New review and Patreon news!

[catherineldf]

I've decided to start a Patreon - www.patreon.com/CLundoff/ - and got the whole thing set up yesterday. Why am I starting a Patreon? I still have a job and don't need the money at this point on a personal level, but I do a lot of donating and funding and helping folks out when I'm flush. But one of the grants that kept my wife employed has been redirected to a different organization, her Etsy hasn't really taken off, I've had medical bills, the house needs work, some of my project fell through, I'm starting a business, etc. None of it is dire at the present time, but it is stressful and mildly uncomfortable. And it's cut into what I can afford to donate to things and people I'd really like to be supporting. That would be where this comes in. I get asked about a lot of things and provide tons of free advice and connections on all kinds of things. I'm also not always great about carving out writing time when I get stressed out. So the idea is that you pledge me, I donate your money to cool things, I produce recommendation lists on various topics and writing about interesting stuff (and fiction!). This is all spelled out in detail on my Patreon - I'm hoping this is enough to get you to check it out. Please let me know what you think; I am open to suggestions.

In other news, Out in Print gave my new book Out of This World a very nice review. I'm really pleased since I'm pretty certain that this reviewer is not familiar with my previous work so there's that moment of "Yes! New people reading me!" that's always cool. Out in Print gave my novel Silver Moon one of my all time favorite reviews so I'm really glad to see them up and running again. :-)))

And in appearance news, I've had to drop the Golden Crown Literary Conference trip I was hoping to make this year. I didn't get a workshop or programming items and at this point, pricier out of town conventions have to pay for themselves to one degree or another (no programming = less likely to sell books or be able to use as a tax writeoff). I have added one podcast appearance, a new reading at DreamHaven and am in discussion on some other things so I will be out and about.

Comments

[hrj]

My impression is that part of the issue with GCLS is that the attendees have a very high proportion of authors--much higher than a typical SFF con. So while program participation is never guaranteed for any event, it's even less to be counted on for GCLS. And the pricing structure discourages casual attendance, so it isn't really structured as a pros-talk-to-readers atmosphere. I'd have been interested to hear your take on it, though.

[catherineldf]

I have been on programming and/or taught workshops every year I've gone and am a two-time winner, three-time finalist for the awards and teach workshops at The Loft Literary from time to time. So, yeah, I did expect to get offered something. And am annoyed about getting snubbed, but since they likely did me a financial/nonexistent vacation time favor, I'll not carry it to the grave with me or anything. I got treated shabbily by two of the local cons last year so I was shopping for an alternative, but some other things are opening up, so there's that.

[hrj]

Yeah, I thought I remembered you saying you'd been before, but wasn't sure of the details. It's a very different culture than anything I've encountered elsewhere.