M.E. Harker

Made it to Saturday!! 😄
This is my fav late night emergency cake, especially for the holidays.

(Also psst, my ebook is on free promo today & tomorrow so be sure to grab it to read with your cake! 👀)
meharker.com/get/just-one...

#LateNightSnack #Booksky #📚💙 #SFF

Alright, new version!
I'm still on my quest to create the best die-cut sticker, because Charles needs to be the cutest little guy 🌟

#sticker #stickerdesign #bookswag #scifinovel #🪐📚

Behind the scenes on some of my Book Bonus Jewelry ✨

Most of these have already gone out to beta readers and reviewers! It's a small thing, but I love bringing handmade creations into my writing work!
(my cat "helps" the creative process)

#Author #DIY #BookSwag #SciFi #SFF #JewelryMaking

I've mentioned a lot of my DIY Craft projects I create for my books...

...But to show off some heavy machinery 🤣 here's how I make custom keychains! #Keychains #ReaderSwag #SFF #BookBonuses #AuthorDIY

Happy (early!) Holidays!!

I've got some posts queued up for the next week, leading up to Just One Command's last sale for the year! I hope you'll enjoy :)

#Books #HappyHolidays #Booksales #Update

I found out how to paint silly wiggly eyes in my art program.
It's almost too much power.

#CharlesMkI #JustOneCommand #SillyArt #Doodling #LilGuy

I dabble in music mixing, splicing songs while balancing key/tempo + adding new beats. But that's a hobby, I'm not very good! 🤣

Professionally, I'm an author. Sometimes I need to record VO for a Podcast or cameo in Audiobooks. Working on clearing my recording impurities + learning best practices!

Mid-writing: Alpha readers for chapter-by-chapter reaction feedback.

First draft: Beta readers for big-picture reader reaction.
Also send to my developmental editor!

Second Draft: Revise. Resend to Beta/Editor if major plot changes.

Then it's off to copy editing + final proofing!

Huge congratulations!! 👏 I hope your querying goes great! I'm in the midst of revising my manuscript and query package for my next series -- so I'm sending good luck to every other author in that battlefield!

(Also 100% would sneak in a few more words to hit that wonderful 88,888 mark! 😆)

Sound - Precision editing by frequency in Audacity using the spectrograph display YouTube video by Kevin Loughin

Reaper looks fantastic and the licenses are very reasonably priced. I mostly do my own audio editing for voice-overs, still learning so much!

I knew about Audacity's Plot Spectrum tool, but not the Spectrogram View!! New weekend project is to check this out.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyqg...

That's the challenge! I get lost for HOURS searching books and academic libraries (trying to get away from internet false leads) then figure out ways to bring cypress scent to the modern-day reader...

...just to eventually edit it out later for pacing purposes 🤣 But hey, I learn a lot of trivia!

Indie Book Review - Just One Command by M.E. Harker YouTube video by Indie Book Reviews

Got my first video review! Charles is the star ⭐🥹

Thank you so much Emily for the review.
Check out her channel for more awesome books!!
Youtube: youtube.com/@IndieBookReviews
Instagram: @EmilyRSiems

#BookReview #BookReviews #BookSky #SFF #🪐📚 #📚💙

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpIw...

Whaaat this looks awesome. I just do minor edits with audacity for my own recording projects, but I'm definitely trying this out! Thank you for the link!! 👍

A comical sketch A young woman is chasing after a robotic cleaning cube. The young woman is shouting: "Wait, Charles no! Don't vacuum your costume!!" To her right, Charles the cleaning cube is most certainly (and happily) vacuuming up his ghost sheet costume. Credit in the corner reads: meharker.com

A little belated but...
🎃🏃 Happy Halloween!! 👻🧊

Here's a sketch of Casey and Charles celebrating!
(The costume did not survive 👀)

Characters from: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DTFLSTV7

#Sketches #AuthorArt #SFF #SciFi #SciFiNovel

Hey y'all! Will be out of town until Nov 3rd!

Checking on socials will be slower, since wifi might not always be available! Much love! ❤

Thank you so much!! Seriously! As a smaller author, I know it's not much, but I try to add a personal touch to things while I have the time 🥰

I'm checking out your books now 👀 I adore the grunge-punk style of your cover art, by the way!! Vivian Amberville sounds so fascinating, but so does 5 Stars!

Thank you!! I'm trained in figure drawing, but honestly...I just love drawing silly cute comics the most ♥️

Hahaha okay for branding I've put "M.E. Harker" on my socials, but that makes it hard for people to know what to call me!
I'm Maria 👋 I also happily go by Harker. It's so nice to meet you!

Hello!! Sci-Fi & Fantasy author here, and occasional artist! Honestly I don't post my art online *too* much, but here's a quick sketch I've got planned to post on the 31st! 😆

(The lil cube is basically a roomba. No costume shall survive his vacuum.)

Two stickers are shown. The one on the left has a star design primarily cut outside a cube figure. The one on the right has the star design inside the cube figure. The cube has a tiny flag on it, and the name "Charles Mark One" underneath.

