Shimrit Hanes | Updates

Cover Wars! Learning How to Use My Tools to Make a Book Cover, Published on Jun 14, 2026 4:20PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, I started with AI, (So, beat me with pejoratives) 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 his 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. Super artifact-y!!!

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!

(A Note July 13, 2026 - Now I'm having cover regret. It's really pretty, but 1. It doesn't match the other covers, 2. This scene is too far into the story, when many things resolved. I think I need them to look as they were at the beginning of the story. When Antonia was confused about what to do with her life, and Brian decided to stop avoiding her and try to be the friend she needed. I'm working on it, stay tuned!)

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Book 2 Training Ground eBook, Originally Published Published on May 19, 2026 11:58AM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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!

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Up to Chapter 39! Originally Published on Apr 28, 2026 2:05PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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.

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Planting, Updating, and Editing, Oh My! Originally Published on Apr 22, 3:52PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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

(Training Ground early cover idea)

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November's Challenges - Moving Forward, Originally Published on Nov 11, 2025, 11:21AM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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!

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Continuing to Update My Website, and Order of the Books! Originally Published on Aug 15, 2025, 1:56PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Join me on Ream, you can comment there!

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Writing a Novella, Website Update, and Visiting My Daughter, Originally Published on Aug 1, 2025, 3:21PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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!

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Learning Something New, Blog Originally Published on Feb 13, 2025, 11:19PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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 titles The 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.

(Cover of original Book 1 The Dreamers)

Point 1: The 7, 11, 4, formula. Comprised of 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!

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Hurricane Idalia and Caring for Injured and Ill Family Members Published on Dec 18, 2023, 11:23PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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!

(Downed trees on our property and on the street.)

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.

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Flight of the EsCargo Release Date, July 13th! (Blog Originally Published on Jun 30, 2023, 12:17PM)

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

(Photo of the new cover)

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.

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Book Three Release, When Life Gets in the Way, Originally Published on Mar 24, 2023, 3:00PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Shalom, shalom!

Life is good! More than good, great! But sometimes even great things can impede us from reaching our goals in a timely manner. I just spent a wonderful two weeks with my eldest daughter's family. This encompassed my grandson's Bar Mitzvah, and the feast of Purim. Needless to say, a great time was had by all!

I've had three deadlines for the release of this book. The first was last October, but the book wasn't ready.

In November we had family come for Thanksgiving and stay two weeks, and I didn't want to make the mistake I made with book two and release it too soon. I knew it needed more editing, and I didn't have good enough cover art yet, my graphic artist was in a bad accident, so I decided surely those things would come together by the end of January? Well I did get my preliminary edit done on the whole book.

In December, I did another read-through and more editing, but had trouble getting Beta Readers, everyone was too busy with the holidays. I went to California to take care of mom for my sister so she could get away. The artist working on my cover was recovering from his accident, and just getting started. At this point I finished my second final edit (I'll often have three or four of those!).

January and February zoomed by, what happened to those months? I don't even remember! Day by day I inch closer! I'm in my final, final edit now, doing three chapters a day. It can take anywhere from three to five hours to read, edit, then have my computer read it aloud to me (this works great to catch things your brain corrects as you're reading and you don't see!)

I'm halfway through this last edit now, and hoping the cover art is completed when my editing is finished. Now I'm looking toward mid to end of April. Here's hoping!

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Book III is Almost Finished, Book Cover in Progress, Originally Published on Nov 21, 2022, 3:00PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m on the finishing stretch of book III of my series, Flight of the EsCargo (Now Book 5). I’m excited to get the finish product published and into your hands. I’ve been working on the cover alongside editing and filling out the book, and am happy with my progress.

This book follows the Stowaways from book II and their struggles to fit in with this ship full of God Fearers. You saw in book two that a couple of them, through Serena’s influence are already fairly certain that there must be a God, considering the way things developed in their struggle to even get on board the ship.

As the story unfolds some struggle more than others, but none are more confused than Craig. He believes that A-I programs can evolve through machine learning and eventually become sentient. He thinks the ships A-I is close and as a computer science student and hacker, decides to help her along. You can imagine the chaos that ensues!

Be blessed and enjoy your Thanksgiving! ~Shimrit

This was my original mock-up to help my cover artist understand what I was going for.

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I Survived Covid, Originally Published July 29, 2022

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

(Photo of hen and chicks)

After two days, I started feeling much better, but was so exhausted I just traveled from the bed to the couch and sat outside to get out of the house and watch the chickens scratch, the little chicks are so cute! After a couple more days I started taking short walks on our acre, to the gardens and back. The cough continued but not so bad and my energy level improved over week two. I started reading paperbacks, went over to my daughter’s trailer (they were sick with it too) and played Chinese checkers with her, chatted and hand sewed patchwork for a quilt.

Week three, I started getting back to my writing. My walks got longer, and I started puttering in the garden, pulling weeds and smashing pests. I had a minor relapse for a couple of days after getting overheated in the garden. Now I feel good. All together it has taken about a month to get back to normal life. I still can’t sing very well, I still have a gravelly voice and an occasional cough, but that will right itself with a little more time.

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Last Month Scramble! This Blog Post Originally Published on Feb 3, 2022, 3:43PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wow! My new book has been late twice now as I continue editing. Every time I read through I find more mistakes, Oy! The editing process can be tedious, but it's very necessary. I'm reading it aloud to one of my daughters to help me with the process. My husband always gets the first read-through, so for him its start and stop to edit, then start reading again. Poor guy, he gets the rough version!

