Eric Dontigney's Blog, page 2

The State of Dontigney: New Year, New Mindset

photo credit: photosteve101 via photopin cc

So, I think like most people, I found 2020 to be something of a year of setbacks. I achieved very few of the goals I set for myself. Some of that was unavoidable because pretty much everything was closed. There were a lot of local places I was thinking of visiting and then blogging about. Clearly, that couldn’t happen. Traveling out of state was impractical for most of the year. It still is for most purposes. So that put visiting Crater Lake out of reach, which was frustrating because it’s been at the top of my list of places to visit for years now.

I planned on doing more in-person promoting for my books and had even taken some steps in the direction, but Covid put the kibosh on that. I wasn’t happy with my overall level of fitness and BMI. I’ve made some progress on that front, but it was mostly incidental. I just started walking more and walking is good exercise. I’m sure my financial struggles were nothing unusual for the 2020 shitshow and a lot less severe than millions of other people faced, but they are always stressful for anyone experiencing them.

I weathered the social distancing and stay-at-home orders better than most because many writers spend a lot of time alone anyway. Sure, you can go and write in coffee shops and libraries, but you’re probably not interacting with people much while you do it. You’re just alone in public. So, the isolation didn’t hit me like a hammer the way it hit people who were used to daily interactions with coworkers or extroverts who spend most nights out.

All of those other goal failures, though, took an accumulative toll. My writing productivity fell off precipitously, which meant I didn’t finish writing a single book last year instead of completing 2-3 like I planned on. The best I could manage was generating some short fiction to post on my Patreon page and even that was more sporadic than I’d like. Once the apathy starts setting in, it’s hard to break free from it. I think that — more than anything else — was what made 2020 so difficult for me. The fallout from so many things I’d been planning just not materializing made it hard to get on track with anything else.

Fortunately, it’s a new year. A new year is an opportunity to embrace a new mindset. In fact, I’ve made some strides in that department in the last month or so. I’m actively working on a novel again. I didn’t get a completed draft out for Christmas the way I hoped, but it’s a hell of a lot closer to finished than it was two months ago. Making substantial progress on any project has been a boon for my state of mind.

I’ve also decided to adopt a new mindset about my approach to writing. I found a Facebook group of writers who treat writing novels like a business, which is what you need to do if you ever really want to make it. So, I’ll be adopting some of the writing and marketing strategies that they suggest and testing them out over the next 24 months. If I can produce even 5-10% of the results some of the other new members in the group have managed, I could probably get serious about transitioning to writing fiction full-time. So that’s my goal for the next one to two years. Develop my fiction writing to the point that it can support a basically comfortable lifestyle.

Wondering what else is going on with me and my writing? Sign up for my newsletter/mailing list!

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Happy Holidays and Last Minute Shoppers

So, the dumpster fire that has been 2020 is finally grinding down to its final days. Can’t say I’ll be sorry to see it go. Here’s hoping that the holidays find you happy and healthy. Here’s also hoping that 2021 treats us all a little better than this last year has.

In other news, I’ve been actively writing on Jericho Lott recently. While I have been making progress, I’m starting to worry that it might come in a little longer than I originally anticipated. I guess we’ll just have to see what we see over the next few days.

Now, for all of you mighty procrastinators. If you’re still looking for last-minute gifts, I humbly submit that ebooks and audiobooks make fine last-minute presents. They’re especially good if you got someone a Kindle Fire or similar tablet for a holiday gift. It gives them something to put on there. So, with that in mind, you can find links for all of my ebooks over on the creatively titled My Books page. You can find the audiobook version of my first novel, Falls, over on Audible here.

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Midnight Ground Sequel Update

There have been some questions about the sequel to The Midnight Ground lately. So, here’s the story.

The Midnight Ground came out in late, late 2018. The original plan was for the sequel, Favors Given, to come out in 2019. I even started writing it. Except, The Midnight Ground arrived almost entirely to the sound of crickets chirping. With very little in the way of apparent reader demand, I put Favors Given on hold with a mind to work on other projects. And projects there were! So many, in fact, that I managed to finish exactly none of them.

Now, however, there is some genuine reader demand for the sequel. So, here’s the plan. I should be wrapping up the first draft of Jericho Lott in the next couple of weeks. After that, Favors Given moves right to the top of the list of Active Projects to Finish Soon. If fortune favors the writer, I’ll wrap the first draft of that up in early spring. If fortune really goes my way and editing doesn’t take too long, it’ll come in the summer or fall of next year.

Wondering what else is going on with me and my writing? Sign up for my newsletter/mailing list! The first newsletter goes out tomorrow!

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Amazon Ratings, Mailing List, and Other Updates

Time for some catching up. Right at the top of list, The Midnight Ground has crossed a major threshold. It now has 50 ratings/reviews on Amazon. There’s no official evidence of this, but scuttlebutt in the publishing industry is that Amazon will start doing some promoting for books that reach this number. Time will tell about that, but it’s still very exciting for a book published by a small press to see that many ratings.

In other news, I’ve finally set up an official mailing list. Signing up for the list will get you a monthly-ish newsletter. The newsletter will include updates on my writing projects, behind the scenes info or pictures, any deals or promotions that may be running on my books, and links out to random things I like or find interesting.

