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Nickel Hall started life as a logo. Astrid Schmid and her husband run a dog boarding kennel, and on the side they play pickleball and coach it on their own home court. When the coaching needed a logo, Astrid drew a little pickleball and named him Nickel Hall.
"We originally created Nickel Hall as part of our pickleball logo, never imagining that this little pickleball character would eventually become the star of a children's book."
Today he has his own book. Nickel Hall the Pickleball: Bounces Around the World is out on Amazon.
A Travel Memoir, Told by a Pickleball
People who heard how Astrid and her husband met, and where they had traveled since, kept telling them to write a book.
"Whenever people heard how we met while traveling and about our adventures around the world, they often suggested that we should write a book about our experiences. We never intended to write a book about ourselves, but the idea stayed with me."
So she wrote one about Nickel instead. He sets off around the world to find his own unique groove and ends up in the places Astrid and her husband went. He floats in the Dead Sea, rides a camel through the desert, shares samosas on a pickleball court and sits down to a family dinner, learning about kindness, courage and perseverance as he goes.
"I started with a short story, but Nickel's adventures kept growing. I added more stories, more destinations, and eventually began creating illustrations to bring him to life. What started as a simple idea gradually snowballed into a fully illustrated children's adventure, much more than I had ever imagined."
One Pickleball, Many Countries
Astrid tried a couple of other AI tools first.
"They were complicated to use and the character and style did not stay the same throughout the illustrations. It was frustrating."
A travel book can't work that way. Readers have to recognize Nickel at a border post, on a boat through a glowing cave and at a market stall.
"Neolemon's character consistency was unbeatable. Keeping my character looking the same across different illustrations was incredibly important for my children's book, and Neolemon did that better than any other tool I tried. Besides, the program was beginner friendly, very easy to use."
"A Game-Changer"
Some illustrations still took work. What changed her process was Editor Pro, which let her fix one detail in an image and leave the rest alone.
"Being able to make small adjustments within an illustration while keeping everything else exactly the same was a game-changer for me! It gave me the control I needed without having to recreate an entire image just to fix one little detail. From that point on, my workflow became so much smoother, and the whole creative process felt easier and more enjoyable."
Holding the Finished Book
Publishing as an indie author was hard going at times, and there were moments Astrid wondered whether the book would ever come together the way she pictured it.
"But when I finally saw the finished story, with all the illustrations and pieces falling into place, I felt an incredible sense of accomplishment. I was genuinely proud of what I had created. Looking back, all the challenges and hard work were worth it to see my vision for Nickel Hall come to life in a real book that I could share with the world."
You can find Nickel Hall the Pickleball: Bounces Around the World on Amazon.
What Astrid's Story Shows
Astrid never meant to write a book about herself, and in a way she didn't. Nickel carries the trips, the friends and the meals, and Neolemon let her take him to every one of those places without him turning into a different pickleball on the way. She is already thinking about writing another book.
For another creator building a world around their own characters, read about Guillaume, a software engineer building an animated series around a cat and a seal.
Ready to Start Your Own Story?
If this story has inspired you to bring your own character to life, Neolemon can help you get started. Create your character once, take them anywhere, and keep them looking like themselves on every page.
