Eric Dontigney's Blog, page 4
April 16, 2019
The State of Dontigney
photo credit: Daniel*1977 via photopin cc
It’s been a busy stretch for me, which is my excuse for not blogging more…weak sauce that it is.
Among other things, I’ll be moving again soon. It’s just a local move this time, but all moves are stressful and time-consuming and way more excruciating than you ever think they’ll be. So, the time I’d otherwise have spent working on novels and blogging and being SUPER INTERESTING on social media has been spent dealing with logistics and finances and other SUPER NOT INTERESTING things.
All of that out of the way, let’s talk about the work. While it’s been slow and intermittent, I have been chipping away on the sequel to The Midnight Ground. It’ll be titled Favors Given. It’s still due out this year, assuming I can get and keep my ducks in a row. Before anyone asks, I’ll give you this one spoiler. Yes, everyone’s favorite gray cat, Lil, will be returning for more misadventures with Hartworth. Someone’s got to keep an eye on that human, after all.
If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, it means you haven’t read The Midnight Ground. For shame! Go get it on Amazon and you too can be in the loop. The reviews have all been favorable, so it’s a solid bet you’ll enjoy it if you like urban fantasy at all. Plus, it’s still available through Kindle Unlimited. I’m not sure how long that will last, though, so don’t procrastinate if you like free.
The audiobook version of Falls – the first book in the Sam Branch series – has been getting okay reviews on Audible. That’s to be expected. Not only is it the first book in a series, but it was also my first novel for public consumption. Novel writing has a steep learning curve and that novel is by far the weakest of my books. However, Paul Stefano did an outstanding job bringing that book to life. It’s worth it just to hear his narration. If you’re looking for a top-notch male narrator for your book, add him to your shortlist. You can grab Falls over on Audible. If you own the Kindle edition, you can even get it at a discounted price.
There are other projects on the horizon, but my main fiction project right now is Favors Given. After that, I’ll start focusing in on the new Branch book and finishing up at least one of the other three books I have in a partial state of completion.
January 30, 2019
Listiller Review
While I’ve mostly been focused on my fiction writing lately on the blog, I do have another life as a freelance writer. To that end, I’m sharing my thoughts on a job board site that I’ve been testing out recently.
As a freelance writer, I’m routinely in the market for two things: new sources of jobs and ways to work more efficiently. Unfortunately, those two objectives are often at cross purposes. You quickly discover that the problem isn’t a lack of places to look for work, but that there are too many. You can burn through half a workday just looking through all the available jobs on sources like Problogger, BloggingPro, Indeed, and the Freelance Writing job board. I’m not knocking these places because they are often invaluable for new writers, but they can easily turn into a brutal time suck that doesn’t make you any money. Enter Listiller.
The portmanteau name of the site pretty aptly describes its function. It’s a list distiller. The site goes out and aggregates freelance writing jobs from all over the web. Instead of going from site to site and digging through duplicates listings, you go to one site and scroll through the available work. This is a huge time saver for people at any point in their writer career. The time you don’t waste looking for work is time you spend doing work. There are no surprises in terms of using the site. Jobs are listed chronologically with the most recent ones at the top of the list. Each job includes a link to the original source, so you get right down to pitching or applying.
Among other things that people new to freelancing will find helpful are the blog posts on writing and blogging. They cover topics as basic as overcoming writer’s block and boosting productivity to more sophisticated issues like negotiating better pay, content curation, and dealing with social media metrics. While you can find this information elsewhere, it’s convenient to have it accessible in one place. Another goldmine for people early in their career is the list of sites that accept guest blogs. Most don’t pay, but it an effective way to get a byline with your name onto a reputable website. For portfolio building purposes, it’s fantastic. That list I mentioned has thousands of websites.