The Boss

 

You can also expect messages from The Boss, AKA Loki, AKA my cat. You can rely on her for the real scoop.

 

You’ll also get period announcements when I publish a new novel, short story, or novella on Amazon. You can sign up for the mailing list on my website in the upper right-hand corner or you can sign up here.

Aside from that, I promised that I’d get a first draft of Jericho Lott finished in time to send it out to alpha readers by Christmas. So, I’m working on that as time allows. I’m also working on an idea for a follow up to my novelette, Onyx and Alabaster. It’ll probably run novella length and appear first on my Patreon page.

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Night of the Rithin Is Live on Amazon

For anyone who doesn’t know yet, I’ve got a Patreon page where I post blogs, short stories and, soon, videos. Since not everyone likes Patreon, however, I’ve decided that I’m going to start publishing the short stories over on Amazon. They’ll remain exclusive on Patreon during the month I post them there. Then, it’s off to Amazon, which brings us to today’s announcement. One of the first stories I published on Patreon is called Night of the Rithin.

Here’s the description:

“Temoran wakes up groggy and alone. With dawning horror, he realizes that his former friends and business partners have abandoned him to die in the Great Alkeon Forest. With no supplies and not a lick of magic to protect himself, Temoran must rely on half-remembered skills his father imparted just to get through the day. As night falls, though, he must depend on a stranger to help him survive the night of the Rithin.”

You can grab an ebook version over on Amazon. It’s available for purchase or via Kindle Unlimited.

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The Sam Branch Christmas Special Is Live

Several years ago, I wrote The Sam Branch Christmas Special. It was available on this blog for exactly one day. Then, I took it down. I always meant to swing back around to it, but life happened. The weeks turned into months and months turned into years. I mostly forgot about it. Except, this story is actually canon. It resolves a dangling plot thread from Rises.

The story sprang to mind the other day. With a bit of dawning horror, I remembered that the only people who ever got to read this story were the people who downloaded it off the blog. So, I read it over, sanded off the rough edges, and put together a Kindle edition.

I’m proud to announce that The Sam Branch Christmas Special is now live over on Amazon. You can buy it or grab it through Kindle Unlimited here.

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Onyx and Alabaster Is Live on Amazon!

Okay, so, I wasn’t actually planning on doing this yet. Here’s the backstory. I uploaded a short story to Amazon because I wanted to get their page count for the ebook. After I got their count, I was going to unpublish it and do some revisions.

Except, I forgot to unpublish it.

This wouldn’t normally be a crisis. I could just unpublish it once I noticed. That’s was good plan until I discovered some go-getters found it and grabbed Kindle Unlimited copies. This happened despite me not advertising it at all. Yay for the randomness of the Internet!

I’m still planning on doing some revisions to this thing, but since it’s in the wild and on some peoples’ Kindles already, I’m proud to announce the publication of Onyx and Alabaster! Grab it through Kindle Unlimited today! Revisions! Will! Follow!

 

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Sunday Giveaway – Contingency Jones

Okay, it’s on. FREE KINDLE E-BOOK TOMORROW!

For one day only I’m giving away my time travel urban fantasy book, CONTINGENCY JONES: THE COMPLETE SEASON ONE, completely free.



Share the link! Tell your friends!



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CZDCTTO

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Announcement: Print Edition of the Samuel Branch Omnibus Is Live

I’m pleased to announce that The Samuel Branch Omnibus is now available as a print edition. Weighing in at a mere 2.75 pounds and 763 pages of small print, it contains the first three Sam Branch novels: Falls, Turns, and Rises.

You can get it on Amazon:

US

UK

Canada

Germany

France

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The Midnight Ground Giveaway Experiment – Recap

So, late last week, my publisher suggested that we offer the Kindle ebook version of The Midnight Ground for free on Halloween. I said something pithy like:

“Sure. That sounds good.”

I don’t pith very well, apparently. Anyways, after that minimal discussion, we agreed and Vast Plans Were Set In Motion. By that, I mean that we hastily put together some cool or cool-ish looking images and promotional language.

Afterward, we promoted it on Facebook and Twitter. Most of this was done on my Facebook author page and personal page, the publisher’s Facebook page, and a couple of groups I belong to on Facebook. The Twitter ads were done on my Twitter account and the publisher’s Twitter account.

Honestly, I don’t think any of us expected a lot. The book, though beloved by a small group of people, hadn’t made much of a splash. For my part, I was hoping that a few hundred people might download it and — because this is how ebook giveaways work — that half of them right read it. I’m an author and all any author really wants is for people to read their stuff. If we can get paid too, that’s awesome, but getting people to read your books is the gold ring.

So, what happened caught us all off guard. People downloaded a whopping 1713 free copies of the book. That alone would have left us all a little flabbergasted. It turns out that people were also grabbing it through Kindle Unlimited and reading it. Needless to say, this has been a real boost for all involved.

If you didn’t get a free copy on Halloween, you can still grab The Midnight Ground through Kindle Unlimited here.

If you did get a free copy on Halloween and you’re craving more of my writing, you can grab The Samuel Branch Omnibus and Contingency Jones: The Complete Season One through Kindle Unlimited as well.

Still not satisfied? You also get access to original short fiction written by yours truly over on Patreon.

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