If you see this scroll past your feed
Let me know which version of sticker you like better!! 😆

(he's a lil robot from my book)

#Stickers #SFF #SciFi #🪐📚 #📚💙
#Cube #Charles #IveMadeTooManyStickers

Several bookmarks and keychains are laid out on top of a box. They feature space-themed designs with rocketships, and have the book title "JUST ONE COMMAND" on them.

Made some bookmarks & keychains today! Honestly I'm still in love with the colors.

#AuthorLife #BookSwag #Giveaways #SFF #SciFiNovel #JustOneCommand #DefinitelyNotProcrastinating

The title reads "Hidden Stickers" and shows the back page of a book decorated with a celestial-themed sticker that has the name of the book title, which is "Just One Command" by M.E. Harker.

A hand placing a spaceship sticker on a page.

Picture of a celestial themed sticker. The text overtop reads "The designs are tricky to cut" and then has an ellipsis leading to another image.

Picture of a celestial themed sticker. The text overtop reads "But so worth it"

Hid some stickers inside books for an upcoming event 👀
A few lucky takers will get a lil extra bonus!

#SFF #SciFiBooks #SciFiWriting #Author #Stickers #OkayButTheyreReallyCute

I know right? 🤣 I'm really trying not to let research tangents take up my writing time, but the Wikipedia articles are just too fascinating!

A black and white handdrawn comic. The artist is listed as Shami Stowall @GameOverStation. The comic shows a writer typing at a computer. The writer is considering adding the sentence: "He sat at his deck" to their story. Then the writer mumbles to themselves, "What kind of wood did they use to make furniture in 1200 Japan?" 6 Hours of Research Later. The writer updates the sentence to say "He sat at his CYPRESS desk" and then moves on to the next sentence.

Spent six hours of research trying to find out if there should be lead in the water pipes of my fictional city.

(Then decided I didn't want everyone to have lead poisoning, so I changed that detail anyway 🤣)

#HistoricalWritingThoughts #MedievalFantasy #OkayActually1800sFantasy #ButStill

“We don’t have time,” Dessian sighed. “Command the bot to get what you need. We have to go to the hangar now.” Slowly, Casey nodded in understanding. She pulled up her holographic wrist and linked into the Carrier’s controls, debating what she should bring. Dessian stole a glance at her holographic screen, seeing that ‘Seven boxes of Ultimate Brownies’ was one of the items near the top of Casey’s list. “Why…” Dessian stammered, “Why are you bringing brownies? We’re on the run for our lives!” “What?” Casey frowned. “Food printers can’t replicate copyrighted brand foods, you know! Who knows when I’ll get to eat Ultimate Brownies again?” [A few chapters later, after things are a bit more safe...] Casey navigated the room with her unstable dessert platters, reaching their table. The young woman put on her best airs. “Sirs, your order,” she said in a haughty voice. Even with her attempt to be formal, Casey fumbled the plates the moment she went to serve them. As Dessian and Yozin caught the plates, they noticed that Casey had brought them only one thing: Ultimate Brownies, and eight platters full of them.

While deleted scenes rarely emerge from my Drafts...this was a humorous part I really liked, that was cut due to ruining the tension of an early chapter.

Might not be in the final book, but in my heart, Casey still loves brownies 🍫

For context, they're attempting to escape a dangerous star ship:

All right, the @narratess.com Book Sale is ✨ LIVE! ✨

indiebook.sale 🌟 #🪐📚 #SFF #BookSale

300 eBooks, lots on Kindle, some direct download & available on Nook / Kobo / other eBook stores!

and now that I've got so many new books...

🌴 here's my plans for the weekend:

Yeah!! The Indie Book Sale crew sent them out in the Media Kit, and I jumped on posting ASAP 😆 But I'm now realizing, I have to think about other promo graphics I want to put up closer to the sale!

Banner for the Narratess Indie Book Sale. Graphic features multiple novels that will be in the sale. (Including "Just One Command" by M.E. Harker) The text reads: Indie Book Sale https://indiebook.sale Fantasy, Sci Fi, & Horror August 23 - 25 Indie Book Sale banner designed by Arden Powell. Covers are copyright their respective owners.

#BookSky crew! Are you all excited for August 23rd? 🎉

@narratess.com is hosting a HUGE #IndieAugust sale!
(over 300 books!!! I'm grabbing some myself!)

So excited to take part! The eBook of "Just One Command" will be on sale for $1.99, alongside a ton of other free & discounted SFF titles! #📚🪐

This morning's struggle was reworking my intro chapter (and its title)...maaaybe for the seventh time? 😂
[the rest of the 70k novel is staring at me waiting for edits]

Chapter 1 is the part agents see, sometimes the ONLY thing included in Queries. It's so easy to over-think!

Yep, 100% painted with either paintbrush or pin needle! The base coat is regular painted nail polish, but the details were added with acrylic paint + tiny brush, or sometimes needle-dotted for the smallest parts!

(It took about 5 hours to complete 😆 the details were a lot trickier than I thought!)

Honestly I love the look of illustrated covers so much!! I think it adds a personal touch, and I'm a huge supporter of hiring artists. (Following Merilliza right now to support!)