project.
5. I set up an Amazon Author account to put VEHO on Amazon Kindle.
6. I researched the hell out of Facebook Ads in order to start building a mailing list. This also led me to create the ads and get them going.
7. I started to research and write the book that will become the first book in the series. DEAD STATION
8. I wrote the book, this was insane in itself.
9. I started researching self-editing books.
10. I edited VEHO: A BACKSTORY and released it to get a feel of how the editing process works.
11. I started editing the book.
12. I continue to edit the book.
13. I continue to keep you up to date with my progress on this whole project.
When I hit October I was pretty down on myself for not having this whole thing done. I was at a low point with the project because I always envisioned myself releasing it around November, but I was a bit naive and foolish to think that.
I have a lot to do this year in order to release this book.
1. Research book launching campaigns and marketing
2. Finish editing the book
3. Type set the book
4. Upload the book to Kindle Direct Publishing
5. Create a marketing plan for the book
6. Create ads to sell the book
7. Migrate the ads I currently run for list building to now sell a book
8. Release this beast into the world!
9. Review what worked and didn’t work in this project.
10. Start the second book and implement improvements to the process.
My goal, and I know I should not even say this… is to release sometime this summer. Ugh, saying it was probably a huge mistake. Don’t hold me to that…
All in all it was a very productive year for this project and I have so much enjoyed the whole thing. This next year will see that come to conclusion.
I will be releasing the preamble portion of the book as a lead magnet in the very near future. This will be something I share with you first since you have stuck with me for so long.
Shamon
March 27, 2025
We Are Getting Close To Book Release
Howdy!
“Man, there is so much going on right now I feel like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.” Sgt. Mac circa 1995. One of my old sergeants in the Army way back in the day used to use that statement all the time. I feel it right now.
So what is going on?
Well, a lot!
Let’s see… Where do I start?
First, I have completed my beta reading phase. This was interesting, and I learned a lot about my work and myself. It’s a bit of a vulnerable process to put something like this out into the world and actively ask for feedback. You have to be willing to hear hard news at times. I got some fantastic feedback from my beta readers and was able to schedule a session with each of them to talk through the book and get their feedback. What I heard was pretty encouraging. Every one of them told me that this did not feel like someone who was writing his first novel. That felt good, for sure. We talked through some constructive things in the book as well. I have spent the last month in cleanup mode and doing a few rewrites of areas of the book. All that being accomplished I have started moving forward toward release.
Second, after readjusting some of my Facebook ads, with the idea of doing some testing on imaging and sales copy, I have decided to go a different direction on the cover. One of my testing images just really outperformed everything else I had put together. I am not above learning from this process; as a matter of fact, that has been the whole point of this process. If you follow my social media, you have seen the new cover posted. If you don’t, you can do so at the links below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShamonWrites/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shamonwrites/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shamonwrites.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47452096.Shamon_Harper
Third, I am looking to build a “Street Team.” What does that mean? Well it means I am looking for a group of people who are interested in an Advanced Readers Copy of the book in return for a review on Amazon and possibly Goodreads when the book releases. This is a free way to read the book. Reviews are important when it comes to selling your work, and having some reviews early on is vital. If you are interested, just respond to this email saying, “Hey, add me to the Street Team.” I will assemble the team and then send out an advanced copy of the book for your review. You have to be able to leave Amazon reviews on products, this typically means you have spent more than $50 on Amazon.com.
Fourth, I have everything set up in Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, ready to go. The book is ready to publish at this time. I have ordered a proof copy of the paperback book so I can look it over before I release it. The picture above is the proof copy. It’s almost surreal to hold a tangible copy of something like this you have created. It was so cool
Fifth, getting the proof copy, of course, put me into a tail spin of finding things I want to fix with the book. Ugh… I have to make some fixes to last-minute typoes that have been found (Thankfully, my wife is awesome at grammar!). I have to make some adjustments to the margins of the physical copy of the book. It will take me a bit to make these corrections and line everything back up for release, but I can see the finish line on this thing.
Shamon
I Have Come So Far, Yet I've So Far To Go
Hey There!
Well, we made it to December. I don’t know about you, but in some ways, this year feels like it just started and in other ways, it feels like this year has gone on forever.
