TANSTAAFL DAY 2- In Which The Writer Slept Late

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Note SF Pinup #1 released under Creative Commons below, as a kind of general thanks to everyone for putting up with the fundraiser.

THE GOAL IS $50,000

the counter stands at: $8,861.81 (Updated at least every 8 hours, more if i happen to be here.)

IT ENDS JULY 16TH.

(Sorry for the late update. I’m going to get some coffee before the regular blog.)

The Short Version Of Why I’m Doing This: I started the blog to promote my writing. It did that a little, but mostly it’s its own thing. I have fans for the blog and fans for the fiction, and never the twain shall meet.

After years of friends (including Jerry Pournelle, and no I never did it in his lifetime) telling me I should do a fundraiser or rattle the tin cup after every post, I realized that while I love the blog and don’t intend to give it up, it’s eating my life and to an extent my fiction writing because there’s only so many hours in the day.

So…. I decided to do a fundraiser, so I can hire people to do some of the other stuff that must be done, so I can blog, write, and not be so sleep deprived that sometimes, inexplicably, I go down for fifteen hours of sleep without planning it.

For the fuller explanation etc, look here: TANSTAAFL DAY 1- In Which The Writer Tries to Fund the Blog

THE INCENTIVES AND TIERS:

Tier 1– $10 or more – A shout out on my blog, all with all other the supporters, by name, in one massive “Thank you” post. [Jokey or offensive names will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 2– $25 or more – Email jpg of certificate with funny fish saying “I Was Carped at according to hoyt.com” and a Certificate of being a member of Hoyt’s Huns, cultural wars sapper battalion, in good standing.

Tier 3– $60 or more – Exclusive ebook collection of USAian stories. (Including a new, original, never published story.) [estimated delivery Aug 2022]

Tier 4– $100 or more – Your name will appear in a mass death/other mass event/list in one of Sarah’s books. [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.]

Tier 5– $150 or more – A sound file of Sarah saying “Moose and Squirrel.”

Tier 6 – $250 or more – Will send a signed copy of trade paperback Gentleman takes a chance and one large postcard with book covers, also signed. (USPS- continental US only. All others, let’s talk.) [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 7 – $350 or more – Three signed books (of our choice), plus two extra items from “Sarah’s Garage”, (also of our choice) which might very well be a small rubber fish. (You’ve been warned.) USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 8 – $500 or more – Personalized tuckerization. You will become your very own zany character, with at least a line or two of dialogue, and physical description. Physical safety and life of character not guaranteed. If you perish, it will NOT (repeat not) be in a mass death event or a list of other kinds.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 9 – $1000 or more – A CHOICE OF:

Option 1 -Will read the first 10 pages and outline of your novel and provide timely critique, with the understanding that I am not infallible. (A skype, zoom or other video call to discuss the work for an hour or so.) [estimated delivery Winter 2022 – Spring 2023]

Option 2 – Large box of ten signed books, plus items ranging from a con badge, to a mini dinosaur skeleton or a print of Sarah’s original art, or other items from Sarah’s garage. USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Option 3 – Signed copy of Sarah’s old copyedited or page-proof manuscripts. [estimated delivery Fall 2022] (5 limit.)

Tier 10 – $5000 or more – You will become a major character on one of my books, and I’ll try to reflect your appearance, and chosen personality.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion. You don’t get to have someone else be an offensive character. (Sorry!) Your actions will be altered to serve the plot if needed.] – Limit 5. (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

Tier Insane – $25000 or more – My husband and I will travel to a city in the continental US and have dinner with you and your plus one.  (Continental US only.) – Limit ONE. [Delivery up to July 2023.] (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

ALL TIERS INCLUDE ALL PREVIOUS TIERS EXCEPT FOR THOSE THAT ARE NUMBER LIMITED.

If you want to be thanked/mentioned by a name different from your regular one, please email to: bookpimping at outlook dot com

TO DONATE:

DONATE TO ACCORDING TO HOYT TAANSTAFL DAYS

OR

UPDATE: I’ve fixed the broken link. For some reason copying from yesterday’s post bolixed it. Note the text above the button is also a link.

or:

FOR CHECK DONATIONS:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

THIS IS PINNED TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG. THE DAILY POST WILL APPEAR BELOW THIS.

71 thoughts on “TANSTAAFL DAY 2- In Which The Writer Slept Late”

    1. Hence why I tried doing it myself. R, C, and a craving for coffee had other plans, though…

        1. Now, in what ORDER do they o things?
          They speak of a 2,.9% cut PLUS $0;30. Is it in THAT order/

          That ia, let’s say I wish SARAH to get $60…. Do I need to send ($60 + 2.9%) + $0.30…. or do I need to send $60 + 0.30 = 2.9%.. OR Something Else Entirely?

          REALLY, the more I TRY to think about it, the more I am tempted to just use a danged Money Order
          via mail-drop. Crud e perhaps, but SIMPLE and EFFECTIVE.

