Quick Update November, 2024

Been a long time since I've posted. While I had originally planned to do more with Neostriker in 2024, my focus ended up being this year to grow in my new role at work and improve my Japanese.

However, I can say that next year, big things are in motion, hopefully that includes Neostriker, assuming I can find a good artist collaborator or I find the time to learn digital art. As for artists, it looks like I'll need to find someone in Japan due to some development within the last year. Hopefully that can get resolved.

Stayed tuned for more updates,

J. D. Nyle

On Mega Man Battle Network's Advertising

It sure has been a while since I've posted here. Don't worry as Neostriker SABRE is still ongoing. I even got some progress in the direction to go, which I was struggling for a long time. I had this theme I wanted to explore, but even though it was fun, it didn't click and added problems. The new solution is nice because it builds up on prior themes ad sets the stage for further dynamics.

Now I just need to make the time to actually write those missing stories.

Speaking of missing stories, I've had a nice heartwarming one ready since earlier last year. Just still waiting on a cover art. Likely I'll need to need artists again.

Now for the main reason for this post. As Mega Man Battle network was a major help in me refining my battle system, I'm excited for the upcoming collection, but I have thoughts on the advertising. 

To helping our friends

I am giving the royalties of the Neostriker book sales to a struggling mother of two. Sales from now for a short period of time as follows. 100% of first $1,000. Then 50% until can I give $10,000 or end of the period.

I recalled a friend from college who was struggling. So I reached out and listened to how she lost her home multiple times while raising her two kids. Because I care, I want to help. By giving her the royalties, my hope is this can help her catch up on rent and some debts. If can get her out of the bad neighborhood, even better.

How you can help is any combination of the 4.

1. Spread the word
2. Buy the books or gift the books (donating to local libraries also can help).
3. Review the books. After a certain number of reviews, Amazon will promote it.
4. Read the books on Kindle Unlimited. Amazon still pays royalties based upon the number of pages read.

These are the books:

The Vixen

Intent to Join

Neostriker: Shining (the first collection of short stories)

I would appreciate your help in raising money for my friend. I recall the story of how my grandfather showed my cousin some bills and said simply, "Take what you need" to help with his college tuition. Yes, it's good to donate to charity, but we also know people who need help and I think that's important as it reminds them that their friends do in fact care and that they are not talking into the void.

With Love,
J. D. Nyle

The shaping of my worldview

Hello Future Me shared a video about seven stories that changed his life and that triggered a retrospective in my own life again. I have thought about the topic a few times but perhaps it's time to write it down and share how my personal worldview developed.

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Media has had an interesting relationship with my family. Around the time I was five or six, the TV was taken away and our video library donated. Similarly, even though I had a Game Boy, that too was taken from me. I say it's interesting because we did still watch TV and play games. Either when guests came to stay, playing with friends, or visit grandparents. We still got to watch Saturday cartoons and had movie nights. So in reality, it was just limited, not really gone.

This is important because it meant that during the week, I couldn't play video games nor watch TV. However, I still had exposure. As a result, I had plenty of time to recreate the various stories though often would only have partial exposure of it was a TV series like Gundam or Dragon Ball Z.

The partial exposure is likely key because it meant I almost always had to fill in the blanks what happened between episodes or next. This would me I would see an idea and play multiple paths with me or my friends. 

So I probably missed the main storyline of Gundam Wing, but I did see a few arcs that got me thinking. For example, how do you act when the people you are fighting for turn against you. And while my parents almost never watched the cartoons we watched, my dad would on occasion comment on what he saw. I recall one time while watching Gundam Wing that my dad came in and pointed out how the logic on acting on emotion was flawed. Perhaps that was the point of the episode, but the way it was structured at the end would be easy for a kid to take the other way, especially important considering it involved suicide. I often think of those experiences as key to guiding me towards thinking critically about what I consumed. This is why I include the letters from George's father in my latest stories, especially when I realize some people don't have fathers like mine.

One thing that wasn't restricted for me was a radio drama. I knew my parents sent messages the producers about some episodes which they objected to, but they didn't listen to everything. Of that drama, there is one good takeaway and one that I needed to correct later.

For the one that needed to be corrected, it was one on the nature of man. It was not a good episode and it posited that the nature of man is evil. That notion was corrected for me when I watched Secondhand Lions. That exposure and asking the question about whether God creates evil solidified that the drama was wrong.

