Yes, I started with AI, but I did two weeks of work on it, and changed so many things, AI just doesn't do it all.

To create a cover for my paperback book, I needed to use the eBook cover my son-in-law made for the front and find or create a picture with AI for the back cover and blend them together on the spine. I had a terrible time trying to match that blue Oregon forest with the rust and sunset colors and the completely different scene at the bottom. By the time I got things matching pretty well, the main characters faces on the front of the cover were blurred and grainy, and Brian looked like an old prospector.

I was so irritated after all that work and time! The AI asked me if I would like to have it re-do the entire cover and I figured, "what have I got to lose?" I wrote out a new prompt and waited. The cover it came up with was much better all 'round except Brian didn't look Jewish anymore, and he looked sixteen.

 I cut the head from another cover I made on a different site, where Brian's face was just what I wanted, and made it fit where Brian's head was on the new cover. I removed the background from the headshot so it looked more like it belonged there. Then I asked the AI to replace the man's head on the original book cover with this new one and blend it with the man's shoulders. I waited, twiddling my fingers and biting my cheeks. 
Wow! It did a perfect job! I was so happy that the back and front covers were congruent! Now the workers were on the back cover, which I liked better. Brian's face was too red, Antonia's comparatively too pale and I didn't like the divider bar. It didn't match the other books. 

I erased the divider bar and repaired the forest that erasure messed up. Then I pasted in the one I wanted, and added more color to Antonia's face to match Brian's so they didn't look like they were in two separate dimensions! I also added highlights to her hand, refined it and used some shaders to give the whole thing a golden glow. A lot of work with paint in PixelmatorPro! I used a filter to tone down his face and make hers more rosy. I also worked on both their hands, again. It's getting better!

Finally, I added stars so it blended better with the other books in the series. I also worked on the lettering to make it pop and look more 3-D. A couple of weeks and a lot of work later, the final cover! 

I published Training Ground on Amazon as an eBook. I don't have it up as a paperback yet as I'm struggling with the cover art. The eBook cover is fun, but I must somehow extend that over the spine and to the back of the book and the forest is in shades of blue and black as it's twilight. In the foreground are colonists in training, clearing ground, the first part of learning to build their homes. That's in rusty brown shades and it blends into Brian with his guitar and Antonia with a large terra cotta mug.

I must create a forest scene with the same color scheme and then blend the two scenes together along the spine. It was easy with the first books, because they all had starscapes in the background and since I provided those for my cover artist, I had them to use and the blending was easy. This cover? Not so much. When I finish I'll post a photo of the paperback cover so you can see what I did!

Here's the eBook cover:

I've been sick so I got behind on my editing and rewriting schedule, but I'm back! I've made it to chapter 39 and will get a couple more done today.

My pepper seeds didn't sprout, so I bought a couple of pepper plants, banana and jalapeño. The less spicy ones for me! Jalapeños for my husband Mark. I also planted tomatoes. We'll see how that goes, they don't do well here as it gets so hot in the summer. I planted them in part shade, maybe, we'll see!

On my Ream site I added more chapters to the three books I have up, and made the first few chapters of each book public. This way anyone can get a taste of my writing and a preview of some of my books.

Check it out! On my ongoing projects, you can get chapters as I write them! So you'll get the new books first and you can comment on different parts of the chapter you're reading. This is wonderful for me as I'll get feedback on what I'm writing, and I can answer questions as well as comment on your feedback.

I'm so excited to finally have a platform where I can have an ongoing conversation with my readers! 

https://reamstories.com/shimrithanes

A photo collage of the membership tiers on my Ream page - $3 - $20.

It's been so dry! We've already had a local fire burn 550 acres. It's not supposed to be like California here!

That said, we have a small patch with a soaker hose on a timer that waters it. I stuck to that small garden last year, and I guess this year too. This morning I planted six sweet potato slips, and a row of long beans. We still have last years collard greens producing so that's three vegetables so far.

I'm soaking some pepper seeds now and will put them in seedling pots tomorrow, and those collards are on their last legs, so I need to plant some new ones.

I started a Ream site yesterday. I spent most of the day on that. Ream is similar to Patreon, but it was created by authors for authors. There, I've been uploading chapters of both Terra Colony Dreamers, and Training Ground. It releases them to subscribers two chapters of each a week. I will add my other books to it and you'll be able to follow along as I write new books!

