Late Nite Books

The Dying Times: Nadene’s Story has received its final cover design.  The only thing that will change at this point is if any further reviews come in that need to be added to the back cover.  I have included a 60%-size preview of the cover below.

The Dying Times: Nadene's Story Front Cover

It has been a long time in the making, but, finally, Nadene’s story shall be told to the world!  I am very pleased that I have made it this far, and it wasn’t as easy as people might think sometimes.  Writing the book seems to be the easiest part in retrospect; the cover design and now the selling (when it hits the shelves in November) are going to be monsters to conquer in their own respective rights.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me in one way or another, be it from Dawn Mays, my good friend and proofreader, Sandra Heptinstall from Whispering Winds and Midwest for encouragement and guidance along the way, or from my personal friends, family, and even acquaintances who have in some small or large way helped me to bridge the gap from my dream to the reality:  seeing my own words printed behind a cover in the form of a real book and appreciated by those who read it.  What more could an author want?

It took several days to find the right mixture in the form of the final cover that you see to the right.  (Click to enlarge, it’s only the top half in the thumbnail.)  Finding a girl who matched Nadene’s description was no small task, but find her I did, and when I saw her, I knew right then and there that this was ‘Nadene’ from the story.

I had some gory concepts for the front cover, but those were laid aside in favor of something more tasteful, more fitting, and more appropriate to be displayed.  In essence, I didn’t want to be denied shelf space, digitally or otherwise, based on the fact that the cover was inappropriate for display.

So, I settled with the one that you see here.  Did I say ‘settled’?  I should say something more along the lines of “I was granted the wisdom and the skill to put together a cover that I was extremely pleased with.”  There, that’s better.  Sorry to offend, Naddy!

The Dying Times: Nadene's Story Entire Cover

If you will turn your attention to Exhibit B (left), you will see a small thumbnail of the full wrap-around cover.  Basically, the cover is printed as one sheet, then folded to make the front cover, back cover, and the spine.  So, the sideways writing is the spine.  Anything to the right of that is the front cover, and anything to the left is the back cover.

Thanks for stopping by!  It is difficult to contain the excitement I feel at this moment.  It is a feeling that will continue to grow the closer to the release date, I’m sure.  Only two short months away now!  (I’d release earlier if most reviewers didn’t require truckloads of time to make a review!)

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the covers as much as I have enjoyed making them!  If you would like to add me to Facebook, you can see the progression of covers from the beginning to the finalized version, plus all of the conversations and commentary that went into it.  My name is Brian Kittrell on Facebook!

This post is more or less to get the ball rolling and to further explain what this group is for, what the people in this group do, and why it might be of interest to others to look into it.  In this post, I do a little bit of Q&A about the general idea behind independent authorship and self-publishing.

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Getting some work done on The Dying Times: Nadene’s Story‘s cover.  I’m thinking it’s not looking too bad.  It took a little bit of editing to get it whipped into shape.  All in all, I’m liking it.

This is, of course, a lower resolution version of the final cover.  Posting the actual one up on the website would burn way too much bandwidth.  Besides, the fine detail can be saved for the print version.

From left to right, back row:  John, Wayne, and Susan.  Left to right, front row:  Nadene and Pamela.

No zombies were harmed during the production of this cover.

This scene is one from the book, when the five survivors are working their way through a police station in search of weapons and supplies until they can get to their next location.

Late Nite Books is finally and officially a publisher, thanks to a partnership with Lightning Source, Inc., which is a part of the Ingram Content Group.

Ingram is revolutionizing the way content reaches its destination.  By being paired with Lightning Source, Late Nite Books titles appear in Books-in-Print from R.R. Bowker, the U.S. ISBN agency, and 30,000+ brick-and-mortar bookstores worldwide.

What does this mean, exactly?  I’m glad you asked…

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Though certainly not the same genre of book, there are plenty of positive things said and a couple of things for me to work on before the final release in November.  Here are the reviewer’s words:

“This book shows definite potential to be a great novel.  It held my interest although it needs further development of the characters and dialogue.  Despite it’s flaws, it has good flow though it does suffer from some continuity problems.  I do appreciate the chance to review this book as it gives me insight into another first time author’s work.  I hope he will keep writing and keep developing his skills as he does have a talent for storytelling.
Jennifer DeNaughel – Lighthouse Dreams”

I will be working on a little bit of character development for one of the characters who did not have a chance to be voiced, and I will look at the continuity of the story and see if there are any places that could be refined.  Altogether, I am pleased with the review.  My key concern is holding the audience’s interest, and the people who have read it so far have resounded that sentiment.  Thanks, Jenn!

My first novel, The Dying Times: Nadene’s Story, has received a five-star review from a professional reviewer.  This is great news!  The novel is due to be out by the last week in November, 2010.  The review should be placed in the October issue of the Midwest Book Review, and also posted on the reviewer’s blog, Whispering Winds Book Reviews.  Now, I’m just waiting on the cover art to be completed, and we’re in business.

From Sandra Heptinstall, the reviewer:

“This book is a genuine masterpiece of this type of genre. Actually it could fit into a number of different categories and styles of writing. I read a couple of chapters and then put the book down. I kept thinking about the story and decided to just read a little more. Well I wound up reading the whole book. I found out that once you start reading this book you can not stop.

It starts in the year 2013 where we find the eastern portion of the United States is being attack. Missiles carrying biological agents are falling and killing thousands of people. But then a strange thing happens. Some of the dead come back to life and begin to attack and kill people who were not effected by the bombs.

I found this story to be interesting and it may hold a whisper of what may happen if some things do not change in our world. Everyone will have their own perceptions of the story and characters. I firmly believe that this book will be enjoyed by all who read it.

I loved the way the characters were developed. And how they teamed up to go west away from the horrific things that were happening to save their own lives.

This book was so good I found it hard to believe it was from a first time author. Do yourself a favor and buy the book for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

- Sandra Heptinstall”

Thanks, Sandra!

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I have decided to upload the draft copy of Chapter 2 of the the d10 Core Roleplaying Game System Second Edition to the website in order to get some feedback.  I have had one brave soul give me some tips at RPG.net, but, alas, aid is not forthcoming.

This is in response to the weaker mechanics found in the first edition of the rule set, amongst other concerns, and a need for feedback.  Basically, I need people to tell me if it is easy enough to understand that they can figure out what’s going on with it.

Oh, and the d10 Core Character Sheet, for reference.

I have decided to release the first two chapters of The Dying Times: Nadene’s Story for people to read and see if they like the premise.  Check out the product homepage for the same chapters (as linked in the last sentence), or click here to view them in PDF format.  Comments are welcome!

I have been struggling for a week or two with how sluggish WordPress was running, so I started looking around the internet for solutions.  I went through everything – or so I thought.  I even started looking at other web hosts, thinking that iPage was the problem.  Well, I found a plugin called Minify that seems to be the answer to all of my prayers.

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