I lamented a little in the last couple of newsletters about how frustrating it has been for me to miss my self-imposed deadline of getting this all done and putting it out into the world before the end of the year. That is still a bitter pill to swallow for a guy who typically looks at things and figures he can do this efficiently and quickly.
Creativity does not work like that though. The creative process in my experience is full of starts, stops, and anything in between. I get huge bursts of energetic productivity and get into an amazing flow and tend to be blown away by how much I get done. Then, I get distracted, struggle, hit a lull in productivity, and get frustrated by how slow things are moving along.
Measuring progress on this project was so much easier when it was just word count. The process of chugging out “x” words over the course of a week was so much easier than the process of looking over your work, seeing how it all ties together, and making sure when you make adjustments or changes that it doesn’t ruin the feel of the track you were on. It gets really crazy when you look at a chapter or a few chapters and want to move it around a little. I have been working through some of that kind of stuff in the editing process lately and it is hard to measure progress on it. Basically, I can say it is still very much moving forward and I am enjoying playing with the manuscript to see how I can make it better.
On another entirely different note, as I approach the light at the end of the tunnel for editing, it brings up a new challenge. That light isn’t necessarily the end of the tunnel, it’s possibly another train coming my way… What do I mean? Well, once the book is finished there are a few things that will have to take place.
At the twenty-five thousand foot level, it looks like this.
1. Beta readers for the story. I want to put the book out to get some feedback from a few beta readers. What does this do? It allows me to put the work out into a space to get some constructive feedback. I have plugged into a couple of spaces to connect with a few beta readers.
2. Final Edits. This will take the feedback from beta readers and work through the constructive feedback. Where appropriate, changes will be applied to the work.
3. Type Setting the book for publication. I have to get the book set to upload for publishing sites such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or Ingram Spark. I have done this before and while it is not a terrible process it is a process.
4. Order a Gallery Proof. A Gallery Proof is an advanced copy to see what it looks like after publication. Authors do this to make sure everything looks good before releasing it out into the world.
5. Marketing Process. This one has been something that started from the very beginning but will need to kick into high gear when the book is about to be released and after the book is released. This newsletter while informative on this entire project is one example of that effort. Through this newsletter, I have been working to develop a relationship with the readers hoping that they will take a chance on me and read my book when it releases. I have been slowly building an audience on this mailing list since I started through the use of Meta Facebook Ads. This strategy will change as the book releases and the focus will shift to ads that are selling the book on Amazon. The creation of those ads and the strategy behind it all is the process that will have to be put into place once the book is released. I could spend a very long time just walking through all of that, let’s just say it’s a big effort that takes a lot of creativity and testing.
As I sit here I think that is all that will have to happen in the near future in order to release the story. I could be missing something, but I sure hope I am not as all this alone is more than enough work than I really have time for.
It is crazy to think that I am coming up on a solid year from when I first started this journey. I initially thought about doing this last December and here we are in December again. So much has happened in the effort of this little project and so much more is still yet to come.
If I don’t talk to you before Christmas, I hope you have a great one!
Shamon
Well, we made it to December. I don’t know about you, but in some ways, this year feels like it just started and in other ways, it feels like this year has gone on forever.
I lamented a little in the last couple of newsletters about how frustrating it has been for me to miss my self-imposed deadline of getting this all done and putting it out into the world before the end of the year. That is still a bitter pill to swallow for a guy who typically looks at things and figures he can do this efficiently and quickly.
Creativity does not work like that though. The creative process in my experience is full of starts, stops, and anything in between. I get huge bursts of energetic productivity and get into an amazing flow and tend to be blown away by how much I get done. Then, I get distracted, struggle, hit a lull in productivity, and get frustrated by how slow things are moving along.
Measuring progress on this project was so much easier when it was just word count. The process of chugging out “x” words over the course of a week was so much easier than the process of looking over your work, seeing how it all ties together, and making sure when you make adjustments or changes that it doesn’t ruin the feel of the track you were on. It gets really crazy when you look at a chapter or a few chapters and want to move it around a little. I have been working through some of that kind of stuff in the editing process lately and it is hard to measure progress on it. Basically, I can say it is still very much moving forward and I am enjoying playing with the manuscript to see how I can make it better.
On another entirely different note, as I approach the light at the end of the tunnel for editing, it brings up a new challenge. That light isn’t necessarily the end of the tunnel, it’s possibly another train coming my way… What do I mean? Well, once the book is finished there are a few things that will have to take place.