As I update the website here I'll post a link to it on the home page.

Ream will allow me to give perks to givers more easily than it is to do on my Zemer Levav Subscriber page. If any of you are on that and want to switch over, email me by answering a newsletter, and I'll help you do that. Ream has a chat area where I can post, you can comment, and I can comment back. On my older page I can't do that and so there's no two-way conversation (Ugh).

Got lots more work to do, so till next time, Shalom and Blessings! ~Shimrit

P.S. Here's the latest update on the Training Ground cover. I'll be sending an email update, answer that and tell me what you think!

Under the sukkah this October, preparing to lead worship with my daughter, Kerah.

Work has gone well on my project of turning ‘The Dreamers’ into three separate novels. I finished parts one and two during the summer. Right before we left for our vacation in October, I finished part three (or at least I thought so!) However, the re-edited part three of The Dreamers, renamed Terra Nova, was only 30,000+ words, fine for a novella, but not a novel.

As I read over the manuscript I realized that part three was comfortable and idyllic, bringing the harsh and sad beginning of Antonia's story to a happy conclusion. Excellent for the book as a whole, but not great for a separate novel. What did it need?

I pondered throughout our vacation and jotted down ideas for some possible friction points, problems that needed solving, and also considered some new discoveries, after all, their scientists have a whole new planet to research, what sort of new, fascinating creatures, geological anomalies, fantastical plant life could they find?

And what about the sea? Esperanza and Enterprise are both on or near the coast of Yam Tikvah. What mysteries lie beneath its surface? Now, full of fresh possibilities, I surge forward.

At the same time, I’d wanted to work hard on book six in the series, The Migration, during November. I got a good start on it this spring, but got very side-tracked on the re-working of book one. Now I've picked up a new book formatting job, and will also create a cover for my customer’s book, two projects I really enjoy doing. November will be a very busy month!

Oy, This shouldn't be so difficult. So many choices, so many ideas, and it must be done.

I've learned so much about creating the optimal Author Website. I'm taking a video course on this. Bless Adonai for video learning! And podcasts where you have the opportunity to learn from others mistakes and not make them yourself. 

At 69, I don't have enough years left to learn from my own mistakes, so I do a huge amount of research so I can get things right the first time (or second!) Therefore my website is going through big changes. 

I spent several weeks away from book four (soon to be book six, but more on that later) writing a novella. It was supposed to be very short, but I just couldn't tell the story in less than twenty chapters! So it's at the long end of the novella status, great perk for those who sign up for my newsletter!

I'm in the middle of a special project. I made a decision several months ago to split my very long, three-part, book, The Dreamers into three separate novels: 

The Dreamers, The Training Ground, and Terra Nova.

At this time, the original Book, The Dreamers is still available on Amazon.

While you wait to see the updated, trilogy, enjoy my blog, and the pages for the original three-part book, The Dreamers, also, The Stowaways, and Flight of the EsCargo. They can be read as a duo, as they comprise a side story of The Dreamers. Download the first three chapters of each book as a PDF.  Enjoy!

Book 1 The Dreamers, is being divided into 3 books:

The Dreamers, The Training Ground, and Terra Nova

What is now book 1 The Dreamers, will be a trilogy with parts two and three renamed to the new titles. I'm thinking of a collage of all three covers for the new cover of this book. Isn't that fun and confusing? I'm a little worried about that for those who've read the older version of book one!

Books 2 and 3, The Stowaways (2) and Flight of the EsCargo (3) will become books 4 and 5. I'll have to change the numbers on those covers! Not hard. Then the book I'm working on now, The Migration, will be book 6.

Comment and let me know what you think about all this.

I've traveled to Central Florida for a health summit, to Oregon for a week, for my father's funeral, a sad time, then back to Central Florida for a camping trip (it rained the whole time, happy anniversary honey!) then north to Connecticut for a week to help my middle daughter with the kids while hubby went to a wedding. The baby got sick the day after I arrived and was miserable all week, poor little guy!

Well, I'm home now and it looks like August is free for me to get some things done that are long overdue. I'm working hard to put some new things in motion to help my book sales. Writing a book is less than half of the work that goes into its success. People can't purchase something they don't know exists!

