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Monday, December 28, 2020

Shawn Finally Reviews SHAZAM!

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Shawn ROASTS Wonder Woman 84

Thursday, December 24, 2020

John Haynes: Taking Care of Business Cover By Mike Williams

 

I'm paying homage to one of my favorite 90s films Keenan Ivory Wayans films A Low Down Dirty Shame with the cover for John Haynes: Taking Care of Business. Mike Williams did a fantastic job on this cover capturing the spirit of the classic A Low Down Dirty Shame movie Poster while telling a story about John Haynes and the two ladies in his life His girlfriend E'steem and his sexy new assistant Lilith Graves.   

I love this cover, it's a powerful image that presents Black manhood and masculinity and  Black love. 

John Haynes: Taking Care of Business will be available in 2021. Still in the middle of final edits on the story, but I'm hoping to have it read by March to kick off the 2021 SJS DIRECT catalog! . 





Wednesday, December 2, 2020

SISTER MERCY #3 KICKSTARTER IS LIVE! PUT IN YOUR PLEDGE TODAY!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sistermercy/sister-mercy-3-highway-to-hell Put in your pledge today! 

Friday, November 27, 2020

E'steem Blast From The Past Now Available in Paperback & e-Readers


E'steem: Blast From The Past

  • ISBN-13 : 979-8652764180
    • Bad Girl gone good! Good Girl fights her Demonic Doppleganger! When Decadia’s plan to kill a teenage John Haynes in ancient Egypt fails, she sends the evil E’steem of the past to attack John and E’steem in the present day. Can Hell’s aspiring Angel and John Haynes overcome the most powerful she-demon in All Hell?








      This Action packed follow up to E'steem: The Sands of Time has a FUN BOUNUS! An E'steem: No Good Deed Comic by Bill Walko!  This is a sneak Preview of the kinds of stories readers will get in an upcoming Isis or John Haynes graphic novel! 

      And Blast From the Past is available on ALL Digital platforms! 

      Get E'steem: Blast From the Past in Paperback & Kindle:
      https://www.amazon.com/Esteem-Blast-Past-Shawn-James/dp/B08KR8QPBX/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

      Get it on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1055820 Get it on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=QQgLEAAAQBAJ Get it on Gumroad https://gum.co/ESWJd Get it on Barnes & Noble's Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/esteem-shawn-james/1138378617?ean=2940164739416







      <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zkpWhP_NOKI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

      Saturday, November 21, 2020

      John Haynes: At Death’s Door Concept Art

       


       

      I just finished writing the first draft of the fifth John Haynes book John Haynes: At Death’s Door. And as I was writing the follow up to the bestselling and critically acclaimed John Haynes: A Conversation With Death I started writing a script for a comic book adaptation of the story.

       

      With the script done I started doing model sheets and concept art of the characters.

       



      The villian of the story, Thanatos is inspired by The Marilyn Manson-esque Riddler from Kids WB’s! The Batman, Goth guys I’ve seen on YouTube like Mr. Owl from It’s Black Friday’s channel and Sean Brennan from my favorite Goth band London After Midnight. I gave his greek toga look a Goth asthetic and gave him some New Rock Gladiator sandals. His color model should really POP when the chalk white skin contrasts the purple belt and black toga.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      For Death I had to go in a different direction. The original Death from John Haynes: A Conversation With Death was partially inspired by DC Comics’ Death from the Sandman. But for legal reasons I couldn’t use that visual asthetic for the character. Plus it wasn’t very original or distinct to SJS DIRECT.

       

      So when it came time to do the visual, I decided to stop making SJS DIRECT’S Death ambiguous and make her a Black woman.  She’s still a Goth, However, I gave her natural hair to make her face visually distinct from DC’s version.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      And she’s wearing a purple bathrobe for three reasons. One is to play on the old asthetic of The Grim Reaper and Marvel’s Death from the Infinity saga. The other is because I haven’t figured out what her outfit will be. The third is related to the opening chapters of the story (She just got out of the shower!).  I’m not finished with the story between John and Death. She’ll be getting a new Goth outfit distinct to her in the next story!   

       

       John Haynes: At Death’s Door is in its first draft and I’m working on both the prose book and the comic script at the same time. I’m hoping to have the story out in either late 2021 or 2022. If things work out readers may not just be reading a prose book. They may be reading a comic!