The site is a membership website…hold on, don’t lose your mind yet. It’s actually very affordable. You can get basic access to all the job listings, a list of magazines that pay for submissions, along with lots of resources for a $5 a month. The mid-tier membership gets you access to all of that stuff, writing guides, and the guest blogging list for $7 a month. The top-tier membership, which gets you some bells and whistles intended for pro-level writers, is $10 a month. Odds are good that you pay more for your Netflix membership or Amazon Prime than you will for this site and those don’t make you any money. This site probably will if you put in some effort to apply to the jobs or pitch some blog posts.
Of course, no site is perfect is this one is no exception. The site doesn’t screen the jobs. That means that the job listings from Craigslist and other second-tier sites might or might not be for real. You must take a caveat emptor approach to those listings. It also means that some jobs might appear that aren’t really for freelance bloggers/freelance writers. I’d say that 99% of the jobs I looked at were for that group, but no automated system is 100%. The guest blogging list can’t be sorted based on which sites pay for guest posts. Most sites don’t pay for guest posts, but some do. The guest blogging list will prove very frustrating if that matters to you.
By now, it should be fairly obvious that I think the good drastically outweighs the bad for this site. The cost of entry makes it accessible for almost anyone, even people taking the very first steps into their freelance career. The job listing aggregation feature will save you a lot of time searching for freelancing opportunities. The guest post list will be pure gold for people looking to build out their portfolio. Plus, you get access to a lot of useful resources in a central location. All in all, I’d say it’s absolutely worth $7 a month. It pays for itself if it helps you sell even one blog post per month, which it most certainly can if you put in just a bit of effort.
January 29, 2019
The Midnight Ground Preview Chapters
Not sure if The Midnight Ground is your cup of tea? Well here’s your chance to try before you buy! Read the first four chapters for free. Link to PDF below:
January 2, 2019
Midnight Ground Trailer and Early Reviews
It’s exciting times. First things first, check out the book trailer for The Midnight Ground:
Now, here are some snippets from the reviews!
“Hartworth is a hero in the vein of John Constantine and Harry Dresden.”
“Action-packed and full of heart-stopping exciting moments, I cannot wait to see what new adventure the next book takes me.”
“Eric Dontigney knocks it out of the park, and I can’t wait to see where he goes with this series.”
“If you like Charlaine Harris’s Midnight Texas characters and town, you will enjoy this book!”
“I couldn’t wait to see what happened next as Adrian struggles against powers beyond his comprehension and abilities…”
“…it was hard to put down even for five minutes.”
You can grab an ebook copy here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MP673WJ
You can get a print copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938834194/
December 30, 2018
Early Ebook Release for The Midnight Ground
Great news everybody! My publisher has released the ebook edition of The Midnight Ground a day early!
Grab your copy over on Amazon today!
December 15, 2018
Updates: The Midnight Ground, Falls audiobook, Future Projects
Okay, so there is a LOT going on right now.
First things first, The Midnight Ground update:
We have an official release date! Jan. 1, 2019!
Advance reader copies have gone out to a select few people for blurbs and advance reviews.
With any luck, the book will be available for pre-order over on Amazon sometime in the next two weeks.
Falls Audiobook Update:
The recording is going well. I heard from the narrator and the initial recording is about 2/3 done.
There will still be some post-recording mastering and other editing to be done, but I think we’re on track to get it out by early February.
Future Projects:
My publisher has greenlit a sequel to The Midnight Ground called Favors Given
Favors Given has just moved to the front of the queue of all my novel projects.
Target first draft completion date is March/April 2019
Target publication date is mid-late 2019
Assuming that the Falls audiobook gets even a little traction, Turns and Rises will be getting the audiobook treatment as well…probably later this year sometime
Branch book 4, Runs , is still on the agenda for getting written in 2019, but probably won’t come out until 2020.
If I can squeeze the hours out of my daily life, I’ll be looking to finish Stormbreak or Jericho Lott this year. I’d like to do both, but I doubt it’s feasible.
December 11, 2018
The Midnight Ground Official Cover Reveal!
The wait is finally over! I’ve got a final version of the cover for The Midnight Ground. Without further ado…Here! We! Go!