Been working on the cover with a graphic artist. It's been rough working with someone I don't know, and the idea I really wanted was too complicated for him, so I had to go with plan B which I'm not as happy with, but it's looking good. I'll blog and show you the cover when it's finished. My subscribers are getting the whole process with the first rendition through the last one. If you're interested in subscribing (five dollars and up) you'll get all kinds of perks! Go to this site: https://reamstories.com/shimrithanes

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Book two 'The Stowaways' It's Out! Published on Feb 3, 2022, 3:42PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Click "See More" below. Then "View Original" Above to see Cover Art

All the final editing is finished. The cover is done. The inside of the book is formatted (Chapter numbers and titles added, paragraph indents set, Fonts chosen, scene breaks divided with a decorative line etc.). There's much work to be done that you never think about till you write your first book and start to publish it!

I struggled a bit with the title for this one. It had always been 'Flight of the EsCargo' in my mind, but as I finished up I realized that the book was more about the Stowaways than the EsCargo captain and crew.The name though catchy, didn't seem to fit anymore. I really wanted to keep Flight of the EsCargo as it is so unusual, so I tried paring it with The Stowaways, but that was a double title and just too much.

I spoke with family and friends and most agreed that just keeping it simple 'The Stowaways' was the best and fit the pattern set by the first title in the series 'The Dreamers'. Book two now has the more generic title, 'The Stowaways.' Why do i think it's generic? Because, I discovered when I published book one, that the title 'The Dreamers' seemed to be a popular title. There must be five hundred books with that title or something very close. Not helpful when people are searching for your book! I scrolled through five pages of similar titles and never did find my book!

How does 'The Stowaways' fare in comparison? It's actually much better. I found my book on the bottom of the second or middle of the third page when I searched it. Now I need to see how my third title holds up as I begin to write book three, 'The Migration' I may have to tweak it by adding another word! I also want to write a children's book about the adventures of the colonists and how their faith is tested through the persecution on Earth, the move and work of the training period, and the strangeness of a new world. It will be called 'The Children of Terra' and have many of the experiences seen from a child's perspective.

Every new project is a new adventure for me. I'm excited to begin as I think through what these books will communicate through the stories I tell.

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Book 2 Manuscript Finished Published on Oct 12, 2021, 5:07PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The manuscript for book two, ‘Flight of the EsCargo’ is finished!

I’m now working hard editing it. I decided to do the book in two parts, rather than have it as long as book one ‘The Dreamers’ (400+ pages!) and have it another six to eight months late on the goal I set for its release. My goal was to have it finished by October 1st, but I don’t want to put out a less than excellent book, and matching ‘The Dreamers’ quality is important to me, so I’m hoping to have it out by November first. I’m also working on the cover design and I’m in a good place to do that! I have a household full of people that I can use to stage it, illustrating one of the exciting scenes from the book for the cover.

For those of you who haven’t read book one and know nothing about the story it is a Speculative Fiction (‘what if’ story)/Science Fiction. A simple description is:

People of faith from all over the globe dream of a beautiful unspoiled world and God weaves their lives, bringing them together to make it a reality. In book one Antonia survives a disaster that destroys her city but loses her family. The night after the tragedy she dreams of a beautiful new world and God speaks to her heart that He will bring her there. As her troubles compound, in bitterness, she turns her back on God, but the tribulations she faces force her to cling to her only rock.

Fleeing her husband’s abuse, she falls in with three others heading to Oregon for training to colonize a new world. Through political turmoil and an out of control crime wave, they learn to trust one another and form true communities by necessity. They learn how to build villages from whatever is at hand, working toward the goal of colonizing this new world and escaping the persecution and intolerance of their faith.

Book two overlaps book one, from the point of view of two members of the Teng Clan, a Chinese American family who five generations ago fled China to find religious freedom in the USA. Mark and Emily Teng are chosen to help staff the last training year for the final colony ship of the five ships launching, the EsCargo.

Meanwhile a young, depressed ‘wealthie,’ Daxton, feels purposeless and empty. After experiencing the violence outside the safety of the Arroyo Del Mar wealthie compound, he decides on an adventure! He’ll stowaway on the last ship. In his words, “How long will it be before the violence spills over the compounds walls?” and “What is there here for us anyway?” He and his childhood friend Charlotte convince several other college friends to join them.

I'm having fun editing, refining and streamlining it. New things are added as needed to focus a scene, others are subtracted to get rid of unnecessary fluff and distractions that make the storyline drag. It can be a fun process.

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Writing Christian Sci-Fi: Book Two of the Terra Colony Project Series Published on Sep 16, 2021, 10:42PM

Shimrit Hanes — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

(This blog was written before I split Book 1 The Dreamers into 3 separate novels, so now the book numbers are different!)

Book one was so much fun, and so fulfilling to me. It was the book that launched an author! Now I'm working on book two of the Terra Colony Project series (now book 4), and having as much fun with this one as I had with book one The Dreamers.

I just finished chapter eight, and though it's been tough as my time is very limited and divided between my writing and other responsibilities. I have one day a week to write, Sunday, and sometimes I can grab time in the early mornings on weekdays. If I can hammer out two chapters a week, I should be able to get book two released by the first of October, which is my goal.

Book two (now 4) is called: The Stowaways.

In this part of the saga a college student from the highest social strata, a "Wealthie." Forms a group of troubled Wealthies, with a famous surgeon's daughter who's life is ruined when her father refuses to perform an elective abortion, and a couple of brilliant "Mids" (lower middle-class) students from his college to try the 'heist of the century'. They will perform a disappearing act, by stowing away on the EsCargo.

They need to hack into both Frontier Space shipbuilders, and the TCP's databases, break into a protected warehouse, and figure out how to survive in crates in a cargo hold for long enough that sending them back will be impossible. Can this rag-tag group of college kids pull it off? They have to, as that's my story!

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