Patrons, Patron Muses, and How This is Even Possible

Can I ever thank certain people enough? About 150 people are making sure that the the rent is paid, the lights stay on, there's food on my table, and rest of you have as much content as I can possibly churn out.

Usually right around the first of the month, I take a moment to ask folks to consider becoming a Patron of Writing About Writing (or maybe just tossing a few dollars at us as a one-time thing). However at the first of the year I'd like to take a moment to thank all of YOU. Through Patreon, through PayPal, through the occasional Venmo or even crossed palm (with folks I've met in person) you have help transform this blog from a sideline gig into a day job. Though I still pet sit to keep my car insured and to have the occasional budget for books, but I'm managing to hold my world together just from writing. And that's because of all of you.

The Patron Muses

Of course I love all my patrons. Even the person who drops a dollar in PayPal once. And in some ways it is more patrons of smaller amounts who have made me feel safe enough to quit a day job or take a chance or most recently to raise my price for double booking pet sitting gigs–all so that I can focus on writing. After all with larger patrons, a life circumstance could change and slash my income by 10% from one month to the next with no warning.

And yet.....

There are a handful of folks who have been extraordinarily generous. In a very real way–a non-trivial, literal way–I am able to do this and bring everyone else so much content because of only a dozen peeps.

I can't talk about how much these folks have meant to me without sounding like I'm spewing hyperbole.  The thing is, I'm not. There are days–and this is no exaggeration–when I'm down and out and other jobs are killing me and from the dredges of apathy and sometimes on the very edge of giving up on this whole "blog thing." (Or at least considering a good, long hiatus.) And it's these folks who make me think "Gotta get out of bed and get something written."

Whether they show up to social events with their entire family dressed in Writing About Writing t-shirts that they have designed and created, donate a non-trivial amount month after month, drop a donation on me that is so huge my mouth literally goes dry, help me by offering to copy edit posts for free, simply help my social media proliferation by liking and sharing just about every damn thing I post, or literally hop into my life and do the actual "muse" thing, they are who I think of when the writing gets hard. They are the ones who, when it gets really tough, I realize I can't let down.

Financially, mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically, the patron muses LITERALLY have made every step of this journey possible.

It isn't enough to post their names and gush once a year. It wouldn't be enough to post their names and gush once a week. But nothing I could ever say would thank them enough, so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and try to do it ever harder (and ever better).

Thank you so much:

Julia
Margaret
Jeannie
John

Pol

Ginger
Kelly

Alisha
Amy
TM Caldwell
Anonymous x 2