          1. And you think they want you to know how it actually works…why? They probably got their algorithms from the IRS…

      2. I was worried for a second; I thought someone had donated less than the fee and I know that would cost you money.

        In fact, this is something I’ve been meaning to point out to your monthly donors:

        Services like PayPal take a small, flat fee each time you send money, to ensure their transaction costs are covered. That’s in addition to a percentage of the total sent. If you’re giving a monthly donation of, say, $5 or more, it’s probably not a big deal. But if your monthly is very small – like just a dollar or two – Sarah would get a significantly higher percentage of your money if you saved up and gave it all at once during the yearly drive.

        Just something to consider.

    3. Maybe somebody donated in a foreign currency, and the conversion rate wasn’t unitary?

  5. Who decides that somebody is “Sleeping Late” especially on a Saturday?

      1. o/The Bronx is up and the Battery's down. People go to work in a hole in the ground. o/

        Oh, wait, that NY, NY so there might some debate about actual alliance.

  7. I wish this wasn’t while I was on Short term disability and don’t know when I’ll get paid

  9. Email jpg of certificate with funny fish saying “I Was Carped at according to hoyt.com” and a Certificate of being a member of Hoyt’s Huns, cultural wars sapper battalion, in good standing.

    :has a sudden urge to suggest that money be spent to hire a carp-y editor, not a copyeditor; choose TXRed, she works for fishes!:

  10. What you do at ATH is enormously important to us. I paid an odd amount hoping to cover the PayPal fee.
    “Year of the Jackpot” -RAH-inspired me into Mathematical Statistics, which morphed into programming. LOVED “The Menace From Earth” in junior high.

    2. The big red/wht/blue letters? The same happened to me (PayPal “This page is broken”), but the link above them, “DONATE TO ACCORDING TO HOYT TAANSTAFL DAYS”, worked.

          1. Yep, still (or again) munged. But the link above it, as I noted above, still works fine. Why not just use it?

  12. This is so fun, it’s like being part of a rolling lottery and you have to dial in every day to see how far the team has gone since yesterday.

  14. Tier Insane sounds like a good way to find out if Elon Musk reads your blog. 😉

    It also sounds like a great start to a noir movie, or various other genres of story.

      1. Sarah is infiltrating the upper echelons of society! 😉

        I know you won’t violate his privacy by naming him – nor should you – but I have to admit I’m curious who it is.

      1. There’s another kind of (living) chicken?

        My sister got a chick for Easter one year, and it survived to be a standard white hen. We named it ‘Frog’ and fed it Gravy Train dog food, same as our dog.

        It used to get scratchy in the dirt and become a white-over-brown chicken. I would then hose it off.

        I’ve not encountered a wolverine or a honey badger, but perhaps excepting those, aint nothing madder than a wet hen.

  15. shrug Mama, add me to the Tier 10 as a THREAT. if you don’t get at least one of those…they get doses of ME. 😛
    iirc you’ve read some of my writings over the years, so you know I make sailors blanche and most supposedly sane people of a certain political bent, run screaming in the other direction.
    -Wolfie

  17. Out of curiosity, if someone were to send you something, would the Goldport address be the place to send it?

        1. Please, dear Lord, NO. We’ll arrange a hun-to-hun exchange across the country for him.
          That said, this morning I THOUGHT I saw a tiny black tail in the flower bed. Turned out to be wrong. (It was just some paper waving in the wind.) Which is too bad. I was going to call him Greebo Jr.

          1. 1) this is ridiculous.
            2) I will totally go do a car chain to pick up a kitten for like anybody on this forum. My limit is roughly 2 hours either side of Des Moines.

              1. KITTY!!!!

                …K, I’d do it for a puppy, or a kid, or, like, if one of us was desperate enough to ask for a chain to move cross country.

                1. > “…K, I’d do it for a puppy, or a kid,”

                  For a split second I thought you meant you’d do it in EXCHANGE for a kid, and thought “How many of those do you NEED, lady?” 😛

                    1. Somehow, I figured that would be your response to a setup like that. [rolls eyes] 🙂

          2. Sorry, Sarah, I thought it would be clear that I was joking. I don’t have an orange kitten, and even if I did we’d have to be able to communicate privately to arrange a meeting. Which we still can’t.

            That said, if Fox and a few others are serious about arranging a chain transfer, I could start checking my local animal shelter from time to time.

            1. Look to foster groups, with her cats Sarah will need a kitten, not a full grown cat.

              <= still salty about “kitten” sales for year old cats.

              1. My local shelter has kittens too. I tried adopting a female kitten from them once to keep my indoor adult male company, as I knew he passionately hates other male cats. Unfortunately, it turns out that he just hates other cats period these days and I had to give her back.

                1. Ugh, :hugs:

                  Our boys were adopted as really-kittens, and were huffy but accepted the New Kitten.

                  BAsically like accepting the Human Kittens.

          3. Might have been. OTOH, the sort of cats who catch you watching and replace the tail with paper quickly enough that you don’t see them, don’t make incredibly good pets for anyone except very specialized wizards and lore masters.

  19. Sara, have you considered moving the blog over to Substack? I would happily subscribe!

    1. About a hundred people have suggested this. Here’s the thing: I have 11500 people who get this by email and I don’t know how many who get it through RSS feed (It doesn’t tell me.)
      If I move the blog, the community will get AT LEAST halved. always happens…..

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