There’s been a whole lot of talk, and not a lot of action. That ends today.

My Patreon page is live.

“I already know what Patreon is, woman.”

Great! Skip ahead to “What do I get out of this?” to read about what I’ve got for you on Patreon. Or, if I’m already giving you more words than you even need?

But if you’d like more than just the TL;DR verion, read on:

The Rub

So we all know my writing speed is somewhere between “5 PM 405 FWY traffic” and “bristlecone pine growth.” It’s … not ideal.

You have to wait for months between releases. I’m over here struggling with motivation issues.

Writing is an inherently lonely process, and my pace drags it out well into existential crisis territory for me.

“Why am I even doing this? There’s no way this is good enough. Why can’t I achieve X, Y, and Z? Maybe I’m not cut out for this. I’m a failure. This is pointless.”

Why hello there, #MentalHealthMonday!

Some of y’all have been with me a long time. Since The Eighth House went up on Literotica. That’s just over eight years, BTW. For real.

I can’t even begin to explain how grateful I am to everyone who’s stuck around this whole time. I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

So, at back in the Literotica days, I’d get a chapter done; I’d post it for you. I was a slow writer then, too, but at least you’d be getting something from me at shorter intervals. Good times.

But once I left Day Job Land? Mid-2017? Started making my whole living from my books? Sigh.

No more Lit, because, uh … despite a few one-bomb reviews claiming otherwise, I am in fact a human being, who very much needs food and probably shelter. I know. It’s a luxurious life, all this ‘not sleeping out in the rain.’

So there were no more [relatively] frequent story morsels for you, and no more of your extremely motivating and uplifting comments to put fuel in my writing tank as I went.

But wait … 

So. Here’s where Patreon comes in:

I’m an outliner. Lots of authors kind of figure things out as they go along, but some of us have, uh … a bit too much structure anxiety to work that way. 😅

I plan my stories pretty thoroughly, down to the chapter and scene, before I even start writing actual prose.

So once I do get out of my outlining phase and onto the actual “writing,” the very kind people who alpha read for me are getting the work-in-progress either a scene or a chapter at a time. And aside from line-edits (silly mistakes my editor catches), the content these fine folks are reading at this stage is probably 98% the same as what appears in the final, published version you end up seeing on Amazon.

I don’t do drafts, people. Is what I’m saying. That’s why it takes me two hours to write a paragraph, sometimes. It comes out of my brain pretty much how it’s going out on all the trucks. Whether this is a blessing or a curse remains to be seen.

BUT …

Maybe you want to come spy on the work-in-progress.

The Ointment

What if you could get your eyeballs on my WIP (Work in Progress) as each new scene is finished?

Yeah, you’re gonna catch some typos, but I’m not too messy of a writer, so it won’t be an obstacle course.

If you’ve got the money, I’ve got the stuff.

You get books now—in smaller chunks—and I get the kick in the pants I’ve been missing so hard since the chapter-by-chapter days of yore.

Hearing from some of y’all as I go might just get me to shift out of sloth gear and possibly get this writer brain of mine revved up to ‘desert tortoise.’ Which would be fantastic, because holy mackerel do I have stories piled up to write.

I’m telling you I’ve got at least ten years’ worth of content just chilling in my notes, right now. [distant sobbing]

“What do I get out of this?”

I’m starting out with simple, digital content for you:

• Vote on upcoming projects.
• Read in-production scenes from whatever I’m working on before it hits Amazon.
• Patreon exclusive Bonus Filth: side character hookups, series crossover non-canon trysts—basically the grab bag of hot scenes I’ve had no way to wedge into any of the existing books. I’m gonna write ‘em, and you get to read ‘em.
• Exclusive Discord channel access to talk about all the good stuff only patrons get to see.
• Beautiful, commissioned NSFW artwork of my characters (in progress!)

You can check out the full list of current patron membership tiers and all their reward details on my official Patreon page.

In the future, if this whole Patreon thing seems like it’s working out okay for everyone (me and you), I’ve got other rewards I’d like to add, and possibly one or two more tiers to accommodate some of them:

• Signed paperbacks of new releases
• Backlist signed paperbacks
• Merch (fun designs, not just stuff with my branding on it)
• Giveaways

Audiobooks: Maybe not just a fantasy anymore?

Patreon also lets creators set and show goals on their page (for number of members or earnings), and I’ve set one of those up. I’m going to be saving up all your pledges. When the little meter gets full? 

I will begin the process of getting the first ever of my books made into an audiobook.

My likely first choice: Bass-Ackwards or The Eighth House.

I’ve been wanting to do this for years, but straight up, I’ve gotta hand a narrator probably a couple grand for their time before the thing is even available for you to download. And I … don’t have that kind of cash laying around. So I’ve been putting it off, and putting it off …

So maybe this is the way! I can start having a little extra each month to put away towards finding a sexy Hades or Bill Marshall to whisper in your ear. It will be much better, I promise, than when I made Microsoft Word “read aloud” the first scene in Nepenthe to me (though that was its own kind of hilarious).

Is today the day?

Are you ready to come run away with my dirty little circus?

I’ve been working on We Are Nepenthe Book Three: Chimera (one of my Octavia Hyde titles), and the three scenes in the first chapter are already available for Quartermaster-level patrons and up.

And yes, I named my reward tiers after people from my book worlds, because of course I did.

You want some?

Seriously, I’d love to have you. This has been over a year in the making, and I’m very excited.

Hope to see you there!