Price Drops Galore!

March 27, 2020 / jdcunegan / Leave a comment

These are strange times, to say the least. Bounty Final

On the one hand, I’m excited about Betrayal‘s impending release. It’s been almost three years since my last release in the Jill Andersen series, and I can’t wait for the emotional toll I’m about to inflict on my readers.

But I can’t ignore what’s going on in the world. How we’re all pretty much stuck at home, lest we catch a virus that might do nothing or might kill us. These are anxious times, made more so by inept leadership and the fact that a lot of people are now facing deep financial trouble through no fault of their own.

So in response to these trying times, and to celebrate Betrayal‘s release on April 14, I’m proud to announce a pair of price changes:

Bounty, the first book in the series, is now just 99 cents on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBooks.
Blood Ties, the second book, is now just $1.99 on those same platforms.

Paperback prices remain unchanged.

In addition, I’ve unpublished the digital short Boundless — opting instead to leave it as the freebie readers get when they sign up for my newsletter. I hate pulling a book from the market, but based on the sales charts, you won’t miss it.

But if you do want a copy of Boundless, all you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter.

So visit your favorite ebook provider (be it Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or Apple iBooks) and take advantage of these new, lower prices. And don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Betrayal today!

About J.D. Cunegan
J.D. Cunegan is known for his unique writing style, a mixture of murder mystery and superhero epic that introduces the reader to his comic book-inspired storytelling and fast-paced prose. A 2006 graduate of Old Dominion University, Cunegan has an extensive background in journalism, a lengthy career in media relations, and a lifelong love for writing. Cunegan lives in Hampton, Virginia, and next to books and art, his big passion in life in auto racing. When not hunched in front of a keyboard, scratching a pencil over a piece of paper, or with his nose stuck in a book, Cunegan can probably be found at a race track or watching a race on TV.

Follow J.D. on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads. and DeviantArt.

Behind the Jill Andersen Relaunch

September 27, 2017September 27, 2017 / jdcunegan / Leave a comment

If you’ve been paying attention to my social media presence in recent weeks, you’ll know that I’ve been in the midst of relaunching the Jill Andersen series. The impetus behind this relaunch was removing the books from Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s subscription service that allows readers to read books on their Kindle devices and apps without paying the price to buy the books.

In short, KU readers could read my work without paying $2.99 for each volume.

But, to put it mildly, my KU numbers were always either pathetic or nonexistent. Even the times when my actual sales were good, I would have pitiful KU numbers. So from a financial standpoint, I wasn’t gaining anything out of KU (particularly given that any book enrolled in KU has to be digitally exclusive to Amazon — meaning any Nook, Kobo or iBooks reader who wanted my books either had to use the Kindle app, buy the paperback, or go without).

Not to mention the scamming rampant within KU.

So in the interest of protecting my work and wanting to make it available to a wider range of potential readers, I thought this would be the perfect time to give the series a more uniform visual identity. The slate of covers I had for Bounty, Blood Ties, Behind the Badge, and even Behind the Mask were great — but there was nothing identifying them as installments in a series.

Fortunately, one of my biggest fans — author S.E. Anderson — also happens to do cover design work (you can see her premade covers on SelfPubBookCovers, and she’s also the cover designer of R.R. Virdi’s Grave Report novels and Dangerous Ways).

In short, she does really good work, and something told me she’d be excited to put her stamp on books she loves.

Boy, was she.

The new covers look fantastic, and I love that this series now has a look that’s uniform throughout — something that you can look at and think to yourself, Yep, that’s a Jill Andersen book. The design of the covers for Behind the Badge and Behind the Mask remained the same; she just changed the font to match the rest of the series.

But look at the cover to Bounty. There is now an official canon representation of what Jill looks like. The eyeplate, the black lipstick, the katana… all of her trademarks are there. And Blood Ties… I think that cover is some of Anderson’s finest work. I particularly love the dueling skylines (trivia: one of those is downtown Baltimore today, while the other is downtown Baltimore from 100 years ago). This cover perfectly embodies the series: it’s a little bit mystery, a little bit sci-fi conspiracy, a little bit of the shadowy unknown…

If this series finally takes off in the near future, I think these covers will be a big reason why. As much as we like to think “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” the fact is a lot of people — potential readers, especially — do.

So in the coming days and weeks, this series will be available not only on Kindle, but also on Kobo, Apple iBooks, Google Play and Nook. I’m in the process of updating the paperbacks as well, and I hope to have new editions of the physical books with me come Hampton Comicon on Oct. 21. Keep checking back; as each new edition goes live, I’ll be updating this site accordingly.

And if you haven’t given Jill a try yet, there’s no better time than now.

OUT NOW: The Bounty Trilogy

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 / jdcunegan / Leave a comment

HAMPTON, Va. — Where can you get three full-length novels for just six bucks?

Amazon, where you can now pick up The Bounty Trilogy — a Kindle exclusive — for just $5.99. The Bounty Trilogy bundles together Bounty, Blood Ties, and Behind the Badge, the first three novels in the Jill Andersen series.

In addition, I’ve thrown in the first four chapters of Notna, which will release on Oct. 10.