At the twenty-five thousand foot level, it looks like this.
1. Beta readers for the story. I want to put the book out to get some feedback from a few beta readers. What does this do? It allows me to put the work out into a space to get some constructive feedback. I have plugged into a couple of spaces to connect with a few beta readers.
2. Final Edits. This will take the feedback from beta readers and work through the constructive feedback. Where appropriate, changes will be applied to the work.
3. Type Setting the book for publication. I have to get the book set to upload for publishing sites such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or Ingram Spark. I have done this before and while it is not a terrible process it is a process.
4. Order a Gallery Proof. A Gallery Proof is an advanced copy to see what it looks like after publication. Authors do this to make sure everything looks good before releasing it out into the world.
5. Marketing Process. This one has been something that started from the very beginning but will need to kick into high gear when the book is about to be released and after the book is released. This newsletter while informative on this entire project is one example of that effort. Through this newsletter, I have been working to develop a relationship with the readers hoping that they will take a chance on me and read my book when it releases. I have been slowly building an audience on this mailing list since I started through the use of Meta Facebook Ads. This strategy will change as the book releases and the focus will shift to ads that are selling the book on Amazon. The creation of those ads and the strategy behind it all is the process that will have to be put into place once the book is released. I could spend a very long time just walking through all of that, let’s just say it’s a big effort that takes a lot of creativity and testing.
As I sit here I think that is all that will have to happen in the near future in order to release the story. I could be missing something, but I sure hope I am not as all this alone is more than enough work than I really have time for.
It is crazy to think that I am coming up on a solid year from when I first started this journey. I initially thought about doing this last December and here we are in December again. So much has happened in the effort of this little project and so much more is still yet to come.
If I don’t talk to you before Christmas, I hope you have a great one!
Shamon
March 19, 2025
Shit Has Been Real Lately Missing Self Imposed Deadlines Sucks
Here we are in November!
Where the hell did this year go?
Lately, I have been a little disappointed in myself when it comes to this project. I have been down on myself because I have just not made the progress that I would like to have made by now. Don’t get me wrong, I am nowhere near as bad as George R.R. Martin when it comes to deadlines… I am also nowhere near as good of a writer as he is either, but that is beside the point. My goal was to actually be releasing this book in October 2024…
Well, I blew that!
So where are things right now you may ask, I am halfway through editing as it stands. It has been going, it takes a different brain than the creating part of the story. It is still a creative process for me but has a different focus. I honestly don’t know when I will be finishing the editing at this point. I am making progress on it, and I am enjoying it, but it is moving along much slower than I thought it would. Hell, in my mind I would have been through the editing process within a month… Ha, Ha, Ha. Boy, was I wrong! I think this is taking longer than actually writing of the first draft. I have been forcing myself to just slow down and take the time it needs.
Real life has not helped out much either. We live in Tampa, Florida. It’s been a month of hurricanes and chaos here. That has pretty much brought our day job of owning a mental health practice to a grinding halt. That grinding halt hurts in more ways than can be counted. A hurricane is a big deal when it comes to town and we just had two of them… Just in case you have not seen the news lately. hurricanes result in losing our entire business for a week. Not many businesses handle losing a whole week’s revenue very well. We got to enjoy all of that, and then turn around and do it all over again with the second one. Needless to say, that creates some serious stress and anxiety. Things are slowly getting back to normal, thankfully we did not suffer any damage, but the economic impact is pretty heavy. Picking the pieces back up afterward is always tough. Just when we were starting to see clients again at our office we realized that our water was broken as a result of the hurricane and it threatened to shut us back down again. All of this is to say that nothing was happening editing-wise throughout this entire fiasco. I guess it is hard to get moving creatively when it feels like your life is falling apart.
So, while I am very disappointed in myself for not meeting my own imposed deadline of releasing a book in October 2024 it is not the end of the world. I will keep taking one step in front of the other and moving forward with this project that has been so interesting and fun to do.
On another note, I have also started mapping out book two in the series. I know that sounds crazy when there is not even a book one yet, but things pop up in the mind and we start moving on them. Nothing serious yet, but just some ideas that I am capturing.
P.S. The image above is my location in relation to hurricane Milton.
Where the hell did this year go?
