Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive, Here We Go! Writing Maisie’s Book & More On Patreon…

To say that I am terrified may be the understatement of the year but I am forging ahead because I have trees down everywhere from the hurricane and I am terrified trying to figure out how to raise the money to deal with all of this. AND I think sometimes this is the way life works. We have to, not even sure we can swim, jump in the deep end and paddle like mad. I’d rather jump in the shallow end, holding my nose, and paddle about with the little kids, but as I always say to my students, “If not, why not? If not now, when?” It is time to write Maisie’s book and that will be my big project for Patreon. But there will be more. Much, much more.

I have finally figured out how to do Maisie’s book. It will be a graphic memoir, mainly pictures, with enough text to guide the reader through the story. The thing I have struggled with since the beginning is that I did not want a text heavy book. If I were to write “my story” (And of course as Maisie is my alter-ego it is part my story, and part hers. As stated above “fantasy/fiction/memoir.”) readers might get caught up in my story and that is not Maisie’s intention and it never has been. With some text to hold it all together to provide a thread of story, I believe the most important thing about this work is that the pictures are meant to reflect back to the reader their own thoughts/feelings/experiences/life so that if I made it more memoirish with a lot of text it wouldn’t serve the purpose I have had from the beginning over a year and a half ago. And whether it takes me a year or three or five I will do this book, and as I am self-taught and deal with ongoing challenges with mental health issues there may be times I am late offering something or need to take a break. That will be VERY rare I can assure you, but I have to be honest with you from the outset. If you join Patreon as a patron to support me you will help me survive here at Dragonfly Cottage as, as a disabled senior citizen living only on social security who works very hard and would rarely be late or take advantage of your support, I also need to know that you are going to be here to support me through the process, not just for what you “get” but knowing that you are supporting me to get this work out into the world. Oh, it is so worth it, and has already helped so many, and I will be diligent about getting the work done.

Some people start Patreon with 6 tiers (or more?) offering more and more content for each tier (higher pledges). That is not how I can really work and what has held me back for so long is that I cannot spend a lot of time, nor do I have the money, to create all kinds of physical goods as freebies. What I have to offer is myself, my work, my experience (At 66 I have written and taught writing classes for more than 40 years both in person and online, been a teacher of many things, a mentor and more.) and these are the things that I have to offer. I became an artist late in life and I have a lot to offer those who have always wanted to create art but been afraid to, or felt it was too late, and as a crone/elder/wise woman I have much deep wisdom to offer about life, growing, aging, homemaking, gardening, and more. All of these things are all part of Maisie’s World, because Maisie’s World is MY world, and will find their way into my offerings.

I actually do have 6 tiers sketched out in my mind but rather than become so terrified I am frozen because I have over-committed — too much, too fast, too soon, I am going to open with one tier, at the $5 a month level. The second and third tiers which offer audio/podcasts, and video/Zoom meetings, will unfold early on, the next few months to come. But rather than try to jump in doing it all I am going to do the basic tier which will always be daily — 5x a week or more — short blog posts for patrons only, many types of sharings, and mainly the knowledge that you, as Patron, are supporting me in writing Maisie’s book and being dedicated to you, dear future Patrons. You can ask questions and I will answer. This will be a journey for us to take together.

I thought this would also be a wonderful way to test content that will be coming in the near future so you can see and hear what you might be getting at the next two higher levels before you commit to them. The second level, $10 per month, will have podcasts 5 days a week, and the third level, at $15 a month will have video content. Until those tiers are ready you will see samples, or the early creation of these offerings. I will be delighted to have your input and suggestions as I grow my Patreon endeavor.

I will be working very hard in the next 10 days to get Patreon up with a projected start date of September 1 and will keep you all posted both here and on social media. I ask for your prayers and good wishes as I finally make the scary move into something I have felt for 3 years I could do but was afraid that sometimes, if I had to have a short quiet spell, people would get angry with me. But the one man I have been friends with and followed since 2013, Michael Nobbs, is the only one I subscribe to on Patreon. He has had ME for over 20 years (akin to chronic fatigue) and he becomes ill or unable to work. His Patrons continue, as I do, to support him because his content is pure gold. I work with Michael’s videos (He creates an environment where you can work along with him for 20 minutes at a time and his long running podcast, “One Thing Today” helps people establish a brief daily practice even if they are disabled or limited in some way.) He has been a godsend and an angel in my life. His Patreon is called Go Gently.

So here we go, Maisie and I. We are both trembly and afraid and hopeful that you, dear readers, who have read this blog for so many years, and come to love Maisie, might help support me in this venture. I feel shy to ask but as the saying goes, “desperate times require desperate measures,” and I believe it to be a blessing in its own way.

We all send you our love — Maisy and Daisy and Molly and I — and hope that you will join us in this Patreon endeavor. I assure you it will be more than you can possibly imagine. I see it as building a community, and I have so much help and hope and love to give. Please join me if you can and share this with anyone you know who might be interested. I would appreciate it so much.

Okay, back to work! You will still see a regular blog post or 2 and updates on Maisie and Society6 and Patreon here each week, but most of my content will be on Patreon from Sept. 1 on.

Thank you my loves, you are so very dear to me…