Keeping this in mind, the other movie that had a huge influence on me was Spider-Man 2, which shouldn't be a surprise to those who read the episode notes in the back of Neostriker: Shining. The core theme and Aunt May's speech about being a hero stuck with me. Combining this with one episode about heroes in the aforementioned radio drama sets the stage for the epiphany while playing Okami.

In the first section of the game, you come across a statue of the local village's hero. This made me think about how universal it is to have devotions towards heroes in order to try to imitate them and that if Jesus is the greatest hero, then going to Church often is the right thing to do. It is also at this time that I connected two phrases. 

When people say, "Don't be a hero," it's often to say don't do the right thing. Conversely, there is the other phrase, "Be a man. Do the right thing." Putting these together would mean that to be a man is "to be a hero." This was my defining philosophy and it hasn't gone away. It has only enhanced as further reading guided me towards the next logical step.

My parents often wanted us to read about saints but I never really cared for that. In part, this is because they were often about priests or nuns, which often felt like condemning living life as a regular person as wrong (the pope has acknowledged this and written to address this tendency). That being said, later in life, I started the habit of reading a book that had readings from the Bible everyday and meditations. In the book, there were one page summaries about saints and there was a theme I was starting to pick up on. Similarly, the readings at the time were from the Sermon on the Mount where something finally clicked.

Jesus says, "Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." What is this command about? "Love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you." Perfection is about being Love. The Bible says that "God is Love" and Genesis says that God made man in his image. So the real nature of man is to love. This is backed up by the way we judge morality is with Love.

I often feel like the mainstream Christianity doesn't make this connection. Sure parts of it are there, but never in the converting manner it should have. For example, I originally opposed the death penalty due to mistrust in those who wield it. However, this realization about the nature of man changed my view as I come to see the meaning of life to be to grow towards perfect love in order to be with God. To end one's life, especially in the state of a criminal, is as far away as we can get from that and the Sermon on the Mount.

God says, "I do not delight in the death of the wicked but rather his conversion." The Gospel never promises being good would mean you will live in peace and prosperity. Rather the Gospel is that the kingdom of heaven is not on Earth and to place your treasure in Heaven. If Jesus, the prophets, and the early Christians died gruesome deaths, why should modern Christians act like this life is the point?

People ask why would a living God allow suffering, but the perspective is wrong. The gospel peaches the point of life is to love God and neighbor and that life is to prepare us for paradise. Life here is not for the good, but rather it's the sinners who need it the most.

Many people speak against helping the homeless and the poor, acting like giving support sets up for abuse. The Gospel and epistles have harsh condemnation for this attitude. How many times do we sin and yet pray for forgiveness? We should act likewise to others. If I am to die due to an act of love, then I have reached my perfection and hope my example inspires others.

Do we not love in Les Misérables where the bishop converts Jean Val Jean through his continued mercy and love despite how he abused his generosity? So shall we be, though I still have a long way to go in that regard. A good test for this is the point of the story of the prodigal son. It wasn't told for the converted sinners but rather the Pharisees who were acting like the older brother. If we were to reach paradise and see people like Hitler or Stalin there, would we go in? If we can say yes, then I think we can say we are on the right path.

There is a scene in Detective Conan where Kudo Shinichi saves the life of a murderer, one who was even going to kill his love. When the murderer asks why, he responds along the line, "I don't need a reason to save a life. People give reasons for killing." That interaction stuck with me and found its evolution in, "You said she did nothing wrong. So we need reasons to not care for people, not the other way around." Again, Love is the true nature of man.

I know people might read my writings and say I am either Liberal or Conservative. The truth is I do not associate myself with either or with any political party. For half my life, my motto on the topic has been "Liberals killed the prophets while Conservatives crucified Christ." I learned from looking at other countries that the terms are purely relative and most often used to blindly polarize people so I try to remove them from my vocabulary. I noticed that both can have valid points and the labels just stop people from listening. For example, I believe one crucial step from pro-life that is largely missing is support for those mothers. If all the money that went into pro-life vs pro-choice instead went into mother support and medical research, we could solve so many issues. Similarly, I often find myself confused how we have so many orphan heroes in our stories and yet so little support and consideration is given to our orphans. Even more so when I consider those who grew up to be important figures in history.