Lately, I have been a little disappointed in myself when it comes to this project. I have been down on myself because I have just not made the progress that I would like to have made by now. Don’t get me wrong, I am nowhere near as bad as George R.R. Martin when it comes to deadlines… I am also nowhere near as good of a writer as he is either, but that is beside the point. My goal was to actually be releasing this book in October 2024…
Well, I blew that!
So where are things right now you may ask, I am halfway through editing as it stands. It has been going, it takes a different brain than the creating part of the story. It is still a creative process for me but has a different focus. I honestly don’t know when I will be finishing the editing at this point. I am making progress on it, and I am enjoying it, but it is moving along much slower than I thought it would. Hell, in my mind I would have been through the editing process within a month… Ha, Ha, Ha. Boy, was I wrong! I think this is taking longer than actually writing of the first draft. I have been forcing myself to just slow down and take the time it needs.
Real life has not helped out much either. We live in Tampa, Florida. It’s been a month of hurricanes and chaos here. That has pretty much brought our day job of owning a mental health practice to a grinding halt. That grinding halt hurts in more ways than can be counted. A hurricane is a big deal when it comes to town and we just had two of them… Just in case you have not seen the news lately. hurricanes result in losing our entire business for a week. Not many businesses handle losing a whole week’s revenue very well. We got to enjoy all of that, and then turn around and do it all over again with the second one. Needless to say, that creates some serious stress and anxiety. Things are slowly getting back to normal, thankfully we did not suffer any damage, but the economic impact is pretty heavy. Picking the pieces back up afterward is always tough. Just when we were starting to see clients again at our office we realized that our water was broken as a result of the hurricane and it threatened to shut us back down again. All of this is to say that nothing was happening editing-wise throughout this entire fiasco. I guess it is hard to get moving creatively when it feels like your life is falling apart.
So, while I am very disappointed in myself for not meeting my own imposed deadline of releasing a book in October 2024 it is not the end of the world. I will keep taking one step in front of the other and moving forward with this project that has been so interesting and fun to do.
On another note, I have also started mapping out book two in the series. I know that sounds crazy when there is not even a book one yet, but things pop up in the mind and we start moving on them. Nothing serious yet, but just some ideas that I am capturing.
P.S. The image above is my location in relation to hurricane Milton.
March 12, 2025
Editing Is Frustrating And Titles Are A Big Thing
Do you ever get frustrated by the slowness of progress when you are working on a passion project? I do, part of my problem is that I want to do too many things. I think my day job just gets in the way. My wife and I own a business together; owning a business can be hard work. We have been in a season of working a lot lately. That season has not allowed me to focus on this project much in the last month and that bugs the shit out of me.
I am still editing. I think I mentioned earlier that I like and hate editing at the same time. In one way I love finding issues in my manuscript and watching it evolve into something better. I love seeing the story develop as I flush out concepts and make tweaks. On the other hand, editing is not for the faint of heart. It takes time and is a different thought process than creating the work. I don’t know if I just thought it would be simple or what. I can be naive about things.
All that being said, I see that this editing process takes what it takes. Now, this is a little tough to swallow for someone who likes to set unrealistic expectations and timelines. I also typically think I can do things in half the time it probably takes to do them, but it’s a weird moment of optimism in my typical pessimistic outlook. Let’s go with that…
So, here I am hoping for a better month in October to get further ahead in my editing of the story.
On Another note, let’s talk about the title. I mentioned last month that the title was another rabbit hole that had to be jumped through and explored.
In doing this the way I am doing it, you have to create a title that will be searchable on Amazon when people are looking for books in your genre. In this case, we are talking about military science fiction or military zombie apocalypse science fiction. That creates some challenges. I wanted to just give it a very short title and call it Dead Station. I thought it was cool. I see all these other big authors doing that. I am not a big author and the problem with that is I do not have a large enough audience to ever drive that kind of title creation. I am just little ol’ me. I am not James S. A. Corey. I have no audience like that (Thanks for being in my audience by the way, we are small and mighty!) I have to do everything I can in order to give my story the best opportunity to show up as an option for someone to read.
There is some conventional wisdom when it comes to that. Your title should include aspects of the genre and other things people would be searching for when they are looking for something to read that interests them. A title needs to be descriptive, unique, engaging, relevant, keyword-rich, and concise.
