(Why bats? I don't know. But just as last year, y'all donate more when I put up a picture of a bat. It's entirely possible this is done to drive me batty.)
NOTE TODAY'S POST, A BARN-BURNER BY PHANTOM IS BELOW THIS POST.
Now, what is a nice blogger like me doing with a fundraiser like this?
Well... I hate doing fundraisers. I used to jokingly put out a thing on the 29th of February every 4 years. And I averaged about 2k per year in blog donations. Which is nothing to sneeze at and hey, it financed our trips out to eat, but as the blog started taking more and more of my time, the family grumbled more and more about unpaid work.
You see, when I started out, the blog was supposed to promote my books, which would then pay for the time on the blog in a delayed and round about way. But then the blog was supposed to be a few lines of something short and quirky....
Only I don't do short and quirky, and it seems like the publishers and agents really overestimated the raw hunger for a blog JUST about writing and a writer's life. And also, I have a hole in my head when it comes to politics, so this blog went political and stayed political. It turns out that's not a great way to promote books (to be fair, it turns out no type of blog is) and my audience for the blog and my audience for the fiction were almost completely separate.
Ten years in (I'm a slow learner) I realized that I was spending about half the time I have for writing on the blog.... and it didn't pay at all. On the other hand, it helped me think, and it gave me a social life of sorts. But all the same, I mean, people get paid for opinion pieces. And for running homes for wayward commenters, too. (I mean, I'm inferring the later. I never actually heard of one, as such.) And the family grumbled I should be getting paid. To be fair, the late great Jerry Pournelle was upset I wouldn't run a fundraiser. He said given my levels of engagement, I should be making around 50k a year.
I didn't run a fundraiser because I was sure I would get $20 and a coupon for a pack of gum.
Then I had to run a "need" fundraiser, and my family's injunction on that was that if it worked, I was to do a fundraiser every year. Which I'm trying to fulfill. No, I have no idea what they'll do if I don't, but I suspect it will involve reducing my blogging to 3 times a week at most.
The fundraiser last year was a mess, partly because of gofundme going stupid and kickstarter not being much better. So, I couldn't keep donation levels straight, and when I finally got lists, it turned out anti-spam measures made it impossible to mail our rewards. I've put the lowest level on the blog for download and the others are coming, save for the mass (and math) deaths and tuckerizations, which are coming too, just slower.
So, this year I am not, (emphasis not!) doing that. Instead, I have three ways of donating, which are all more or less self fulfilling.
The first way to support this blog is Give Send Go: Link Here.
I offer no incentives there, because GSG forbids it. All I can do is promise I will do at least 4 blog posts a week, though one of those might be memes. (And the others might have guest posts or something of the kind some weeks -- though not most weeks.) And I'll try to make them as good as I know how.
The total.... well, it's supposed to be the total fundraising for the whole thing (And yes, from what I can tell it's more or less on track, though slower than last year, but then I started it on the fourth.) And it's that because it's around what Jerry said it would be.
This is not a need fundraiser, it's a "Sarah would like to get paid for her 7 days a week of tending the blog, even if she can never get paid for the 10 years without fundraising."
I do however understand that times are tight for everyone, and I will not hold it against anyone who doesn't donate. Do not hurt yourselves!
I'm not closing the GSG and I intend to keep a link to it on the side bar, in case you win the lottery and want to gift me a million or you know $5 for coffee. whatever.
The second way to donate, also with no obvious incentive, and for those of you who really don't like electronic payments, is by mail. We accept checks, cash inside chocolate wrappers (you know who you are) and cat toys. Okay, I don't particularly accept cat toys, but Indy cat will thank you from the bottom of his silly heart. Some of them will even get Havey-cat to play.
Anyway, that's: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S. Jones Blvd, Suite 6771, Las Vegas, NV 89107
Then there is Chapter House, a blog where I will be serializing novels: It's seeded with two beginnings of novels. I'll be adding 2 chapters each a week. (Yes, you'll get two chapters each on the Chapter House novels by Friday. Yes, this Friday too. I'll try to have Witch's Daughter done on Wednesdays, but depending on the week that sometimes will slip. [This week and next week the theme is "fun with doctors!"]). These are as written, and yes, with their typos upon them, (And Witch's Daughter is particularly bad on typos and weird phrasing, I noticed yesterday.) But when they're done, you'll get a chance to download a cleaned up ebook to download. For those of you with Amazon-dislike, this should work. (I'm going to try to find a work around for non-subscribers to buy the ebook too, but I'm not quite sure how.)
Anyway, to subscribe to Chapter House, the link is: Here.
And while I'm fully aware that Patreon is... iffy, I've been asked to have a Patreon account. There I will give away the things more commonly given away in such accounts. Yes, the setup says a lot about my cats. This is because let's face it, they're cute, and I'll end up doing cats if I can't think of anything else.
Also, I've bought the basic setup from fluent pet and intend to teach Indy to talk with buttons. (Like the try to teach chimps to talk.) Let's just say that Indy is the smartest and most interesting cat I've ever shared my life with, so I'm curious what will come of it. Also in a few months, when we get Indy a younger sibling, he or she will join that fun. I have no idea if it will be entertaining, but we can hope. Also there will be snippets of work in progress, beginning of stories that attack me out of the blue and the like. I promise to do something once a week. Heck, it might be a recipe. (NO, NOT FOR CAT! What kind of a sick mind do you have?)
Anyway, to donate on Patreon, please: Go here.
If you lose your mind and subscribe to all of the above, it remains for me to warn you that you might get an overdose of Hoyt. While studies on these are inconclusive, I should warn you there is a slight chance of insanity. At least judging by my closest friends and family, I seem to have that effect on people. You've been warned.
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