      CW's Black Lightning Ending After Season 4

      Sunday, October 25, 2020

      All About A Cover Refresh

       


      Back in 2009, I published the first SJS DIRECT book All About Marilyn. And back then I didn’t have much money to pay for things like book covers.

      So I drew my own.

       

      Back then I didn’t know much about designing covers. And I didn’t know how much they left an impression on readers. I too busy working on building up the catalog of the SJS DIRECT imprint.

       

       

      And while many of my titles like All About Marilyn got a lot of critical praise from Black book clubs and readers all across the globe, they didn’t have the impact they should’ve had due to the covers I drew.

       

       

      Original Cover
      I always felt All About Marilyn could’ve been a book that took my writing career to the next level. Unfortunately, the thing that set the book back was the cover.

       

      Back in 2009 I wasn’t a fan of stock photos. I always thought they were kinda bland generic looking. And I always feared that the same image I used would wind up on another cover.

       

      Worse, there weren’t many images of Black women. Back then almost all the stock images were of White women.

       

      Fast forward 11 years and stock photos have come a long way. And after seeing how a stock photo I used on the cover for my novel Spellbound, led to an increase in sales and left a positive impression on readers I’ve changed my view on using them for certain projects.

       

      These days there’s a lot more variety as related to stock photos featuring images of Black people. And that allows an author like myself to tell a great story on the covers of a book.

       

      I’ve been working to replace many of the older covers I drew on books since 2019. And after searching through stock photos I finally found an image that I think fits Marilyn Marie and would make the book more relatable to readers. So after paying for the credits, and manipulating the image in Photoshop Elements I finally had a new cover for one of my most critically acclaimed books.

       

      Will the refreshed cover lead to new sales? Will it lead to new readers discovering All About Marilyn? Will it lead to people discovering what makes the story of the faded former teen sitcom star an absolutely fabulous five-star read? Only time will tell. But when I look at the new cover I designed I see how I’ve come a long way from the days of 2009 when I was working from a Dell Latitude D830 laptop on a shoestring budget from my bedroom.

       

      You can get a copy of All About Marilyn featuring the new cover on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

      Lilith Graves- A Different Kind of Black Goth Heroine

      Friday, October 9, 2020

      Monday, September 21, 2020

      Progress Report

      Even though the COVID Pandemic has been slowing business around the country, I’ve working hard all this spring and summer to keep the momentum going on the SJS DIRECT imprint.

       


      John Haynes: The Man With Nothing To Lose
      performed well this spring. The book got extremely positive feedback from readers. Sales took a little dip in comparison to A Conversation With Death and Dark Succubus, but I’m working towards getting them back up.

       

      People are coming back for the two previous John Haynes books John Haynes: Dark Succubus and John Haynes: A Conversation with Death. And a few are coming back for The Man Who Rules The World and The Temptation of John Haynes.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       



      The strong John Haynes series sales are one of the reasons I commissioned Mike Williams to put a new Cover on The Temptation of John Haynes. I wanted all the John Haynes books to have a consistent trade dress and make it easy for readers to identify them. I want readers to have an incentive to pick up the book that started it all and Mike's art will get people buying Temptation!

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      I wanted to offer John Haynes: The Man With Nothing To Lose with a Josh Howard variant cover in paperback, but I was forced to discontinue it due to Amazon’s policies. According to Amazon, you can’t have two paperbacks with different covers. So for now instead I’m offering the book on Google Play and Smashwords with the variant cover. 

      So if you were one of those lucky ones who picked up the Josh Howard variant paperback in March you’ve got a collector’s item!  

       

       


      Unfortunately, Isis: The Main Event didn’t perform as well I expected it to. While it did get some sales in April, it didn’t perform as strongly as previous Isis series books. Maybe it was because it was related to the world of wrestling. Or Maybe people just didn’t like Nemesis or Umbuttra.

       

      Due to the poor sales on the books in the Nemesis arc, Isis: The Ultimate Fight, Isis: Power of the Princess, and Isis: The Main Event I probably won’t revisit those characters again. While I wanted to do a follow up story to continue Umbuttra’s feud with Isis, I’ll just put a period on that story. No need to keep writing an arc that doesn’t sell. So for the third story arc I'll probably introduce a new bad guy.