That is a lot of stuff to think about. If you are familiar with the process of Search Engine Optimization or SEO, this is very similar in form and function. It’s also a pain in the ass. So, cool short titles are out the window. Somewhere along the way I came across the following quote and jotted it down when I was in this rabbit hole of title creation…
“A well-crafted title is not just a collection of words, but a work of art that requires creativity, skill, and finesse. But most importantly, it necessitates research and informed decisions.”
I don’t even remember where I found that quote, but it stuck in my crawl. Thanks, unnamed source!
So here we are with…
DEAD STATION A MILITARY ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SPACE OPERA
A Humanity Shattered is the series that this book will fall in. I needed something unique and aligned with the overall theme. There are a lot of book series published on Amazon, and finding something unique was not easy for the series name.
Is it perfect, hell no. None of this is perfect, but it is fun.
I am still editing. I think I mentioned earlier that I like and hate editing at the same time. In one way I love finding issues in my manuscript and watching it evolve into something better. I love seeing the story develop as I flush out concepts and make tweaks. On the other hand, editing is not for the faint of heart. It takes time and is a different thought process than creating the work. I don’t know if I just thought it would be simple or what. I can be naive about things.
All that being said, I see that this editing process takes what it takes. Now, this is a little tough to swallow for someone who likes to set unrealistic expectations and timelines. I also typically think I can do things in half the time it probably takes to do them, but it’s a weird moment of optimism in my typical pessimistic outlook. Let’s go with that…
So, here I am hoping for a better month in October to get further ahead in my editing of the story.
On Another note, let’s talk about the title. I mentioned last month that the title was another rabbit hole that had to be jumped through and explored.
In doing this the way I am doing it, you have to create a title that will be searchable on Amazon when people are looking for books in your genre. In this case, we are talking about military science fiction or military zombie apocalypse science fiction. That creates some challenges. I wanted to just give it a very short title and call it Dead Station. I thought it was cool. I see all these other big authors doing that. I am not a big author and the problem with that is I do not have a large enough audience to ever drive that kind of title creation. I am just little ol’ me. I am not James S. A. Corey. I have no audience like that (Thanks for being in my audience by the way, we are small and mighty!) I have to do everything I can in order to give my story the best opportunity to show up as an option for someone to read.
There is some conventional wisdom when it comes to that. Your title should include aspects of the genre and other things people would be searching for when they are looking for something to read that interests them. A title needs to be descriptive, unique, engaging, relevant, keyword-rich, and concise.
That is a lot of stuff to think about. If you are familiar with the process of Search Engine Optimization or SEO, this is very similar in form and function. It’s also a pain in the ass. So, cool short titles are out the window. Somewhere along the way I came across the following quote and jotted it down when I was in this rabbit hole of title creation…
“A well-crafted title is not just a collection of words, but a work of art that requires creativity, skill, and finesse. But most importantly, it necessitates research and informed decisions.”
I don’t even remember where I found that quote, but it stuck in my crawl. Thanks, unnamed source!
So here we are with…
DEAD STATION A MILITARY ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SPACE OPERA
A Humanity Shattered is the series that this book will fall in. I needed something unique and aligned with the overall theme. There are a lot of book series published on Amazon, and finding something unique was not easy for the series name.
Is it perfect, hell no. None of this is perfect, but it is fun.
March 10, 2025
Let’s Talk About Book Covers
Sometimes you must step away from the tedious to clear the mind.
I have been editing since last month and have enjoyed doing it. Editing is tedious work. Honestly, it is not as creative or fun as I would like it to be. Like I said, I enjoy it, but it needs some space at times. Beyond the editing of basic grammar which is handled by so many tools today such as Grammarly, Word, Google Docs, or anything built into almost everything we use to type on these days, Autocrit has been great at helping me work through the process. It is so interesting to work through the analysis reports it creates to improve your writing.
On a completely different note, I started playing with cover designs. Now that is a completely creative process. One you can get lost in. Way back in the day, I went to college with the idea I was going to be a graphic designer. This was long before computers were even much of a thing in the world of graphic design. So I have a little bit of experience in graphic design. Fast forward so many years and now you can do so much with software and website tools like Canva, Paint, and Gimp.
VEHO’s design was created using some AI tools and Canva. Different elements were created in AI that I liked and worked with in Canva to create what I wanted. That was more or less about getting something out there that would allow me to get the story up. This time around it has been much more about doing it myself.
