Hi, there. This is Chris Dufour, author of The One Star Goodnight, Bravo Too Much, and a bunch of other shit no one has ever read.
As you will discover, I have no idea what I'm doing, so thanks for bearing with me as I muddle through curating this new community of readers, friends, and peers interested in my writing. You've probably arrived here from some messaging about The One Star Goodnight, my first novel, and thank you for taking that chance.
If you haven't read One Star yet, I have 3 asks:
Buy the book, either in print or as an ebook for your Kindle. Deal alert: If you buy a print copy, you can get the Kindle version for only another 99 cents.
Leave a review on Goodreads. Good, bad, ugly, let me have it.
Share The One Star Goodnight with someone else by forwarding this email or passing on your copy.
By self-publishing One Star, I'm doing all the marketing and selling myself. So I rely on your reviews, your shares, and your word of mouth to get seen and get sold. Your purchases and recos mean the world to me.
I want this newsletter to feel like it's just between you and me, so let me know what you'd like to see here or what topics get you revved up. For joining me, I'd like to give you exclusive access to a short story featuring Jack Dooley: "Texas, Preacher, and the Cajun." This short story bridges the gap between The One Star Goodnight and the upcoming second novel in Jack's adventures, Bravo Too Much. I hope you enjoy it.
I'm a huge fan of Warren Ellis' concept of "The Republic of Newsletters" and "The Isle of Blogs," communities of email newsletters and old-school blog networks for creatives, thinkers, and seekers of the new and intriguing. You'll hear me namedrop this guy a bunch; he's been massively influential on my creative trajectory. I've discovered a ton of great email-only newsletters that feel like small, protected networks without the pressure of "being seen" on social media. I'm trying to model this newsletter on that idea, building value for you, O Reader, in a meaningful way. So please hit me up with things you want to see.
How to do that? Well, here's a guide to the various social and digital channels on which Du4 writing shall appear:
du4writes.com: This is the hub. Everything will spider out from here--announcements of new books, short stories, appearances, everything. I may even consider bringing in my old Tumblr blog at some point; more on that in a bit.
@du4writes on Twitter and Instagram: Purely active as announcement vehicles for du4writes.com. Gotta feed the SEO/SMO beasties. I may do some channel-specific stuff on these at some point if an audience grows for it, but I'm generally turned off by how social media has devolved in the past few years. Thanks, trolls.
Goodreads: I'm spending a ton of time on this network lately, reading reviews, responding to reviews of One Star, and following people's bookshelves. Friend and follow me here to see what I'm reading, have read, want to read, and other fun stuff. I'll try to respond to your reviews as much as I can.
Spotify: I have this weird obsession with music, and I've been having a lot of fun assembling soundtracks for my books. This one for The One Star Goodnight is only the first of many, so stay tuned for more.
Crawl Depth: This is the aforementioned, anonymous blog on which I've been monkeying with writing prompts and practicing the craft. I started doing this in 2018 as a protected, non-searchable platform to experiment with the tradecraft of writing, mostly nonfiction stuff. I doubt Tumblr will exist in its current form much longer, so I may pull Crawl Depth into du4writes.com. If you've got some ideas on topics you'd like to see explored here, let me know those, too.
Of course, you can always reply directly to one of these newsletters. I promise to read every piece of feedback I can. It might take me a while, but I'll get there.
Okay! That seems like enough for this welcome. Again, thanks for reading.
Du4