Current Update And Pre-Fund-Raising

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I should by now have paid all the stuff from last year’s fundraiser. I will. Sometime this week or next. Except for mass and math deaths and tuckerizations. But it’s been slow and weird. (If you’re not sure, feel free to email me at sahswag@outlook.com.
Yes, I owe one of you a zoom meeting to discuss your novel. Sorry. It should have been Thursday, but you know what happened. I’ll email you today.

I will, as soon as younger son puts the file up somewhere, so I can link, give away the moose and squirrel MP3 (Explanation, because I’m hosted BY wordpress, I cannot upload it here. It’s one of their security things.) And I’m actively assembling a collection of USAian short stories, which is the reward for $60 or more donation, if I remember correctly.

All of this has been hit by Helena-kitten’s death. Sorry. But like this post it’s taken hours to write, because I feel like I can’t think in a straight line. So sorry. Bear with me, please. I really feel it sucks that I’m this late, but it’s been a very…. chaotic year.

Now, of course, I meant to start this year’s fundraiser two days ago. That also got whacked hard.

However, let’s call this a slow rolling unveiling of funding for the year. And conscious of how hard it is for me to actually get anything together to mail or email (thanks to anti-spam measures, and the fact I’m too retarded to use email bulk services (no, seriously. I don’t understand half of what they’re talking about in the sign up) this year all the ways to support me, are things that I can fulfill on line.

The one funding effort already up is a substack serialization blog called Chapter House. As those of you who’ve been around for a while know, I used to serialize novels, until the wheels came off. But also, it’s difficult to do novels on what has become more and more a political blog. A lot of you who are aficionados of the blog couldn’t care less if I do or don’t write fiction. And a lot of people who like my fiction would prefer not to think about politics.

Frankly, a lot of people who LIKE the blog’s community are taking a break from politics for years, perhaps for life. (I don’t blame them. If I were less paranoid I might try it.) They would like to still rub elbows, but not in a political blog.

So, Chapter house is starting off with two novels that were started in public, more or less. One is Witch’s Daughter a fantasy which is about 1/3 done, I think. The other is Winter Prince, a space opera. For completeness, there should also be a mystery. Look, give me time. I’m committing to two chapters a week for each of the novels. This should be doable on the weekend, but this year has been a flaming disaster inside a dumpster floating down a river of fire. So…. Let me see how I cope, and if it works, I’ll add a mystery.

What I had so far (with Witch’s Daughter slightly backed up) of the two novels is up for free:

Winter Prince.

Witch’s Daughter

Future posts will be paywalled, but there will be some free ones, along the way, including an opportunity to buy the books (I’m not sure how to manage that yet!) at the end before I put them up on Amazon. Regular subscribers will also get the opportunity to download the books with no DRM at the end, before they go up on Amazon, as part of the subscription benefits.

Free ones: I’m hoping for a short story or so a month.

Anyway, that’s the first fundraising effort. It’s kind of like me trying to get advances for the novels, okay.

Chapters start next week.

And no, I have no clue why both main characters are redheads. That just happened to be the thing when I looked for books already started in public. (Rogue Magic and Elf Blood will eventually be put up under the Fantasy slot. If I can add a mystery it will be A Fatal Paws, an Orphan Kitten mystery.)

There will also be a givesendgo, which will be purely fundraising for the blog. Because of the rules of givesendgo, I can’t promise you anything in return, except that I will give my all to the blog. But I will try very hard to do that. (At least my half, the other half being fiction.) I will leave that up, and get a donation button linked, so you guys can donate whenever the spirit moves you.

This is separate, obviously, from the fundraiser for Helena. Thank you for that. I need to get it transferred since between the tests and ICU and the cremation and urn expenses the month was very owie. That one was an in-need fundraiser. The fundraiser for the blog is a “This blog happens almost every day” (I’m conscious of having been lax lately. Again, year from heck, please bear with me) “and I’d let to get paid for work other people do for pay” (Opinion writing.)

For some of you who have asked, I will also put up a Patreon. I know, I know, but– People HAVE asked. So, that’s fine. Patreon will probably have more personal reminiscences, pictures of cats, stories of cats, including a rainbow bridge retrospective for some of them, and recordings of Indy trying to learn to “speak” with buttons. (No results guaranteed. He’s brilliant, but also stubborn.)

If you want to support the blog by check:

Sarah A. Hoyt

304 S. Jones Blvd, Suite 6771

Las Vegas, NV 89107

I’m going to try to set that stuff up after I post this. Be nice, I’m terrified of setting these things up.

I will do a fourth of July post. Soonish.

In the meantime have a picture of upside-down Indy in daddy’s lap. (He’s been very clingy with Daddy which is kind of funny, since Daddy was primarily Helena’s and Indy mine. I mean Indy still spends time on me, but he’s now clinging more to daddy.)

This is the famous “Rub my belly, please” pose. I get it early morning, since he likes to sleep between us but closer to m.