I didn’t go into this half-cocked though. Like I tend to do, I jumped down the rabbit hole about what elements need to be considered for a good science fiction book cover. Digging through the ends of the internet led me to quite a few interesting guides, suggestions, and blogs that book cover artists have written. I love the internet, you can find almost anything. I even found a few books written on the topic.
Here are a few of those elements:
The title is very important when you are doing what I am trying to do here. It needs to hit certain marks that allow the book to be searchable on Amazon and pertinent to the genre that it represents. That was an entirely different rabbit hole that I jumped down and should probably be covered in its own newsletter/blog. Let’s just say that it's a whole thing…
The title “should be legible and eye-catching, and should convey the tone of the book. Science fiction titles tend to have a futuristic or technological feel, so fonts with clean lines and sharp angles are often used.” (Creative Paramita, Book Cover Artist).
The color scheme should be bold and attention-grabbing.
The cover should conform to the social norms of the genre. The imagery on a science fiction book cover should be both relevant to the book and visually striking. Spaceships, aliens, and futuristic cities are common imagery choices for science fiction book covers.
So with all this in hand, I started to design my cover.
I think I have shared some of the concept art that I used AI to create in order to test some of my ideas along the way. I knew from very early on that the cover would include a couple of elements. First, a space station set in deep space off in the distance. This story takes place in a space station so it felt right. Second, a floating helmet that was damaged and contained a skull. From those two elements, I went to work.
I created the elements separately using Paint S, Gimp, and Canva. Canva is a really fantastic tool that allows you to create from all sorts of templates, and book covers just happen to be one of them.
I used a template from Canva, added a stock space photo from Canva, and then added my other two elements along with my title and author name. I spent way too many hours messing around with the arrangement and applying some filters to give the image a bit of graininess, but it was really creative and fun.
Initially, I created about twenty versions of the cover and then narrowed it down to about six. Then I reached out to some trusted friends and begged for some feedback on which ones they liked.
One of them rose to the top when it came to getting feedback.
As it stands, here is my book cover. It may change, but I doubt it.
I have been editing since last month and have enjoyed doing it. Editing is tedious work. Honestly, it is not as creative or fun as I would like it to be. Like I said, I enjoy it, but it needs some space at times. Beyond the editing of basic grammar which is handled by so many tools today such as Grammarly, Word, Google Docs, or anything built into almost everything we use to type on these days, Autocrit has been great at helping me work through the process. It is so interesting to work through the analysis reports it creates to improve your writing.
On a completely different note, I started playing with cover designs. Now that is a completely creative process. One you can get lost in. Way back in the day, I went to college with the idea I was going to be a graphic designer. This was long before computers were even much of a thing in the world of graphic design. So I have a little bit of experience in graphic design. Fast forward so many years and now you can do so much with software and website tools like Canva, Paint, and Gimp.
VEHO’s design was created using some AI tools and Canva. Different elements were created in AI that I liked and worked with in Canva to create what I wanted. That was more or less about getting something out there that would allow me to get the story up. This time around it has been much more about doing it myself.
I didn’t go into this half-cocked though. Like I tend to do, I jumped down the rabbit hole about what elements need to be considered for a good science fiction book cover. Digging through the ends of the internet led me to quite a few interesting guides, suggestions, and blogs that book cover artists have written. I love the internet, you can find almost anything. I even found a few books written on the topic.
Here are a few of those elements:
The title is very important when you are doing what I am trying to do here. It needs to hit certain marks that allow the book to be searchable on Amazon and pertinent to the genre that it represents. That was an entirely different rabbit hole that I jumped down and should probably be covered in its own newsletter/blog. Let’s just say that it's a whole thing…
The title “should be legible and eye-catching, and should convey the tone of the book. Science fiction titles tend to have a futuristic or technological feel, so fonts with clean lines and sharp angles are often used.” (Creative Paramita, Book Cover Artist).
The color scheme should be bold and attention-grabbing.
The cover should conform to the social norms of the genre. The imagery on a science fiction book cover should be both relevant to the book and visually striking. Spaceships, aliens, and futuristic cities are common imagery choices for science fiction book covers.
So with all this in hand, I started to design my cover.