       

       

       

       

       



      Had some really good sales on the Spinsterella Trilogy books. Had quite a few people pick up Spellbound and Spinsterella. And I got some five-star reviews from readers in the Goth scene. 

       

      I'm really happy to see people picking up my Black Goth Fiction books, those are ones that mean a lot to me. I want more Black folks to know that the Goth scene has a lot of brothers and sisters in it, and that there is a place for Black folks to express their darkness. 

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      Had a sale or two on The Thetas, some Isis series books like Isis: Imitation of Life and some E'steem books like Demons Anonymous.

       


      On the Nonfiction front, The Man Crisis passed the milestone of 400 sales and 20 five-star reviews. While I’m happy to have sold so many books in two years, I’m more happy to see so many men having their lives transformed by The Man Crisis. Many of the men who have read The Man Crisis have learned why their lives are out of whack and are getting things back on track.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      STOP SIMPIN continues to sell strongly in paperback and Kindle format. Like The Man Crisis it’s a book that transforms the lives of most of the men who have read it.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      At Reader request I finally published a paperback version of Why 70 Percent of Black Women Are Single. In the six years where it’s been digital exclusive Why 70 Percent of Black women are single has had over 3,000 sales.  The Paperback had strong sales in the month of August, and

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      The SJS DIRECT Fall 2020 books are 95% ready, I’m putting the final polish on Eternal Night and E’steem: Blast From The Past.

       


      Eternal Night is Lilith Graves origin story and chronicles how she became an undead. This one lays the foundation for the vampire lore I established in Isis: Night of the Vampires, Isis: Bride of Dracula and Isis:Escape From Transylvania. It’s the fourth novel to feature a Black Goth Heroine, and the first horror novel I’ve written. Matilda Crowley from the Spinsterella books makes a cameo!   

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      E’steem: Blast From The Past is a follow up to E’steem: The Sands of Time. The second part of the time travel arc, this one has the present day E’steem and John Haynes taking on the E’steem from the past. Inspired by John Byrne’s Classic Marvel Two-In-One #50 this one is FUN FUN FUN!

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       


      E’steem: Blast from The Past also features the E’steem: No Good Deed comic by myself and Bill Walko as a second story. Bill did an amazing job on the art for this comic and I think it showcases how easy my stories translate from prose into the comic book medium.

       

       I’m hoping this sneak preview will get people excited for an upcoming Indiegogo or a Kickstarter for an Isis graphic novel. I’d love to offer that book to everyone sooner rather than later, but the only thing holding me back is money!

       

      Thanks to the Patrons, Superchats and Paypal donors I have the art and letters done for the E’steem: No Good Deed backup story that’s supposed to be featured in the Isis graphic novel, now I just need to raise the funds to pay for the main Isis story!

       

      And the SJS DIRECT 2021 books are in page layout right now. The books of the 2021 include:

       

      John Haynes: Taking Care of Business. In this story John Haynes and Lilith Graves team up to take on a trio of hired assassins. In this story we learn a lot more about John’s influence on Morris Phillips and why executives working with him want to get him out of the company in a body bag,

       

      Isis: Revenge of the Cybergoddess, where the Goddess next door throws down against the Digital Diva in a follow up to the events of Wrath of the Cybergoddess and building up on storylines set up in Isis: Samurai Goddess and E’steem: Ascension. This one is EPIC and has big intense battles on the level of The Man Who Rules The World,

       

      And E’steem: #CancelTheKatian Where E’steem takes on colored haired SJWs who want to cancel her for continuing to enter a demon space. #CancelTheKatian Making a comical commentary on SJWs and Woke culture with this story and how people can overcome cancel culture and cyberbullying.

       

      John Haynes will be making an appearance in Revenge of the Cybergoddess and #CancelTheKatian.

       

      Concept art for the Isis Pinup!
      And I’ll be featuring an Isis pinup in the back of Revenge of the Cybergoddess!

       

      I’ve commissioned artists to do the covers for John Haynes Taking Care of Business and Isis Revenge of The Cybergoddess. I need to sketch up the cover for #CancelTheKatian and the 2021 books will be pretty much ready to go.

