The Daily Report
Yesterday was a very up and down day, as I’ve already blogged. People who follow me on Twitter probably noticed how tense I was. My replacement phone is already reported to be out for delivery today, though, and that alone has had a huge effect on my state of mind. I woke up today wanting to do something positive to kick off the day, and as I often do, I sat down in front of my computer with no particular plan in my head, and as I often do, I came up with something awesome: a gender-free story challenge.
The monetary prizes I’m offering are coming straight out of my pocket. It should be easy enough to earmark the necessary funds out of my Patreon when the contest ends, but if you like the idea enough that you want to support it in some way, my tip jar is always open (http://www.paypal.me/alexandraerin). If this is successful, I’d like to do other similar contests in the future, both to encourage more diversity in writing and to get to people to write and post stories that they might think would be hard to sell. I’ve set a goal on my Patreon of doing a quarterly writing challenge once I hit $500.
Financial Outlook
I’ve enjoyed being able to contribute money to the household in the form of buying groceries and ready meals in the past couple weeks, something I haven’t really had the opportunity to do lately, and I was also able to bid in an auction for Con or Bust (and won a Jaymee Goh original handbag for a mere $20), but I am now personally about tapped out, not counting what’s in the kitty for WorldCon in August. My phone-related expenditures yesterday (sales tax on the phone itself, an off-brand case and budget smart watch) used up the last of my major paychecks for the month of June, and I’m not expecting another big payday until the end of the month.
I’m not broke; I have a bit of money coming in that I can use for incidentals, and I do have a bit more padding than I usually do at one week into the month, but I really do have to think of it as padding. I am on track to be starting July in even better shape than I did June, and hopefully I’ll be able to build on the padding.
Just so everyone is clear about why I’m tracking my financial situation in my status posts now: I’m tracking my financial situation. You can send me money. I’m a crowdfunded author. You can always send me money. But if I put information up on my blog, some people have a tendency to react by trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do with it. The answer is nothing.
The model here is, if you like what I’m doing and would like me to do more of it and you can afford to do so, send me some money. Not because I’m broke or you feel sorry for me, but because you value my work and my presence.
(I will also accept money to spite my self-proclaimed enemies, but that should be sent to the con travel fundraiser they tried to shut down.)
The State of the Me
So far, so good?
Plans For Today
This week is a complicated one. Gearing up work stuff, getting the household back in shape after WisCon (and months of ennui and depression), and it’s my birthday. There’s basically no day this week where I’m not going somewhere or doing something, while also writing and posting. So this day more so than any other I’m kind of making a “flex” day. I’m going to write, I’m going to do stuff, I’m probably going to start on tomorrow’s Tales of MU chapter, but… no plans. No demands. No deadlines.
In other words: no rules, just write.