The Time Capsule

In late July/early August 2022, I had that nagging feeling pop into my head for a story. The first part involved a mash-up of a murder mystery mixed with some sci-fi intrigue. Sometimes, those types of thoughts are fleeting. But this one stuck with me. I started working out a plot for the story. Then characters. Back story. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And all of this bounced around in my brain without a single thought put in writing. Then, in mid-August, I put my thoughts to paper (more like a computer screen). First, I fleshed out the back story. Next, I provided more detail about the main characters. Then, chapter by chapter, I outlined how the entire story would unfold. It may have been a month or two of getting that all in line before I started writing the novel properly. As it stands now, I currently finished chapter eight. As it usually goes with the writing process, things have changed. Finishing chapter eight is actually finishing chapter eleven of the original outline. I

Time kinda flies, ya know? Nearly 11 years ago, Fram Gage and The Infinite Ability released on Kindle. Since I wrote and released two more books in the series, Fram Gage and The Three Adversaries  and Fram Gage and The Holographic Man . Meanwhile... I had always intended to compile those three novels into one edition, and I'm happy to announce that day has finally come! On September 2, 2022, Fram Gage - Limited Series Edition , will release for Kindle! With this compilation, I'm taking a sort of "reboot" type approach to the series. Why? Well, I always intended for Fram Gage  to be a superhero origin type story. While I feel the book covers served their purpose well, with this release, I really wanted to give that comic feel to it. With that in mind, here is the cover for the book: Fram Gage - Limited Series Edition All three novels in the series are included in this book. Along with that, it will include some revised formatting that'll continue a similar theme t

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash Do you have a great young adult novel that you've written and can't wait to send out to the world? Maybe it's dystopian, science fiction, or just good-ole literary fiction. As you're setting up your book in Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), you're asked what category you want the book in. No matter where you scroll, you can't find a single category called "Young Adult". There's "Juvenile Fiction" but that just doesn't seem right to you. So how do you categorize for Young Adult fiction? The issue here is that the categories listed are BISAC categories. But Amazon will then take these categories and fine-tune it on the back end for their internal categories. They base these on several factors such as keywords, age group, etc. Here are the two simple steps you need to follow when setting up your book on KDP to ensure they fall into Amazon's Young Adult category. Step 1 First, make sure at least

This year, Amazon Prime Day falls on July 12-13, 2022. We all know it's a great time to get deals on something you need , right? Not something you want ? Right? You know what people don't do enough nowadays that they need  to do? Read! So, in order to give people what they need , all my digital books on Amazon will have discounts during Prime Day 2022! Some as much as 70% off the list price! Some will even be free ! Below is a direct link to my author page on Amazon where you can surround yourself in all my wordy goodness. I'm sure there's something there you will enjoy! Happy reading, ya'll! DESMOND SHEPHERD AMAZON PAGE

I'm happy to announce another release of Imaginary Me  is coming within the week! Not only can you get the book in paperback. ...and digital ...and audiobook ...but you can now have a copy of the book in hardcover! It's crazy that a book I released nine years ago is still finding life in many ways! If you didn't know, Imaginary Me is the one book I wrote that I'm most fond of. I'll be honest, it was tough writing it. Domestic abuse is a difficult subject to discuss. There were times as I wrote it that I had to stop, walk away, and calm myself down because the moments were too intense—too real. I knew there were children every day experiencing such tragic circumstances. I had to write this book though, if for no other reason than maybe I could give someone out there who is a victim of abuse hope and courage. Perhaps this story would inspire them and even help them change their situation for the better. If it does that for even one individual, I'll know I succe