I think I have shared some of the concept art that I used AI to create in order to test some of my ideas along the way. I knew from very early on that the cover would include a couple of elements. First, a space station set in deep space off in the distance. This story takes place in a space station so it felt right. Second, a floating helmet that was damaged and contained a skull. From those two elements, I went to work.
I created the elements separately using Paint S, Gimp, and Canva. Canva is a really fantastic tool that allows you to create from all sorts of templates, and book covers just happen to be one of them.
I used a template from Canva, added a stock space photo from Canva, and then added my other two elements along with my title and author name. I spent way too many hours messing around with the arrangement and applying some filters to give the image a bit of graininess, but it was really creative and fun.
Initially, I created about twenty versions of the cover and then narrowed it down to about six. Then I reached out to some trusted friends and begged for some feedback on which ones they liked.
One of them rose to the top when it came to getting feedback.
As it stands, here is my book cover. It may change, but I doubt it.
March 2, 2025
Things Are Moving Quickly
Hello March!
Things have been moving quickly of late. I finished my most recent book edit and have passed it to a few trusted beta readers for input. Thus far I am getting some good responses back from it. That is encouraging. There ended up being some significant rewrites in this round of editing. It’s crazy how much the story can change from editing.
I ended up moving entire chapters around in the book. I felt that some things were being revealed too quickly and I knew it required some major reworking. I think I mentioned last month how Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings changed constantly over the course of edits and new version releases. After seeing so much of the story change with my most recent edits, I can see how that could be a thing.
I am much happier with the current story. I am proud of where it sits right now. I know I will get some things I am missing through feedback from my beta readers, and I anticipate some adjustments after that. We are getting close, and that is crazy to think.
While the story is in the hands of some beta readers I figured why not start on the marketing piece for selling the book. When it comes to this piece, I really wanted to work smarter and not harder. I used a lot of Chat GPT to create the ads. It’s insane what Chat GPT can do. I uploaded the current story to it, asked it to give me a overview of the ideal client, and had it create a sales copy for the book. Here is what it came back with for the sales copy:
Dead Station: A Military Zombie Apocalypse Space Opera
A Sci-Fi Thriller Packed with Action, Horror, and Survival
In the cold abyss of deep space, death is only the beginning…
When the crew of the USSCN Týr , an elite special operations warship, is dispatched to investigate a silent mining colony, they expect political unrest or a corporate cover-up. What they find instead is beyond horror.
The once-thriving Kyler Station is now a slaughterhouse. Bodies litter the corridors. Blood paints the walls. And the few survivors left whisper of an infection that turns men into monsters—stronger, faster, and impervious to pain.
For Senior Chief Petty Officer Jackson and his battle-hardened team, survival means following the rules: shoot first, ask questions later. But as the infected close in and the station’s deadly secrets unravel, the mission turns into a desperate fight against an enemy they barely understand.
Something unnatural is spreading. Something relentless. And it's already too late.
Perfect for fans of Aliens, The Expanse, and Dead Space. If you love pulse-pounding sci-fi action, military strategy, and terrifying space horror, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat!
Will they survive the nightmare? Or will they become part of it?
Grab your copy of Dead Station today—before the infection spreads.
I like it, what about you? I also asked it to create some graphics for me based on scenes from the book. Those are below. I will be using some of those in the marketing campaign for Facebook and Instagram ads.
I am also trying to get my hands around Goodreads. I have not been great on that platform, but I can see where it may have some potential. If you are on Goodreads, you can find me at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47452096.Shamon_Harper
I put the same material there that I do here, but if you would rather get it there it’s an option. Anyway, while I am still waiting for input from beta readers I will continue to chase the marketing campaign for the book. I hope your month is a good one.
On a personal note, as this releases I am in Spain visiting one of my kids who lives there and teaches English to school children. It’s nice to get out of the office a bit.
Shamon
February 19, 2025
Editing is a Beast
Hey!
I swear I blinked sometime in the beginning of July and then it was August. How the hell did that happen? When I wrote July’s blog entry I had just finished my first draft of the novel. I am still super excited about it.
So much has been going on for the last month.
My big goal was to start learning how to edit now that I had finished the first draft. This endeavor took me down the rabbit hole for over a month now. The prevailing wisdom is when you are going to self-edit, you need to put your work down for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. I have not touched the draft or even looked at it in over a month now. Instead, I have been focusing on learning how to edit.
