Health Sucks, but Patreon continues on! (Patreon)

tl;dr by tier:

$5 tier - nothing should change for you. I can still edit.

$10 tier - the Patreon stories might be shortish this month and next, but I intend to write them.

$15 tier - another "Rough Stuff" / "Short Shorts" post this month and next month.

General tl;dr: I've had chronic pain for a long time, it got _much_ worse recently, but I'm getting it looked into, and most of you won't be impacted in December or January. Don't be scared I'm disappearing overnight! Your support still means a ton to me.

Long version:

For a long time now, well before I got covid this summer, it's slowly been getting more and more painful for me to sit at a computer and write. The long-term weariness of covid made it worse. The psychological wear and tear of feeling pain while doing the thing I'm best at has been eating at me, making everything harder. And I did the stupid thing: hoping it will somehow get better on its own, instead of going to a doctor.

Then, without warning, it got much, much worse. I woke up with intense back pain in the middle of the night. I can't sit for more than minutes at a time. I haven't had a single pain-free minute in days, even with a cocktail of pills in me that makes me sleep 11 hours a day. Simply writing this while lying down is an awkward balancing act of leg and laptop positions that requires me to take breaks to reposition and stretch.

Proper medical diagnoses and all that will be hitting in the coming weeks, fingers crossed. I'm also hopeful that I can get some kind of triangular support pillow thing to elevate my back and support my arms, so I can potentially write comfortably in bed even with bad news about my health.

What does this mean for YOU right now? I need a break from heavy writing, and I don't know exactly how long that will be. I've contacted commissioners directly already. Luckily, editing stories is much easier, so Patrons at the $5 level won't see too much difference. I still have 8 unedited stories, and can post two a month.

I've successfully posted a $10 timed exclusive story to Patreon 56 months in a row, and I want to continue that streak this month and next. This month's might be short, but unless I get even _more_ hurt, I want to make it happen.

It's the generous folks at the $15 tier that are in the murkiest spot. The only thing I have for them is more writing exercise snippets, the things I title "Short Shorts" and "Rough Stuff." I will post another one of those this month, and it's possible the same thing is true for next month, but that may be it. While your support means a lot, I felt like I had to warn you folks the most about all of this.

I wasn't sure how much I should say, in part because I didn't want to scare anyone off. Your support isn't just important to me personally, it's also how I pay bills and eat food, and losing even one long-term supporter is a big deal at my level of "success." But, trying to hide something like this and just sneak by felt so dishonest and shitty that I didn't even really consider doing it.

I also don't want to guilt trip anyone into sticking around, either. All I can do is say that I truly appreciate each and every one of you, and if things change for the worse I am able to give refunds to make sure no one gets screwed over just because they were trying to support my silly, naughty words.

Thank you again to everyone. Fingers crossed that the coming year is brighter for all of us.