One more key to my philosophy that I was missing while in college is the paradox of self-love. While love asks to sacrifice oneself, the goal is for self which can appear as the complete opposite. The five love languages from Dr. Gary Chapman helped me realize that self-love is not condemned but necessary to love others. If you don't feel loved, it is hard to love others. Love your neighbor as yourself requires that you in fact care for yourself. If we don't care for ourselves, then we make our tank empty. What I realized is that many of the saints tap into God as an infinite source for filling their love tanks. We must love ourselves in order to receive love and that keeps us going.

Now for the topic of whether God exists or not, that was shaped by my role as a storyteller and a programmer. Considering how both of these roles create from nothing according to the perspective of the created, I cannot deny the possibility of God, even if he's not our next level up. And considering how well core Christianity makes sense and works, as proven by how much the saints have contributed to society, I have faith.

So while the Church will continue to have scandals, especially whenever it acts to protect itself instead of trusting in God, I find the core teaching of Christianity to be true and right. Most hate I see of God is actually for the corruption in institutions, but we should remember that even while Peter was the head of the early Church, he was rebuked by God and Paul. Human institutions will always have corruption or leaders making mistakes, but the teachings can still be true. I will continue to make mistakes but just as part of the appeal of Spider-Man is that he does not give up despite so much going wrong, so shall I continue to work towards that perfection. If I were to die and learn God is not real, I would not regret as I see the teachings as guiding me towards perfection, and that is to be good and to love.

With Love,

J. D. Nyle

P. S. Want to see how this worldview plays out in my stories? Read my stories. They are available to read on Amazon and currently can be read in any order.

1. The original novel about a boy who grows towards this realization. Available on Kindle and Paperback
2. The short story about how this philosophy shapes what it means to be a parent
3. The short story collection including more letters from a father and how it impacts his children

P. S. S. I don't write my stories in the "evangelist" approach like C. S. Lewis. My stories are more like Tolkien in that they are influenced by my worldview. Maybe I will share more about why I don't like the idea of being a "Christian writer" in another post.

Snippet Story: Helene's Torment

I'm surprised to see I haven't updated this blog page for so long. I thought I would have at least posted for when I had a story coming up. However, due to the seriousness of the topic, I wanted to be absolutely sure it wouldn't be triggering for a certain crowd, which would be the opposite effect I intend. As a result, it's waiting in beta-reading purgatory. I did get a suggestion of posting where I could get more attention, however, when I checked the terms and service, I didn't see information I was looking for. I got some positive feedback, but I still need to do another round of editing.

So let me make it up by sharing this very short story focused on Helene, giving a deeper insight into her mind. I originally planned for it to be longer, but I feel this is actually a good length. Let me know what you think and if you want more on Helene, check out The Vixen.

I hope you enjoy and remember to dream on,

J. D. Nyle

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Beep! Beep! Ring-a-ding! Cling!

Cars passed by on the street alongside the park as kids ran with laughter and excitement. Bikes stood in the open area as kids played tag. Helene watched quietly as she sat in her swing. Suddenly, a big push from behind sent her flying in the air as she let out a gasp of joy. Crows feet planted firmly in her eyes as she could not wipe the smile. As she fell back, the strong firm hands that she loved gave another push. 

“Higher!” she cried in her 10-year-old high-pitched voice! “Higher, papa!”

“Sure thing, my sweet little angel,” her soft baritone father said as he abided by the request.

As Helene swung in the air, her father stood back with content on his face. He cleared his voice and began to sing.

Swing low! Sweet chariot! Comin’ for to carry me home!

Helene frowned and shouted from her swing in her teenage voice, “No! No singing! Especially that one! Stay with me!”

But her father simply smiled and continued.

Swing loooow! Sweet chariot! Coming’ for to carry me home!

When I looked over Jordan and what did I see? Comin’ for to carry me home?

“STOP IT!”

Helene’s swing would not stop. As she tried to plant her feet, the ground ebbed away. Then she heard a bugle playing notes. G.....G...C…..

“NO! NO! NO!”

G…..C...E…..

Helene wept and sobbed, helpless in her swing as it swayed to and fro. She looked down at her legs only to see a folded flag in her lap. Her face crinkled and tears fell upon the stars.

"Stay strong, my little angel."

Helene opened her eyes, but the tears still clouded them in the dark room. She sniffed as she got out of her bed and walked over to a drawer and pulled it open.

Creeeeak!

There it was; that nightmarish flag. Still in it’s neat triangular fold. At least it was neat until Helene’s fist pounded it, rattling the contents of the shelf.