       

      Over the pandemic lockdown I finished the 2021 books and I’ve even started on some of the 2022 books. The Conclusion to the second Isis story arc, Isis: Legacy is finished and in page layouts and I’m getting ready to start the next John Haynes book, John Haynes: At Death’s Door. Yes, DEATH IS COMING BACK!

       

       

       

       

       

      In addition to writing books I’ve Been real busy doing YouTube videos and livestreams. I get lots of requests to appear on livestreams. Over the last year I’ve been on quite a few shows like Soul Provider, Gboot2786 and Dennis Spurling, in addition to do my own livestream Fridays at 10PM.  That's the reason readers of this blog have been getting vlogs instead of written blogs, I've been so busy with the YouTube channel and increasing my web presence. 


      So far I've got over 12K subscribers and I'm looking to further expand my audience. I was surprised to  find out the creator of Blue Marvel Kevin Grevioux is a subscriber of my channel and has been watching my videos. That's the second celebrity I've found that watches my videos.  Last year I found out Judge Joe Brown watches my channel and now it's Blue Marvel Creator Kevin Grevioux watches my content. I wonder what other celebrities watch my channel.

       

       In spite of the pandemic I’ve been working hard to keep making progress. Haven't made a major breakthrough yet but I'm still building momentum. 


      Friday, September 18, 2020

      Energy Vampires & Emotional Vampires


      Pre-order Eternal Night on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0892M469B/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i19

      Eternal Night Available in Paperback this Halloween! 

      Tuesday, September 15, 2020

      SJS DIRECT FALL 2020 BOOKS


      Pre-Order A Father's Love on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08J4KP2P6  
      Pre-Order Eternal Night on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...  
      Pre-Order E'steem: Blast From The Past: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...

      Wednesday, August 26, 2020

      First Look: E'steem Blast From The Past Comic By Shawn James and Bill Walko in Print!

      Here's a first look at Bill Walko's E'steem: No Good Deed comic in print! It'll be featured in the paperback edition of E'steem: Blast From the Past this November! It's one of two books coming out this fall from SJS DIRECT!  






      Hoping that when people read the comic it'll give them incentive to support an indiegogo or a kickstarter for the Isis graphic novel! 

      Thoughts on the Jacob Blake Shooting

      Saturday, July 11, 2020

      E’steem No Good Deed Comic On Patreon


      The E’steem: No Good Deed Comic is now on Patreon!

      This adaptation of the E’steem: No Good Deed eBook is 9 pages and written by me, penciled and inked by Bill Walko and lettered by Eric Weathers.  

      As everyone knows a long time ago in a ghetto far, far away I wanted to be a comic book writer. And I’m excited to finally see a comic featuring one of my stories come to life!

      Bill’s art in this Comic reminds me of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons I grew up watching in the late 70s and early 80s like Scooby Doo, Laff-A-Lympics and the New Tom & Jerry Show. Bill’s art in this E’steem story is just like I imagined it in my head, and it looks so bold and dynamic. It gives the story a FUN vibe that  I think readers of all ages would enjoy.   

      I want to thank everyone who donated and supported me over the past few years.  I wouldn’t have been able to get this comic completed without the generous support of Patrons on Patreon, YouTube Superchats on my livestreams, and donors who gave donations on PayPal. I saved all those donations to pay for this comic. 

      With the E’steem: No Good Deed comic I wanted to give readers a showcase of what a Shawn James comic would look like. And I’m hoping it leaves a strong enough impression on readers that they’ll support a future crowdfunding project or help me publish a future comic featuring SJS DIRECT characters through donations. I’d love to offer readers an Isis or a John Haynes Graphic novel but the only thing that prevents me from doing that is covering the costs for the art, lettering and the coloring. If I could get a Kickstarter or indiegogo funded I could start offering readers comics in addition to the novels and novelettes I publish today.

      The E’steem: No Good Deed Comic is available to current Patrons for free. And you can read it for a donation to the Patreon. Or you can read it in the paperback and digital editions of E’steem: Blast From The Past in November.

      Sunday, June 14, 2020

      E’steem: Blast From the Past Cover By Bill Walko


       

      Just got the new cover for E’steem: Blast From The Past from Bill Walko this week and it looks FANTASTIC!

