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

Making the Cover Art

After the cover art was finally finished, my wife came to me and said, "Now I know why the cover art was so important. It makes you want to read the book." That's exactly true. The primary reason why I hadn't published the book after receiving it back from the editor for over 18 months was due to not having any art.

I had one artist who said he was interested, but he never sent me the first draft and never replied to my messages. There was another guy who sounded like he might have been interested, but I also never heard back from him. Then one guy came up and asked about the project. I told him and he said he wanted to do it and he even agreed to do a trial piece.

That trial piece was important as I looked at his deviantArt profile and couldn't find anything that resembled what I was looking for. Some time before, I had decided the best cover art for this book needed to be a tapestry that showcased modern elements. I eventually settled on the fight between Cyonex and Crawn as it was the best for showing the fantasy elements and the time. However, no art on the artist's profile page matched this feel, but the trial piece would give me faith.

Since this was a trial piece, I didn't want him to use Neostriker for the basis. Instead, I needed him to use another series that had modern elements and see if he could transcribe them to a tapestry art. The result was Star Wars. While I could see room for improvement, the trial piece was good and I gave him the task of making the cover art.

The first draft he gave is what I would describe as a comic book cover. It was good. He implemented part of my design for the hero, which was to my liking, but I thought it was too realistic. I wanted the cover art to allow freedom of imagination to the readers. It also wasn't the format I was expecting after the trial piece. Part of the issue is that it wouldn't work with the cover template I had found to be the best of the options available.

The second draft was closer to expectations and also very promising. It was still a bit dynamic, but I liked the design of Crawn he came up with. I didn't care much for the background as I felt like it took away from the location of the fight. However, the biggest objection I had was that Craw's sword wasn't pointed at Cyonex. It was a good piece of art, but it didn't look right for a cover piece. It looked like Crawn was lecturing Cyonex which would completely change the first impression readers would have. While the book certainly has a bit of philosophy, I felt like it gave the wrong impression as it made Cyonex look like the aggressor. Had this been inside art, then that would be okay, but not good for the cover.

The third draft was fantastic. Even though I personally liked the designs of the warriors in the previous drafts better, this one felt like it could have been made in medieval times. It also allowed the imaginations of the readers to flourish. In addition, adding the jetpack helped conveyed that it was a modern story. As a result, we proceed to color this one and fine tune it. The result is the final art piece we have today.

I hope you enjoyed that look into the process of creating the cover art. David is an aspiring young artist. His hobbies include Star Wars, comics, drawing, cosplay, and sword-sparring. If you want to hire him, you can reach him through his DeviantArt profile, Omnipotrent

J. D. Nyle

Neostriker: Shining is now available for purchase from Amazon in US, Canada, UK, and Europe

Shining's publication!

The time is finally here! More than eight years after the first draft was completed, Shining is finally being published in print. Though since marketing plays a huge role in book sales, and I have none, I don't expect this to sell well, but if it can make some people happy, that would be great. Sure I would love to get a book/movie/game deal out of this, but that is certainly a dream that probably won't come true.

The book is finalized at 286 pages in a 6 by 9 inch book, with a little more story content, grammatical and plot corrections, improved flow, more character insights, and 2 appendices.

Pricing

In the US, it is $12 and is available on Amazon, qualifying for Prime free shipping.
https://smile.amazon.com/Neostriker-Shining-J-D-Nyle/dp/1530392748

In the UK, it is £10.01. I see that if the book was more than £10, then it could grant free UK distribution. If £9.50 is better for consumers though, I'm willing to lower the price
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neostriker-Shining-J-D-Nyle/dp/1530392748

In the rest of Europe, it is EUR 10,70. I don't know if Europe has free shipping options. If it does, please let me know
https://www.amazon.de/Neostriker-Shining-J-D-Nyle/dp/1530392748

For now, I'm going to hold off making the kindle edition as I keep running into new complications and issues. Sorry to anyone who was hoping to buy that version.

The Differences

Now you are most likely aware if you are reading this that an earlier draft of the novel is posted right here on this blog. Most of the content is the same, especially the plot, so you might wonder what makes the print version different. So let me explain.

1. Editing: I paid for an editing service to help polish up the story. In addition to that service, I also found a few of my own grammatical, spelling, and plot-related errors and fixed them up. 
2. Plot holes and weak links: In the earlier draft, it made no sense for the father to trust David after being lied to. The lie itself was not in the original draft and it's reason for existence did not hold up, so I removed it. The explanation for why Neocyx survives the first battle also didn't hold up well, so I added extra dialog. I polished stuff like this across the book so things should be more consistent and the reactions make more sense.
3. New sub-chapter: I added a chapter 10b to help cover a period of time and provide some added context.
4. Two appendices: There is one appendix with 18 pages of notes on each chapter (including some ideas about what happens to the cast afterwards). The is also another one describing neocards David uses. I figured this would be helpful for readers who might forget what a neocard does.

In addition, I've made some decisions that I feel might help the reader even though it may be against convention.

1. The neocards appendix is the last section. This helps because it allows readers to easily find it and read through it without many spoilers. From what I've read, the chapter notes should be the last section, but I figured this was better for the reader.
2. Names of enemies are bold in the first mention if mentioned mentioned multiple times. This happens normally by the description or provides a hint where the description is to be found so if someone needs to refresh his imagination, it will be easy to do so.
3. In the header, I go with chapter-title on the left-hand page and book title on the right-hand page. I found that having  the same chapter title appearing twice in a spread to be annoying, and for it to be beneficial to mark the chapter title when the last page of a chapter falls on the left-hand page.

Now whether you think all of these changes and improvements is worth spending $12 is up to you. I found it incredibly easier to read the book in print rather than on a screen. I personally would also like the support in growing the fanbase for the series. I would really like to be able to spend more time on Neostriker, but unless I can sell the books, I need to do other work in order to provide for my family and Neostriker would continue to be a side-project.

Again, you might wonder if there will be a sequel. The plan is I would like to write one, but my plan is that it would focus on the children of the current cast. Neostriker: Shining is a complete story and I have nothing more to add that is worthy of writing a new book with the current generation. Now if there are adaptations, I certainly have ideas for new material, but nothing solid for taking place immediately after the events of the book. If you are curious what happens to the cast in my current outline of the sequel, you can find some details in the episode notes.

Thanks for reading all of this, and I really hope you enjoy the book.

Dream on,

J. D. Nyle