A list of work for which my patrons are paying me a salary in June and July.

Here is the work for which my patrons have paid me a salary during the month of June. All of it would have gone almost or entirely unpaid, otherwise, and therefore, would not have been possible without their support. 

• Ten thousand words of writing practice, otherwise known as morning pages.
• Writing morning pages in Spanish every Sunday, and so keeping up my skills until I can afford an immersion course.
• Two comprehensive revisions of The Nameless Days, the first of my novel trilogy set in Belize. The first volume takes place in the world of the ancient Maya, shortly after the collapse of the urban centers, and required enormous amounts of research.
• Preparing The Nameless Days for submission, including penning a summary of the whole trilogy, and making a schematic overview.
• Writing the script, making the posters for, and co-producing the Patreon video for my theatre company, Little Green Pig.
• Drawing up the Patreon budget, strategy, and projections for Little Green Pig.
• Three strategy meetings with Dana Marks, Managing Director of Little Green Pig, for our Patreon launch.
• Giving three interviews about Little Green Pig’s Patreon launch.
• Giving an interview for my friend Julia Collins (aka Jeopardy Julia!)’s forthcoming podcast for teenaged women.
• Collaborating on a new model of short fiction publishing with a pool of freelance editors.
• Reading and giving feedback on a new novel manuscript for a fellow author.
• Advice to fellow artists on Patreon, crowdfunding, publishing, and economic models.
• Publicizing my story published on Tor.com, “Traumphysik,” as well as the TED Ideas essay and the Forum Theatre season announcement.
• Writing 42 postcards to patrons, both at the $5 level (art postcard) and $2 (local postcard) level.
• Installing 100% more shelf space in my study to accommodate my research and reference library.
• Social media posts, read by ~14,000 readers across seven platforms, on artistic practice, living wages for artists, direct giving, gun violence, nationalism, feminism, gentrification, and self-care on social media.
• Twenty hours of exercise.
• Finishing Girls and Game of Thrones, both of which are not only entertaining but extremely useful to my writing.
• Two days off, during which I went out to lunch, walked in Eno River State Park, and read Sofia Samatar’s The Winged Histories.

And here is the work I’m planning for the month of July (though with the novel on submission, all of this is subject to rearrangement). Again, for this work, I would otherwise receive no or almost no pay. Without my patrons, I would not be able to do this work.

• Ten thousand words of morning pages, with paginas en español every Sunday.
• Discussing sale and publication of my novel trilogy with acquiring editors at publishing houses (it’s finally submission time!).
• Meeting with potential Patreon sponsors (small businesses, philanthropists) in Durham.
• Editing, making, and distribution of a new exclusive story to patrons entitled “A Very Canadian Birthday.”
• A fair fee to a freelance editor for their work on “A Very Canadian Birthday.”
• Revising my short story “Alexandria” for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and my short story “Night Train to Madurai” for another editor who has requested it.
• Finishing a new short story about first contact with aliens, working title “Axis Naught.”
• Collaborating on a photo series with a local photographer.
• Writing a series of essays on the future of theatre as an art form, tentatively titled Theatre as Hyperlocal, Theatre as Multivariate, and Theatre as Unhaveable.
• Coalition-building in Durham for support of Little Green Pig’s Patreon campaign.
• Crunching statistics for Little Green Pig to prepare a handout for potential donors in Durham.
• Holding a private info session about Patreon for Little Green Pig company members.
• Holding a public info session about Patreon for the greater public on Durham’s Third Friday Art Walk.
• Meeting with local artists to discuss the possibility of a Durham-wide Patreon network.
• Social media posts, read by ~14,000 readers across seven platforms.
• Taking my birthday off (July 13) to go kayak in Saxapahaw, eat Ethiopian food, and bring a huge sheet cake to my favorite bar.

To summarize: I am doing creative work and organizational work that current capitalist economic models do not monetize. I’m finding a way to monetize them, through Patreon. My patrons pay me a salary for this work, and in exchange, get exclusive stories, postcards, audiobooks, and insider accounts of my process. If you value the work I do, please consider joining! Thank you so much.

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