Reposted from Patreon.

Maybe you’ve heard, but there’s been news on the billing front. Suffice to say, one of the richest tech companies on the face of the Earth has decided they want more cash on hand, even though they’re already sitting on an historically gigantic slush fund. And how better to get it than by fleecing struggling artists and their fans?

In light of Apple’s new extortion scheme against Patreon users and creators, I have decided to unpublish my page, cancel my account, and sever all ties with Patreon. This isn’t borne solely of my disdain for Apple as a predatory corporation, but also my general disgust with Patreon’s censorious history. Although they’ve taken steps to clean up their act in recent years, the stench of their past actions never sat well with me, which is why I haven’t pushed harder to build an audience on their site.

The lack of new content has left me feeling guilty when faced with the generous backing of patrons past and present. Although work on new books and stories continues, 2024 has been a barren year for me, marked by setbacks and atrophy. Aside from a few appearances in anthologies and some promotional experiments, I’ve been occupied making ends meet elsewhere. Rest assured, the ends have indeed met, and I’ve also managed to survive my most recent trip to the hospital to deal with a gammy leg that keeps trying to kill me.

I’ll be shutting down this operation next week to keep any remaining patrons from being billed for November. The migration of users began with the announcement of the new status quo from Patreon, and I’ve noticed it even on my limited end of things. If you’ve been backing or following me on this site, thank you and please keep checking in. I continue to post news of my work on Facebook and X.

Eyestrain Productions remains my homepage. Although a copy of this post will be one of only two blog entries so far this year, I’ll try to get back to some sort of schedule now that I’m nearing completion of several novels. I would also encourage you to follow my Amazon author page for reliable notices of when I have a book release, or if one of my stories has turned up in someone else’s collection.

See you soon.