33 thoughts on “Current Update And Pre-Fund-Raising”

  1. Not surprised Indy is being clingy to both you and Dan. He misses his sibling. It’ll take time to adjust to the new normal for everyone. The rest? Sounds interesting. Take your time.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. The thing about the “rub my belly” pose, is that my cat will change the rules mid-rub. Then it is a “shred your hand pose.”

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      1. Ours does that too. She also does it if her chin rubs are stopped before she wants them stopped.

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    3. mine does likewisw – except it’s bite the hand that feeds her.. OTOH she likes to sit beside me and watch movies so there is that.

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  7. Learning to do new stuff without a teacher is hard. As a fellow bushwhacker through the wilderness of profusely proliferating new technology, I can only recommend persistence.

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    1. So, who is going to write the story about the magic wielding make-up artist titled Rouge Magic?

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  8. Looking forward to seeing what the rewards are. Not that any given reward is going to either lure me in or stop me. I missed the donation window for last year’s fundraiser, so I just want to make sure I get in this time.

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  9. I apparently missed the Helena fundraiser? Ah, well, it all goes in the same pot anyway.

    Indy just knows that he has the job of two kittens to do now. Not an easy job, keeping us humans sane and focused on the important things in life.

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  10. Oh, and an early happy Independence Day early to all of the Huns. I may not be around tomorrow, as rain has been non-existent around here – but the idiot supply is still quite robust. I may be spending most of the afternoon and evening on guard with my hose.

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    1. My immediate neighbors seem to have enough brain cells to be reasonable on Independence Day, and it hasn’t been dry enough (yet) for not-so-immediate ones to pose problems. The fire-trailer is ready to go, though I’m not planning on hitching it to the tractor today. Maybe.

      OTOH, several years ago, a couple of drunk idiots were playing with left over fireworks and started a fire that got 2000+ acres and several homes. On Bastille day, no less. That fire was too close for comfort, but there was a wide band of fire-breakish terrain that kept the pucker factor low. The next few days we had horrible (Hazardous level) air quality; $SPOUSE already had plans to visit her mother while the dogs and I tried to stay indoors as much as possible. (MIL was presenting with dementia, but Sibs-in-law didn’t see it. $SPOUSE had a worse time than I did. Sigh.)

      FWIW, town rumor says the idiots were identified and got the 3S treatment.

      (*) Electrostatic air purifiers FTW. Curiously, such air purifiers have been off the market, replaced by HEPA ones that usually need replacement filters. Spit.

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      1. 3S treatment.
        Local: “No, sir, we haven’t heard or seen anyone out that way. They probably headed west for Eugene or Portland.”
        Local constabulary [ignoring tell-tale signs of fresh dirt and digging]: “Probably. Y’all have a nice day, and let the under-sheriff know if you see anything.”
        Local: “Will do, and you too.”

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        1. Oh not quite. We have really remote areas so the deputy doesn’t have to ignore digging in plain sight. For that matter, there was one incident where the perp conned a neighbor to use his bulldozer to “cover a trash pile”. LEOs figured it out–the victim was a well-liked town drunk, and the perp was a much-disliked town* drunk**. Last I heard, she was doing life in the Live Action version of Cuckoo’s Nest. Protip: don’t bury the bodies on your own property.

          (*) For various values of “town”. We’re tiny.
          (**) Yes, we have more than one town drunk/druggie. We figure that Boy Racer (runs his motorcycle at or above redline on his errands, day or night) is the courier/retail dealer for the local drug suppliers. I listen hoping to hear an expensive graunch when the engine packs it in. No luck so far. It ain’t just big cities. Sigh.

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          1. Your own property means you don’t have to move the body, generally.

            Killing somewhere else, yes, don’t move to your property.

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  11. I had forgotten how much fun The Witch’s Daughter was.

    “Geoffrey, we aren’t even dating yet! You are not allowed to embarrass me in front of him for at least five minutes!”

    Seriously, I need you to finish that book just so I can see those two happily married off. Or given that likely everyone involved will assume they’re too young and scatter brained, have a signed and registered Memorandum of Agreement of the time and level of attainment at which they will be able to engage such bonds.

    Because you know the very next thing they will say when they’re told they’re too young will be, “When are we old enough?” followed by, “Let’s get that in writing.”

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  12. Indiana Boneless senses a need, and is on the Lap Crusade.

    If I am working from home and dealing with something annoying and or stressful, reliably, my Miz Kitty will lurk behind my chair and mew piteously. If I turn to her, she makes her “come and play” churrrr, from just out of reach. Any thrown toy will be returned and dropped, just out of reach.

    She won’t stop until I am in another room, away from the stress-box.

    She has also been known to leap onto the desk and photo-bomb video meetings. The Tail of Terror parades back and forth, churrrrrring proudly “Mine”.

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  14. GSG works for me, unless I think about writing a check.

    $SPOUSE will support anything that will help get the next Dyce Dare book out when Our Gracious Hostess gets her nose above water for long enough to finish. We’re pretty good at recognizing Life Happens(tm), since we’ve had enough of it over the past few several years.

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