Clare-Dragonfly

The prompt post is here! This month's theme is villains.

Anyone can prompt, and you can become a patron for as little as $1 per month to read the stories!

The prompt post is here! This month's theme is memories.

Anyone can prompt, and you can become a patron for as little as $1 per month to read the stories!

The prompt post is up here! It's open to anyone to prompt--so please feel free to head over there and leave a prompt (or leave one in the comments here)! The theme is explosions.

If you pledge just $1 a month, you'll get to read the exclusive short story that I will post for Patreon supporters. If you pledge $3 a month, you'll get access to a monthly epub file including all the posted Chatoyant College chapters from the previous month as well as the Patreon story.

The prompt post is up here! It's open to anyone to prompt--so please feel free to head over there and leave a prompt (or leave one in the comments here)! The theme is "illusions and the seeing through of such."

If you pledge just $1 a month, you'll get to read the exclusive short story that I will post for Patreon supporters. If you pledge $3 a month, you'll get access to a monthly epub file including all the posted Chatoyant College chapters from the previous month as well as the Patreon story.

The prompt post is up here! It's open to anyone to prompt--so please feel free to head over there and leave a prompt (or leave one in the comments here)!

This month's theme is Valentine's Day.

If you pledge just $1 a month, you'll get to read the exclusive short story that I will post for Patreon supporters.

For 2016, I've changed how my Patreon works somewhat, and prompting is now open to everyone! This month's theme is new beginnings. Go to the Patreon post to leave a prompt or, if you prefer, leave a prompt in the comments below.

I've only reached the first goal milestone on my Patreon, so I will choose one prompt to write to this month, and the story will be available to patrons only (though I will, as usual, post a teaser at my journal). If you become a patron for $1 a month or more, you'll be able to read the full story!

It was Hallowe’en night, at last.

Lucy lay awake in bed, still and silent, pretending to sleep until she could hear the light snores of her roommate. Then she got up very quietly. She’d had to wait until Clementine was asleep to sneak out, because there was no way she would possibly understand, and she would probably report Lucy to the dorm mother.

Lucy was rather more daring and modern than her stuffy roommate, so she put on her shoes quietly, and then carefully opened the window and leaned out.

She would have no trouble getting out this way. There were no bushes by the window, and since they were on the ground floor, she would hardly even have to jump. The window was small, though, so she took her hat and tossed it a ways off into the grass, where she would not risk crushing it.

She pushed herself through, using her arms as leverage. She was still fully dressed, and she had some trouble bending her knees in her long skirt, tight down to her calves. She tumbled awkwardly onto the grass, but she made it out at last, hastily shut the window behind her, and stood out in the field, breathing the cool air and staring up at the bright moon.

She lifted her hat from the ground and pinned it back to her head, making sure it was at an attractive angle. He would be here soon. She looked around, smiling, waiting for him to meet her. He was taking her to a party, but he’d been very mysterious about where and what it was.

She could hardly wait.


Want to read the rest? Become a patron at my Patreon! Just $1 a month gets you access to an exclusive story every month.

Charlie was sitting on his couch, staring at the TV even though it was off, head aching from the full moon festivities from the night before, when there was a knock at his door. He turned his head fuzzily, then made himself get up and go answer it. That was his job. He’d signed up for this. If someone needed his help, he was going to be there to give it to them.

To his relief, the knock was his neighbor and fellow RA—so he probably didn’t have to help her with anything. “Lorelei. Hi. Want a cup of coffee? Or, uh, tea? I was just about to make… something. Something with caffeine.”

This story features minor characters from my online serial novel, Chatoyant College! To read it, just pledge $1 or more per month at my Patreon.

wander_realtai is crowdfunding a painting, entitled "Nebula."

Disabled Poet Seeks Healthy Macbook

A very dear friend of mine needs money for medical expenses. You can read the full story at the YouCaring page, but the basics are that she has a rare and extremely painful illness. I've seen the progression of this disease on her body and it's awful. It can cause her pain just to be touched. There's an unusual medical procedure that can put her illness into remission, but her insurance won't cover it. She's had it done before and it was a complete and miraculous success for several years, until a different medical procedure was botched and caused the illness to come back. So far she's raised a decent amount of money, but not nearly enough for the procedure. Please, if you can't give, spread the word--every little bit helps!

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And on a different note, becka_sutton recently posted about Patreon. I am really intrigued by its setup and keep coming back to it. Basically, people sign up to donate a certain amount for each piece that's released--it seems to be mostly video creators and musicians, so people are paying per video or per song. (I did do a search and found some people doing written fiction, but they don't seem to be having success yet.)

I'm considering how I might make this work for me as a crowdfunding model. One of the main reasons I stopped doing Gardens of Prose was that I don't like taking a chunk of time out of my usual novel-writing schedule to write a bunch of short stories, much as I enjoy writing to prompts otherwise. (Actually, that might be the entire reason.) But I do enjoy writing a short story from time to time--or, like I did earlier this month, tossing out a bunch of them when I find myself unexpectedly between longer projects.

So I was thinking about setting up a Patreon project for my short fiction--like I said to Becka, it seems like the sort of thing that makes more sense with a somewhat irregular schedule, rather than a serial novel like Chatoyant College with predictable updates. I would post most stories to my journal like usual, and would accept requests from patrons and offer patron-only stories (as well as other benefits). Anyone else have any thoughts on this? Would you sign up to give me a dollar per short story?

I would also be interested to see other people trying this out!

haikujaguar is crowdfunding the first novel of Spots the Space Marine on Kickstarter.

anke is doing a fiction fishbowl with the theme of Law and Order.

Coming up this weekend will be aldersprig's Giraffe Call, with a theme of wine and roses; crowdfunding's Crowdfunding Creative Jam, with a theme of alternative sexualities/QUILTBAG; and my own Garden of Prose, with a theme of fountains, statues, & gazing balls.