It’s been a pretty cool journey.
I started by reading the book Understanding Show, Don't Tell: (And Really Getting It) by Janice Hardy.
Then I went and read the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Rennie Brown and Dave King.
Both are great reads on editing.
I also listened to more podcasts on book editing than I care to divulge. When I go down the rabbit hole on something I usually hit it very hard. I love learning new things.
Then I went on a tear into researching editing tools. Oh My God, was that so much fun digging into! I landed on Autocrit. It’s a pretty cool tool for authors to use for the entire process of writing and editing. The things it shows you when you are analyzing your work are amazing. It can analyze almost every aspect of your work and give you incredible insight. It creates reports and makes suggestions on how to improve your work and measures that progress as you make changes. It also allows you to compare your work to other work in your genre. That was pretty cool.
So, in light of learning how to edit I dusted off VEHO: A BACKSTORY, my trusty old project that has given me so much already, and put it through the wringer. I spent so many hours over the last month digging through the six thousand words in that story it was unreal. As a result, I have created version two of the story and updated it on Amazon Kindle. I have also updated it on my website for download.
You can download it in either EPUB or PDF by going to this link.
What I came out with was a leaner, meaner version of VEHO that I am pretty impressed with. D.J. Molles the author of The Remaining Series and a few other works often says that authors never finish work, they abandon it. After going through the editing rabbit hole I understand that now. You can always improve and update your work. After an entire month of playing with it, I had to finally say this is good for now. It was hard to do.
VEHO in its newer form is cleaner, leaner, a lot less repetitive, and is a much stronger story all around.
I am excited to share it with you.
Now it’s time to pick up the first draft of the novel again and jump back down the rabbit hole! I am a little intimidated by the things I have learned and applying them to such a larger body of work. It took me most of the month to edit a six thousand word story, I have no clue what that will look like for a sixty thousand word story…
Until next month!
Shamon
I swear I blinked sometime in the beginning of July and then it was August. How the hell did that happen? When I wrote July’s blog entry I had just finished my first draft of the novel. I am still super excited about it.
So much has been going on for the last month.
My big goal was to start learning how to edit now that I had finished the first draft. This endeavor took me down the rabbit hole for over a month now. The prevailing wisdom is when you are going to self-edit, you need to put your work down for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. I have not touched the draft or even looked at it in over a month now. Instead, I have been focusing on learning how to edit.
It’s been a pretty cool journey.
I started by reading the book Understanding Show, Don't Tell: (And Really Getting It) by Janice Hardy.
Then I went and read the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Rennie Brown and Dave King.
Both are great reads on editing.
I also listened to more podcasts on book editing than I care to divulge. When I go down the rabbit hole on something I usually hit it very hard. I love learning new things.
Then I went on a tear into researching editing tools. Oh My God, was that so much fun digging into! I landed on Autocrit. It’s a pretty cool tool for authors to use for the entire process of writing and editing. The things it shows you when you are analyzing your work are amazing. It can analyze almost every aspect of your work and give you incredible insight. It creates reports and makes suggestions on how to improve your work and measures that progress as you make changes. It also allows you to compare your work to other work in your genre. That was pretty cool.
So, in light of learning how to edit I dusted off VEHO: A BACKSTORY, my trusty old project that has given me so much already, and put it through the wringer. I spent so many hours over the last month digging through the six thousand words in that story it was unreal. As a result, I have created version two of the story and updated it on Amazon Kindle. I have also updated it on my website for download.
You can download it in either EPUB or PDF by going to this link.
What I came out with was a leaner, meaner version of VEHO that I am pretty impressed with. D.J. Molles the author of The Remaining Series and a few other works often says that authors never finish work, they abandon it. After going through the editing rabbit hole I understand that now. You can always improve and update your work. After an entire month of playing with it, I had to finally say this is good for now. It was hard to do.
VEHO in its newer form is cleaner, leaner, a lot less repetitive, and is a much stronger story all around.
I am excited to share it with you.
Now it’s time to pick up the first draft of the novel again and jump back down the rabbit hole! I am a little intimidated by the things I have learned and applying them to such a larger body of work. It took me most of the month to edit a six thousand word story, I have no clue what that will look like for a sixty thousand word story…
Until next month!
Shamon
