Health Issues and Supporting My Writing

Hi everyone,

I've been keeping my blog mostly about my writing and my games, which is the way I like it, but I feel it's time to take a break here and talk about other things, which is part of why the blog has been a little bumpy this year.

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, and while we caught it early and it's treatable, it's put me in an uncomfortable position financially. I am extremely fortunate in that my writing earned enough this year to make a difference in being able to pay for my treatment, but just when I thought I was out of the woods, I found additional unexpected medical expenses.

I don't have the stamina to do any kind of centralized crowdfunding like GoFundMe, so what I'd like is a chance to earn your money. If ever you've enjoyed my work and/or wished there was something you could do for me, now is the time. I've arranged a few things so that if my fiction or blogging has entertained you, you have two ways to support me:

Curious Fictions (via tips and/or subscription)
Ko-Fi (one time tips in increments of $3)

If you've enjoyed my short fiction, you'll find that I've recently added three stories to my collection on Curious Fictions. "Unfilial Child" has been offline for months ever since Great Jones Street folded, but now it's online for free (though you can still tip me if you like it!). In addition to that, I've added my Writers of the Future grand prize winning story "Living Rooms" and "The Final Gift of Zhuge Liang," the latter of which has never appeared in any online venue. Both "Living Rooms" and "The Final Gift of Zhuge Liang" are paid $1 reads, or free to subscribers.

Subscribers get subscriber-only content for as little as $2/month. In addition to the two stories already up, for the next two months I'll add additional subscriber-only reprints at rate of one every two weeks, so there are at least four in the pipeline, and none are currently available for free. I'd like to make Curious Fictions close to a one-stop shop for my previously published fiction so dedicated readers can find my short fiction where they like without having to run around collecting random magazines and anthologies.

As an added bonus, I will also run an unpublished novelette of mine, "Jack of Spades," as a serial and this will be the only way to read it. This story is near and dear to college age me, but I'm afraid in a post-Hunger Games world it looks mostly derivative rather than something I wrote before Hunger Games was published, so this is the ideal place for it to see the light of day.

I'll consider writing new content specifically for Curious Fictions subscribers if this proves popular!

As for the other way to support me, particularly if you're a reader of my blog rather than my fiction (or you're really just out to make my day), you can tip me at Ko-fi. Ko-fi doesn't have recurring payments, but operates more like a tip jar where you can tip me the cost of a cup of coffee (or in multiples thereof). You can do it as little or as often as you like and everything you put in goes straight to me, save Paypal's cut. I set a target goal where if we hit it, I'll do a reader's choice RPG or Visual Novel Talk on my blog, but as a catch-all donation jar there's nothing fiction related attached to it.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope to provide more fiction and fun in the months to come.