From The Bounty Trilogy‘s Amazon listing:

Jill Andersen is a war vet. She’s a homicide cop. And she’s a vigilante.

But don’t call her a hero.

When Dr. Trent Roberts’ body is fished out of the Chesapeake Bay, it triggers a series of events that leaves Jill facing the prospect of her darkest secret coming to light. On top of solving that murder, she must decide who she can trust – all while trying to prove her disgraced father’s innocence.

A shadowy billionaire, a mysterious cabal, and an underground cybernetics experiment weave a complicated path to telling Jill’s tale – one that takes an even more dramatic turn when four cops murder a 17-year-old boy in cold blood and a mysterious, powerful figure delivers his own brand of vigilante justice.

With Jill at a crossroads in the upcoming Behind the Mask, catch up on J.D. Cunegan’s adrenaline-packed blend of murder mystery, science fiction, and superhero comic books that one reader called “a delightful mix between Daredevil and Castle.”

BOUNTY Book Trivia!

December 8, 2016December 8, 2016 / jdcunegan / Leave a comment

Some random odds and ends about my books, just because:

-Ezekiel, one of the principle villains in Blood Ties, is based largely on System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian. Specifically, this look:

-I didn’t decide Paul Andersen’s ultimate fate until it was time to write that chapter of Blood Ties. My thinking was that by keeping it even from myself, it would add to the mystery within the narrative – and if it was surprising and emotional for me, it would be the same for my readers.

-I first created Bounty back in 1997, when I was still in high school. Suffice it to say, she has changed quite a bit over the years. For one thing, she wears a lot more clothing.

-I created Detectives Watson, Blankenship, and Stevens for Blood Ties solely to make the book longer and give me more options for subplots.

–Bounty was originally a spin-off from Notna. That’s obviously changed, but both stories inhabit the same fictional universe. In fact, there will be a few Bounty Easter Eggs in Notna (mid-2017).

-The main plot in Behind the Badge is based on the real-life case of Freddie Gray, the African-American Baltimore man who died from injuries he suffered while in police custody – where he was subjected to a “rough ride.”

-I chose Baltimore as the setting because I wanted a major metropolitan city that wasn’t New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles (all of which are overused, IMO). I like Baltimore’s location on the East Coast, and its proximity to Washington, D.C. gives me a lot of interesting plot options going forward.

-The similarities between Jill and Castle’s Kate Beckett are no accident; discovering that TV show and character were a big reason I was finally able to finish Bounty and get the series rolling.

-In her original incarnation,Jill had a bounty hunter aspect to her character – hence the name Bounty. That went away over the years, and now, her vigilante name comes courtesy of a writer for The Baltimore Sun (see the digital short Boundless).

Good News, Everyone!

December 1, 2016December 1, 2016 / jdcunegan / Leave a comment

Another NaNoWriMo, another win!

For the third straight year, I eclipsed the 50,000-word mark in the annual writing exercise. With that said, the first draft of Notna — at 58,000 words — is about half-finished. Still, the book is on track for a mid-2017 publication, which would mean each of my last three NaNo projects would go on to become published works.

Bounty was my 2014 project, and I used last year’s NaNo to write Behind the Badge.

And aside from the winner’s t-shirt and all of the other goodies that come with winning NaNo (including a discount code for the fantastic writing program Scrivener), NaNoWriMo establishes writing as a daily habit. That, perhaps more than anything, is why I’m so strident in my support of the program.

While I’m on the subject of the Jill Andersen series, a couple nuggets:

Bounty is the Book of the Month for December! Just in time for the coming holidays, this is your chance to pick up my debut novel and join the discussion (of which I might be a part from time to time) on Facebook. And if you enjoy Bounty, the next two books in the series — Blood Ties and Behind the Badge — are currently out as well.

Surprise the superhero fan in your life this holiday season with my Jill Andersen novels, which are available in both paperback and Kindle. Paperback editions are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble (online only), and CreateSpace (Bounty | Blood Ties | Behind the Badge).

The fourth novel in the series, Behind the Mask, is finally back underway. Originally slated to come out next month, I’m now targeting a mid-2017 release. The manuscript needed a complete revamp, and I’ve forced myself to at least create the bare bones of an outline. My inner pantser is screaming about being betrayed, but the story was in serious need of direction.

That’s the problem with completely retooling a series; it invites chaos.

Speaking of betrayal… the fifth novel in the series, which I hope to have ready by the end of 2017, will be titled Betrayed. I already have the cover for the book, and the blurb is ready to go… but the blurb would spoil Behind the Mask, so I’ll just hold off on that for the time being.

But I will unveil the cover in the coming weeks.

Also, we are roughly two weeks away from the release of a new book from one of my favorite authors: indie fantasy author R.R. Virdi will be releasing his latest opus, Dangerous Ways, on Dec. 14. The Kindle and paperback editions will be available that day, and there may or may not be a hardcover edition in the works.

Be on the lookout — not just for the book, but for my latest Author Spotlight, which will go live that day. And you know that once I finish reading Dangerous Ways, there will be a review.