She let out a deep breath and then proceeded to pat out the wrinkles once again, still huffing and trying to dam the river flowing from her eyes.

“Papa…” she muttered before falling to her knees.

----

Waaaah!

Helene wept for perhaps half-an-hour in the dark when she heard a scream from her neighboring room. She wiped the tears from her red-eyes and walked out calmly. She knocked on the door saying, “Jack?”

She opened and saw the five-year old crying with anguish in his face.

“It’s dark!” he bellowed.

Helene looked around but could not see the light from the bunny that typically illuminated her little brother’s room. Though as she had been awake for quite a while, she could clearly see her brother. She glided to his bedside and reassuringly said, “It’s okay. I’m here. Your mother is here too. Shall I get her?”

“No! Stay with me!”

Helene pursed her lips and gazed into her brother’s face. She gave him a bear hug.

“Of course I’ll stay. No one is as precious as my little Davy.”

Jack sniffed and pointed towards the desk that held the bunny-lamp. “Can you fix it?”

“I have a better idea. Come with me and you can sleep in my room with me.

Davy held Helene’s hand tightly as they returned to Helene’s room. She grabbed her watch and went to bed next to Davy. She activated a bunny hologram. Davy's breathing regulated as he embraced Helene. Soon, he was quiet and peaceful and not much later, she was too.

December 2020 Update

Wow! It's been a while since I last posted. During that time, I updated The Vixen ebook to include two more short stories and one "snippet" story (since it's a lot shorter than the short stories). I also made progress in making my video game. I even made a quick karuta game for my kids. I spent a lot of hours watching GameMaker Studio tutorials by Shaun Spalding on Youtube. It's been pretty good to learn the tools and some logic for development. I've also interspersed with some engineering and storyelling videos that have given me material for my books. That's good because after testing one book with my alpha readers, I found I really do need one set beforehand to set the stage.

Since then, things have slowed down as I recovered from injuries, played some games in my backlog, and spend time with the family. Now that my kid is getting big enough, we've played through Kirby's Epic Yarn, Yoshi's Crafted World, and now on Yoshi's Woolly World. It's a bit interesting to see a kid learn how to play video games for the first time. At the same time, I enjoy seeing the creativity and how it can inspire to do crafts and such. Hopefully my stories can inspire something similar.

Perhaps the funniest thing I've learned is from watching a documentary on Batman Beyond. I never knew it before but it's set in 2039, 20 years after Batman retired. That means 2020 was always to be a bad year since Batman retired in 2019.

Joking aside, this year has granted me quite a few blessings as well, especially with the increased time I got to spend with my kids.

That's all I have for this year. So until next time. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

J. D. Nye

August 2020 update

 A while back, I said that I had follow ups for "The Vixen" almost ready to publish. They are still in that state. Why? Because for each new draft, I like to get some fresh beta readers and this time something clicked from the fresh feedback which I think helped understand an older feedback I was ignoring.

In this case, the older feedback said something felt missing. The new feedback said there was too much of something. That too much of one thing, in my opinion, is what caused the feeling of absence. Why? Because of the concept of "broken/unfulfilled promises". I recently watched Brandon Sanderson's series of lectures on creative writing and he relayed a similar experience where beta reader's feedback helped guide him to what went wrong and what promises he had failed to live up to. These promises are not always intentionally made, but a reader can pick up on them and if not handled properly, can make or break an ending.

In other news, the beta reading process has helped me observe that the immediate follow-up, while technically has enough information to serve as an intro, works better when read with the Vixen. In combination with me experimenting with something, I feel like in order to not make the wrong promises to new readers, I should not release it as a standalone. What this means is there will be a Second Edition of "The Vixen" with 3 short stories. 

What does this mean for people who have already bought or downloaded the first edition? As thank you to everyone who supported me early, the two short stories appended to "The Vixen" at no extra cost. Just make sure your Kindle/App updates. And when the update goes live, I will also raise the cost to $3 to maintain the $1 per short story ratio.

When will the updates go live? I hope in September but that also depends upon another thing I want to try and that is illustrations. If you recall from my post on cover art, there was a piece that felt very comic-book and I am in talks to see about having that artist contribute some illustrations for "The Vixen" Second Edition. Depending upon how that goes, it may take a bit longer.

Until then, dream on!

J. D. Nyle