Dawn in high mountains, and my way to get there. Sales (and shares) very badly needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

I have a very high mountain to climb.

I've been trying, for the better part of two months, to get my new site truly up and running. Up to now, posts have been essentially placeholders, filler until I could get it operational.

It's almost there.

It's going to be a private version of Patreon (which, after much urging by many people, I caved in and signed up for, to no practical effect save the hacking of my data). In this instance, I will control the data flow, and the only entity to take out fees will be PayPal. There will be subscription/sponsorship levels and rewards in the form of access to specific content, content of the caliber I've always been known for. It'll be a mix of fun stuff, imagery, fiction, poetry, and harder-edged policy analysis and critical theory. It may also include work built around Wings's art. There will be free items, too, but the whole purpose of this endeavor, one I've been trying to work on for too many years, is to free me up, ultimately, to write. For the short term, it's also to help free me from the deadly stress of the medical bills that continue to mount as the doctors fail to find what nearly killed me (and keeps trying to return to finish the job). 

My first stab at retiring this medical debt is only a small fraction of the $25K+ that continues to climb: $1,676. It's not a lot, but it's more than we have. That amount will pay off the local ambulance fee ($741) and the hospitalist's fee ($935; the hospital itself is into me for 10 times that amount). Then there will be the ambulance to Albuquerque, Lovelace and its doctors, and myriad smaller fees for imaging and labs and all sorts of things. In the next few days, the project for the $1,676 will go up, so watch this space and that one, and please subscribe.

For the rest of it — basic living expenses to get through the winter, to say nothing of bringing the crew back part-time to make the stairs safe and finish the cabinets and the rest of the house — what we need are SALES. We had reason to believe that we would be okay, at least for a good long while, but that has not materialized, so I am back to pushing sales every second I'm able, even as I try to cadge moments to work on these other projects. And I am completely worn out, so the rest is cut-and-paste.  

Please. Spread the word. Valentine's Day's gone, but people have birthdays, anniversaries, I-love-you days; there'll be other holidays and seasons coming up before you know it. Please spread all of our links around on FB and Twitter and other social media, via e-mail and word-of-mouth, to your family and friends and colleagues and whoever. The O2 issue is now solved, but there are all the ongoing regular expenses, the astronomical medical expenses, and of course, someday we'd like to be able to get the house finished. I have no hope of that happening anytime soon; I don't know how we're going to get through the rest of this winter, given current circumstances. So here are the links: 

• Tonight's post elsewhere (a gift I thought I wouldn't live to see);
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to She-Wolf's & my medical bills);
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. There are some things left on both registries that I thought by now I might be able just to buy outright, but medical bills (mine and She-Wolf's both) have to come first.

I've been trying to find some sort of accommodation with this oh-my-god-you're-going-to-die thing that keeps happening, which is to say, every time it crops up, I smack it ruthlessly back down and force myself to sit and breathe through it. It's not working. I'm doing it regardless, but these recent episodes are terrifying. We need, also, to get free of some of this crushing stress, and I don't see that happening as long as I have to spend every day scrabbling (mostly unsuccessfully) for whatever sales we can make. Closure's imminent, and I see no way to get through it now. In spite of it all, though, thanks, everybody, from both of us, for everything. I don't know about tomorrow, but at least today I got to see the dawn, and I got to play with puppies.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.