What can I say? It was a mistake … but some really GREAT things came out of it!
Around six months ago I decided to give Patreon a try. If you aren’t familiar with the platform, Patreon allows people to pledge an amount to support an artist in exchange for something of value. In my case, it was for short stories and sneak peeks on what I was writing.
In a way it was great, because it drove me to write some of the loooonnnnng list of stories that were rolling about in my head or that a few readers gave me so they could have more of the untold stories in Myrrah. Every month I was writing something new. It kicked me back into writing in new ways. There is nothing bad about that!
But I was doing it for a tiny audience.
True, Patreon can grow over time and I was thinking of adjusting the cost of pledges or posting more free content or … well, it is all an experiment to see what exactly is the optimum. Meanwhile, I was stressing out over content or that I had to put everything on hold to focus on the release of A New Goddess. Stress does NOT make me more creative.
So I said screw it.
As soon as something becomes a hassle, I don’t think it is worth the time. I enjoy writing. I enjoy hearing that readers are enjoying stories, which I was only getting a tiny amount of with the few subscribers on Patreon. And really, the $5 a month per person isn’t going to make or break my budget. Or if it is, I need to work on my book marketing and write some more. Maybe I’ll try Patrean again down the road. Anything is possible.
So what does this mean about me writing new short stories or, um, those ones already released and barely seen???
Well, I do like writing them! I really like sharing my writing actually and having a handful of short stories sitting on my laptop gathering electronic dust isn’t doing any good (electronic dust is icky! And have you ever seen an electronic dust bunny?!?).
So I’m releasing them for FREE.
Starting here and actually starting last week. If you look at the menu, there is now a tab for Free Short Stories.
Check it out!
I have it set up so that new ones will show up with a new banner for a few days. So make sure you stop by every once in awhile. Because, yeah, I plan on continuing writing and releasing more stories. I already have two in the works! Plus a novella I’m working on that I’ll release here as well.
More news on that soon. You can keep a tab on progress with the new “My Book Progress” bar on the Book Blog tab (or up and to the right of this page!). The new series is called the Cailite Ré and if you haven’t guessed yet, it has a bit of a Celtic theme. 😉
For now, go binge on a few short stories and let me know what you think! Enjoy. 😀