       



      For this follow up to 2018’s E’steem: The Sands of Time I draw inspiration for this cover from George Perez’s CLASSIC cover for Marvel Two-In-One #50. Since that comic dealt with time travel and taking on a past self, I felt it fit the story I was telling about E’steem and John Haynes taking on the demon E’steem of the past. 

       

      Bill did an AMAZING job on E’steem: Blast From the Past’s cover! I love how he pays homage to legendary comic artist George Perez while telling his own story. I love how he changed the figure compositions to reflect female body language (Men and Women’s bodies move differently) and made the action so dynamic that it looks like it’s moving. I feel like I’m watching a scene from an E’steem animated series!

       

      Oh yeah and Rubble. If you’re paying homage to George Perez you gotta have rubble. It was a staple of all those late 1970s Marvel Covers that made the battles on them feel so EPIC. I think George Perez would smile if he saw this one!

       

       

      E’steem: Blast From The Past will be available this fall in Paperback and e-reader formats. You’ll definitely want to pick this one up because it’s going to feature the first SJS DIRECT comic an adaptation of E’steem: No Good Deed by Bill Walko! Patreon Patrons will get that strip for FREE!

      Thursday, June 11, 2020

      The Temptation of John Haynes Cover Refresh By Mike Williams

      The Temptation of John Haynes has a new cover by Mike Williams.
      With the popularity of the John Haynes series I wanted to put a new cover on The Temptation of John Haynes to get more people buying the book that started it all. I figured with a new cover and the new trade dress readers would quickly recognize Temptation and pick it up along with A Conversation With Death, Dark Succubus, and The Man With Nothing To Lose.
      Mike did an AMAZING job on this cover, he took the story of my old cover and made it into a MASTERPIECE! It’s like a painting!
      I love how John appears to be calm, cool and collected in the face of E’steem’s seduction. And I love how devilish E’steem appears. From that wicked smile to those evil eyes she appears to be a deadly female predator out to take John’s soul.
      The Temptation of John Haynes NEW COVER is now LIVE on Amazon and online retailers like Smashwords and Google Play so pick up or download a copy today!

      Sunday, June 7, 2020

      Isis: Revenge Of The Cybergoddess Color Concept Art




      I spent my Thursday night last week coloring all the concept art I did for Isis: Revenge of the Cybergoddess. Wanted to wait till I got some new markers. But sadly eBay and Staples failed me. So I had to work with the decade old markers in my old set. Even though Several of the markers in my 10-year old Bic Mark-it set have dried out completely, I managed to put together color models I believe will pop on the final cover. 


      Did a color model of the cover concept. Want to to use the spire of the Freedom Tower in the background like the Ross Andru Superman Vs. Spider-Man for an update on that classic image, but I’m also leaning towards One Times Square as the background piece. The only thing that keeps me from using One Times Square in the background is the fact that it’s fairly low and all the Jumbotrons and the ads on them would be busy and distracting from the battle. 







      Also did a color models on Isis’ Black costume pinup. Wanted this one to be SEXXAY. I’m hoping the commissioned art will be as sexy as those old Jet Beauty of the Week photos.















      And I also did color models of cybergoddess 3.0 Was gonna use the same navy blue and steel blue on Cybergoddess 3.O but those markers are…DEAD. I spent a good week trying to order new ones from Staples and eBay but…couldn’t get anything shipped. So I had to go with a new color palatte. Since 3.0 is an upgrade I figured Raheema would want to swap out some colors to signify the changes to her design.  

      Getting ready to put together the storyboard for the art for the Isis: Revenge of the Cybergoddess Cover and the pin-up. And I’d love to get some fanart to put in the back of the book to go along with the pin up! So if you want to do some fanart I’d be glad to publish it in the upcoming Isis: Revenge of the Cybergoddess paperback and eBook!

      Friday, May 22, 2020

      Isis Pin Up Concept Art

      Pondering putting a Pin-up of Isis' black outfit in the back of Isis: Revenge of The Cybergoddess. Want to go for something sexy with this one like many of the old Victoria's Secret  catalogs back in the day.  We need more images of fit, attractive Black women out there, and I wanted to feature one in the next Isis book!