December 6, 2018
Audiobook Update
So, I quick update on the Falls audiobook project. As part of the process, I get the first 10-15 minutes of the book. Assuming I like what I hear, I approve the sample and work starts on the rest of the book. You might wonder, “What’s the function of this particular milestone?” I’m assuming that this is ACX giving authors and publishers one last chance to act on second thoughts.
In this case, though, it was a wholly unnecessary opportunity. The sample was great! I approved it and now the waiting begins. I’m super excited about this project and can’t wait to hear the completed version. Just as importantly, I can’t wait for all of you to hear the completed project!
The interesting part for me, though, is to hear how someone else interprets my characters. It really is an object lesson in how the reader experience is different than the writer experience. When you get right down to it, every one of my characters sounds a lot like me in my head. What distinguishes them for me are things like rhythm, cadence, vocabulary, and even how they structure their thinking.
Listening to someone else read/interpret my characters in a spoken format, though, gives me an idea of how it might sound in a reader’s head. That’s an insight that’s worth its weight in gold.
Any other writer’s out there have a similar experience with an audiobook version of one of their books? Leave a comment below and tell us all about it.
December 1, 2018
Updates: The Midnight Ground, Falls Audiobook, and Other Projects
photo credit: photosteve101 via photopin cc
Update time! Assuming all goes well, The Midnight Ground should be hitting digital shelves in the next couple of weeks. I don’t know yet if it will be available for pre-order or will simply go live. It probably depends on how long it takes to hammer out the last few details. When I know the official pre-order or live availability date, you’ll know. I’m pushing for it to go live early enough that you can get physical copies by Christmas.
I’m still waiting on a finalized version the cover art to share with everyone, but it will start appearing everywhere within about 5 minutes of me receiving it.
In other news, the long-awaited audiobook version of the first Sam Branch novel, Falls, is actually happening. Rather than making everyone wait until I could get myself organized for the project, I’ve secured the services of the very talented Paul Stefano for the project. Recording should start sometime later this month. If all goes as planned, it should debut on Audible sometime in early-mid February 2019. More updates will happen as the project progresses.
I’ve also started some early discussions with a producer about turning Contingency Jones: The Complete Season One into a fully-fledged audiodrama, complete with voice actors and original scoring. This one isn’t a done deal, but this is a dream project for me. So, I’m going to be working very hard to make it a reality.
The timeline is still a little hazy, but I’d ideally like to see production start on it sometime in April or May of next year. Assuming the dream does become a reality, most of the distribution would likely happen through Audible and other audiobook sellers. That being said, options do exist for making these kinds of projects available on CD.
A while back, I said I planned on putting out a novella based in the Branchverse around Christmas. Sadly, this won’t be happening for several reasons. Reason number one is that it’s not done. I could probably rush it to completion and get it out, but that’s always a good way to end up with lousy editing. I’m also not entirely happy with the idea/story. There is at least one substantial problem with the plotting that I haven’t solved yet.
It’s also foolhardy to have two new pieces of writing debut within a couple weeks of each other. Right now, my focus is on The Midnight Ground release. Once it’s out in the world and the flurry of activity has died down around it, I’ll start giving more thought to releasing the novella. That also gives me more time to figure out that annoying plotting problem.
Are you wondering, “What about all those books you have partially written?” Work has been happening on those sporadically, but I relocated from Memphis to Ohio a few months back. Acclimating to the new environment has taken more adjustment than I expected. However, things have started to settle down and I’ve got most of my ducks in a row now. You should start seeing word counts in the WIP bars off to the right of the screen start climbing toward the end of December.
November 29, 2018
99 Cents Sale
With The Midnight Ground on the brink of publication, I figured it was time to do something nice for people. Therefore, I’m running a one-week sale on my first three novels. That’s right, the ebook versions of the first three Sam Branch books are on sale from now until Dec. 7, 2018.
If you love you some urban fantasy, you can grab your copies for a cool $0.99 each over on Amazon. Links below:
