Anyway, some folks have commented how few patrons are participating. That’s sad, because patrons have two things that I, and many creators, really crave.

No, not money. Money is icing.

What I crave as a writer are ideas and feedback. I get ideas of my own, but in a slow and rare trickle when it’s just me. However, one person talking with me to start sparking from? I can spin a whole world out of somebody saying that they want to read about a villainous polar bear.

Patrons are vital. They provide the proteins that my little creative enzymes can take apart and put back together into stories and poems. Feedback provides a stock of more proteins, to make it grow. (Especially questions. Asking who or what something is? Oooh, amino acids on parade.)

So, patrons, you have a market, too. That idea nobody ever writes about? I bet there’s someone out there who’s staring at a blank page who would love to know what it is.

And once you cultivate an artist, they may start producing works just because they thought of you. I probably would have never written a short story about giant space rays if I didn’t know that one of my friends likes rays.