Update as of March 2020: I actually finished a new chapter. I've been writing either three or four new chapters for the end of the book to try to squash my tendency to write very rapid crowded endings, and they all had to work with one another. It's very exciting to have finished one of them.

Times are very uncertain, but I am working on this knobbly book.

Update: Welcome! The broad outlines of my original Patreon page, below, are still applicable. Still struggling with money, still revising the novel of many adventures and reverses -- I mean, in reference to its writing, revision, and eventual self-publication, but in fact that is not a bad description of what is inside the novel, either.

I just wanted to add, at this moment: I am so close to being done. The end is not receding at the fast pace that it was moving at for a while. It's still receding as more and more fiddly details require to be brought into line and straggling threads and ends tucked in neatly or tied off. I hope you like mixed metaphors if you are contemplating joining this adventure. But the end is slowing down and thinking about allowing itself to settle and become the last part of the book.

I continue to post cat pictures and monthly revision reports, and to solicit questions from patrons and to answer them.

I am profoundly grateful to everybody who has supported me this far and to anyone thinking of doing so for the last rocky convoluted part of the path.

Pamela
December 12, 2019

Hello, all. This is the situation: I write fantasy novels and short stories. My husband David has supported my writing career since forever. (Well, technically, since 1981.) But he's been having a harder and harder time finding work, while I fell right out of conventional publishing in 2012 when the publisher cancelled a completed and much-revised novel called Going North. After a three-year delay I got the rights to that book back, and David and I plan to publish it ourselves. However, stress and worry about our financial problems, including medical bills for my recently-diagnosed type 2 diabetes, are making it hard for me to put the finishing touches on the novel and actually get it out there. I also have unfinished short stories and an unfinished novel that I want to finish when the revisions to Going North are complete.

I need peace of mind and stability to be able to revise and write, and am hoping that this Patreon will help to provide them.

For people who have read my other books: Going North is a joint sequel to The Dubious Hills and The Whim of the Dragon. For people who haven't read either of those: Going North can also be read as a standalone. It's hard to say much about it without spoiling both The Dubious HIlls and The Whim of the Dragon. I think I can safely say that two teenaged girls whose respective communities didn't know what else to do with them have been sent off to Heathwill Library. Heathwill is a repository of books about magic, housed in a fortress, that has somewhat accidentally become a school for people studying magic, both its history and its practice. When the two teenagers meet, matters don't turn out exactly as either set of their elders expected.

The longer version of David's and my situation and the strange editing history of Going North are in an unlocked post at my LiveJournal. This is the link: http://pameladean.livejournal.com/175679.html

I have three creative goals; they don't map well to amounts of money, so I haven't set them up that way. But this is what any contribution will help me to do: first, to revise and self-publish Going North; second, to finish and, probably, self-publish This Green Plot, a fantasy novel about the theater, set in the shared world of Liavek; and third, to finish three or four stalled-out short stories and submit them to markets, though they could be self-published too if that didn't work out. Two of the short stories are set in the city of astronomical werewolves that, it turns out, is part of the Secret Country's universe; the other(s) are in new worlds and thus far stand alone. I also have ideas for two other novels, but that's a bit far out to worry about just now.

The overwhelming and surprising consensus of people whose opinions I've asked for is that I shouldn't mess around with a lot of different awards or levels, just give people a chance to donate and get on with my writing.

So here's how it will work. To begin with, at least once a month I will give all supporters a report, or discussion, or possibly a litany of complaints about the process of revising Going North. I will also put every single one of you in the acknowledgements when the book is published, under what name you wish, unless you would prefer not to be included. As time and energy permit, I hope to add a few other things.

I will give supporters at the next higher level at least one cat picture a month. We have six excellent cats. For higher levels yet, I'll give people a look at deleted scenes from the two-volume version of Going North. I don't expect to be deleting any scenes from the version I'm revising for publication, but if I do, I'll add some of those in. These will need to be chosen with a little care to avoid spoilers. Most of them are from subplots now eliminated from the book, but they could contain incidental spoilers. So I won't be doing those right away.

I'll also give supporters at a higher level a first look at excerpts from the unfinished short stories and novels I want to work on when Going North is done and published. From time to time I'll make some of these excerpts available to all supporters.

As long as I have your attention, I want to say that I'm very familiar with the feeling of wanting to contribute to people's Patreons but being unable to do so at the level I would prefer, or even to contribute at all. And I want to note that spreading the word about this project will also be very useful, indeed vital to its success. I'm going to make a selection of the revision reports public so that anyone who is interested can read them, though some will remain for supporters only.

Please note that the levels specify a particular amount or more, up to but not including the next level. So if you feel that $1 is less than you want to contribute but the jump to $5 is too much, you can pick whatever amount works for you.