Right now my subscribers are providing much needed financial help and I'm so thankful for that! (If you’d like to subscribe click here!)

This spring/summer I wrote a novella that ties into my series, a back story on one of my interesting ‘not so side’ side characters, Brian Solomon. This will be a free e-book/pdf for anyone who signs up for my newsletter on my website. I'll be asking three facebook friends per week this August to post a poster for the offer on their facebook page and other social media.

My target for completion was the end of May, but I’m still dinking with the web-site and it’s August 1st. So far I have the pdf download working. I may have to get a subscription (more money out!) to BookFunnel, which will allow me to give folks a choice of epub, mobi, kindle, or pdf.

Speaking of web-site, I’ve been giving my author website a complete overhaul this month. I've learned some things from more experienced authors and one of them is it's best to have a special page for each book, and I now have a page for The Dreamers. This way I can put a lot more information about each book and the first few chapters for them to read! What a concept! Now people can get a good taste of the story and be more motivated to buy.

Another project that’s running neck in neck with the novella, is the division of Book 1 The Dreamers into three smaller novels. Since the book is in three parts this isn't two difficult, however, I'm must add text to the beginning and endings of each part to make it work better as a stand alone novel. This will make each book less expensive, more friendly for new ‘Terra Colony’ readers!

I'm also doing a more thorough edit on each, and the results are taking the books from very good, to exceptional. Part one was titled Earth. It will now be The Dreamers. I’ve completed that! Part two, now called Earth Terra, will have a new title, The Training Ground, all about our intrepid colonists training in Oregon. I’m halfway finished with that. Then part three, Terra, will now be titled The New World.

The Dreamers as it stands now will be retitled as a trilogy, a compilation of the three smaller books. The title will be The Terra Colony Project: Books I, II, and III. The cover art will have artwork blended from each title cover, and it will be a revised version, with all the new editing and additions. I’m strongly considering releasing that as a hardcover also.

With all this work ongoing, book four, The Migration, is not getting as much time. That's hard for me because it's so exciting I really want to really dig in and finish it!

The novella was challenging for me as it has some political dirt, a little too much like what's going on today, but Senator Joseph Solomon's family's flight and his disappearance was exciting, and fun to write. 

Thank you for reading! Adonai bless and keep you!

I clicked on a YouTube video today out of curiosity, looking for something to think about while I made dinner. Uncertain if I would learn anything that could help me sell more books, I took a chance. It had one of those click-bait titlesThe 7,11,4 Hack That Turns $1 Into $10K Per Month! The 7, 11, 4, Hack That Turns 1$ Into 10K Per Month! Big whoop!

Usually the ideas are well known, and the years needed to begin accruing that kind of income are more than I have left in my life. Besides, I'm not interested in becoming a millionaire. Surprisingly, there were several points that I took away from it that were actually helpful.

Point 1: The 7, 11, 4, formula. It is 7 hours, 11 interactions, and 4 platforms. Seven hours of video content, eleven interactions with your audience, across four different platforms. I have four social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. So, I'm going to try something new.

I'm considering reading Book I The Dreamers, one chapter at a time, on all four platforms, and do some livestreams where people can ask me questions and connect with me. I've also had people tell me they are interested in my experience with the carnivore diet and want me to do a livestream about that. I also make custom jewelry and grow some of our food. I can do videos about that.

The second point is make yourself memorable by looking different, or having a particular thing you wear that becomes a trademark. That's easy for me because of my jewelry creations. I have some very cool and avant guard pieces that would perfectly fit that bill.

The third is I need to provide value to people for free. Reading the book aloud would be free, my experience with the carnivore diet would give folks free information. Giving my readers an opportunity to meet me and ask questions, and sharing my gardens would be enjoyable for me and I hope, a blessing and encouragement to others.

It will take time and discipline. I'm praying for a way to schedule my time so I can do all these things. Spring is in the air here in Florida. The birds are nesting, and it's time to build a new henhouse and get chicks. A tree fell on my henhouse in the last hurricane! Plus I need to start seedlings and prepare the ground. Spring is a difficult time to add new things to my schedule. I'd appreciate your prayers!

