Jerry Shepard - Fast-paced Lost Frontier Universe Military Sci-Fi

Jerry Shepard - Fast-paced Lost Frontier Universe Military Sci-Fi
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Jerry Shepard lives with his wife and 3 kids (one of them a furry, 4-legged kind) in the foothills of Virginia. When he is not writing novels, he can be found spending time with the greatest gifts he’s ever received. His family. He has always had a lifelong passion to tell stories that delight people. The fact that they are stories in his favorite genres is just the icing on the cake.  As our Author of the Day, Shepard tells us all about his book, Invasion.

Please give us a short introduction to what Invasion is about.

INVASION tells the story of Noah Jameson and the crew of the UAF Titan. Noah is disgraced Alliance captain who harbors resentment toward the newest members of the Alliance, the Xen. On a mission in deep space, Noah discovers an invasion fleet. And he has to overcome his distrust of the Xen in order to stop it.

What inspired you to write Invasion?

I've had a few scenes play out in my head for years now. Little bits of dialogue and characters slowly came to life as I was going about my daily life. Eventually they started screaming at me to tell their story.

Why Sci-Fi? What drew you to the genre?

I write what I read. I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan. And I have been ever since the first Star Wars movie. I was exposed to Sci-Fi before George Lucas burst on the scene with Star Wars. But I really didn't fall in love with it until that movie came out. I remember standing in line to watch the movie with my brothers (we ended up watching it at least four times). And to this day, I cannot remember any movie having such a profound cultural impact as "A New Hope". This catapulted my love of the genre. After that, I started reading as many Sci-Fi books as I could.

Tell us more about Captain Noah Jameson.  What makes him tick?

Noah is a middle-aged guy who has seen quite a bit of combat. He's salty enough to swear like a sailor, but he also has that command presence that tells you not to mess with him. He's an excellent ship's captain and loves being in command again. But what he loves more than anything in the world is his little girl, Lily. All he wants to do is get back home and go on that fishing trip with her.

Readers report that the book has multiple characters that they both love and hate.  Why did you create them this way?

I love evoking strong emotion from readers toward the characters. I think boring characters are a death knell for a good story. Which characters do we remember the most from books and movies? The ones that are always do-gooders or are always evil? Or the ones that are morally conflicted and must wrestle with it? I want to show people as they are. People are complicated. Most good people have vices, prejudices, and don't always do the right thing. The heroes of my stories are not always the heroes they believe themselves to be. But in the end, those heroes overcome their failings and win the day. I think this makes for a more satisfying story.

Jameson is forced to work with his former foe to combat a new enemy.  What appealed to you about teaming up former enemies?

It's the conflict. Putting a former enemy into a position where he has to work with them to survive is an excellent way to show it. In a way, there are three battles going on in the book. The first is the effort to stop the Varak from invading. The second is the personal interaction between Noah and Rig'nak. And the third is Noah overcoming his prejudices against the Xen.

Was there a particular character whose voice you found it easiest to write in?

Noah's was the easiest. I took some elements of my life as inspiration for him so at times, I would be able to ask myself "How would I react? What would I say?"

If you could choose one character from your book to spend a day with, who would it be? And where would you take them?

O'Malley! I'd love to go fishing with him and hear him complain about nothing happening and it being a waste of time. Of course, he'd drink all my beer. I'd end up the day taking him to an All-You-Can-Eat buffet. The readers will know why.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I can play trumpet. I'm also a fairly good shot with a rifle and a pretty good outdoorsman.

My biggest skills are taking care of my kids. I get to be the hero every day and make up a new bedtime story each night.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes. But I had other passions I pursued first. I mentioned the bedtime stories. It's really one reason why I finally decided to start writing. My daughter used to ask for a bedtime story each night. She never accepted a repeated story so I had to make up a new one "on the fly". My wife would listen to me describe the forest and the interaction of all the animals and the lessons that the story would teach and she would tell me "you're pretty good at this". So my children's stories are just for my kids. My other stories I share with the world.

How do you force yourself to finish what you're doing before starting the next project when the new idea is nagging at you?

I had a problem early on with getting distracted by the new shiny object. I have two other stories (a Dan Brown-type Thriller, and an Epic Fantasy) that I have fleshed out as the scenes come to me. As soon as they do, I write them down and put them in my "vault". That's just a fancy name for a digital folder on my PC's desktop. This way, I satisfy my brain's need to get the information "told" and I can go back and focus on my current book. One day, when I think I can do those stories justice, I will write them. Until then, I will just continue to add to the story bibles for each one as things come to me.

jerry
A picture of me on safari

Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?

Writing habits? I try to get at least 1500-3000 words a day written down. It helps that I have outlined the book so that I know what each chapter is going to be about. There are some days where I can only write 500 words, but at least I feel that I have done something. I work in 30 minute sprints to just write down what I am working on that day. And one other trick I learned is when I finish writing for the day, I stop in the middle of the chapter. So that the next day, I will need to read what I wrote to kind of give me a "running start" and get the words flowing again faster. I find that easier to do rather than staring at a blank page.

My writing day is interesting. I work full-time right now, so most of my writing is done at night after the kids are asleep. Each night, I put them to bed, and spend an hour afterward with my wife. After that, I go to my office and write until midnight (sometimes until 2am). Pretty much whenever I get tired, I'll stop.

What are you working on right now?

I have a book that I am tentatively calling "UPRISING". It is the first book in a new trilogy, set in the Lost Frontier Universe. It is set five years after the first trilogy ended and continues the stories and character arcs of the favorite characters.

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

My Amazon Page
My Amazon page has all my current work displayed. I'm currently exclusive to Amazon but may be taking INVASION wide sometime this year.
My Facebook Page
My Facebook page is also a good way to reach out to me. I love talking with fans of my books. It's fantastic to talk about the characters like we're discussing old friends. And I love finding out who they want to hear more about and where they think the next book will take their favorite characters.