I've been absent from the internet for several months, and though I've been home two weeks, I'm only now feeling ready to dig in and get stuff done!

First hurricane Idalia hit us hard. We had to shelter at our church for four days and nights. The power was out and trees were down everywhere, making travel back home impossible at first. 

We had six trees down, several blocking our driveway, so once neighbors with chain saws and four wheelers cleared the highway, Mark had to head home and start cutting his way to our trailers in back. 

While we were at the church I got some bad news. My eldest daughter fell down some steps and broke both bones just above her ankle. The front bone was sheared and her foot displaced and the rear one was splintered. She had two surgeries to set them and have steel straps screwed to either side to immobilize the bones. She needed help.

I raised funds on Facebook and my son-in-law drove me up there. I spent a week helping organize, keeping the kids busy, fetching for and sitting with Shalisha in her upstairs bedroom. It was a blessing spending time with her and my grandkids while their dad left to work at a dance camp he'd been organizing.

A month earlier, my dad paid for me to fly to Oregon for his ninetieth birthday, so I got home, re-packed and flew away for another week. There I picked pears with my sister, cleaned, made meals, and helped prepare for the big celebration. I spent time sitting with dad as he reminisced, telling stories of high points in his life. Another very special time.

I flew home, repacked and a day later Mark and I left for Connecticut! We go every year for Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) and visit our daughters who are strung like pearls up the eastern states. We had a wonderful time. I did a class on Writing a Novel, what it entails and the blessings and challenges. I took a class and made a new Mezuzah for our door. We got to spend time with Kerah, our third born and her family, and Liorah, our fourth born who we rarely get to see. 

On the way home we stopped at Shalisha's (my eldest). We always spend a week there with her family, enjoying the antics and creativity of our four grandchildren. By this time I was looking forward to finally going home! While we were there I got a call from my sisters (three way call). My mom (with my youngest sister) was going downhill to the point she was bedridden and my sister works. She needed someone to be with mom during the day.

My middle sister also works, so I knew that someone had to be me! Mixed feelings to say the least! I was glad to go and help, but I was so tired by this time--only one thing to do--pray! Once again I hit Facebook and asked for help. I'm so thankful for all those who have been so helpful when we've had family emergencies, and here we had two in a row!

I bought my ticket to stay five weeks and my middle sister said that would give her time to get her stuff in order to be able to come a month or two afterward, if necessary. Mark drove me to the airport in Atlanta, and I flew to California! (I'm laughing at this point because it was all just so crazy!) 

That was my mom's last month on Earth. Bless Adonai, my middle sister came two days before I was to leave, and mom passed three hours after she arrived. All three of her girls were with her, holding her hands, praying and singing hymns over her as she passed on to glory.

Her last words were “Jesus, forgive me.” Her pastor commented, “What else can any of us say when we stand before him?” 

Life continues… Home now I've had a couple of weeks to get back on my feet and while I was out, I started book four, The Migration. 

Adonai is good. He has made all things good for those who love Him.

The count-down has begun, as Adrielle and I go through the proof copies ‘one more time!’ with a fine-tooth comb, weeding out any errors I missed in past edits. This book finishes the story of the Stowaways, carrying them through their years and changes on the EsCargo. 

The next book ‘The Migration’, will bring in some of our favorite folks from ‘The Dreamers’, as they meet and befriend some of our stowaways. Before I start on that, I’m working on a devotional, and a course on how to edit your book. I’ve learned so much through the necessity of editing my own work. It’s difficult to do well.

I’ve learned some basics that every editor uses, what they (and so you) need to look for in your manuscript. Editing can be very costly. The average price for a copy editor is .04 to .09 a word, or if they charge by the page, 5.00 to 15.00 a page. Plus, there are several types of editing every book needs. Developmental editing for your story’s structure and flow, copy editing for grammar, spelling, and sentence structure (this is sometimes also called line editing), and then proofreading to catch anything the other editors missed, and they each have to be paid.

It's a big pill to swallow when you’re trying to do it all yourself! I want to help others, and in doing so, add some much needed cash flow to help fill an income gap we’re experiencing. I hope to start on The Migration by late fall, or winter.

If you, or someone you know might be interested in an editing course, contact me at shimrithanes@gmail.com.