Mixtapes for Hookers

So, I think I may be about to break one of the main rules of polite and interesting blogging.  I’m going to have a little pledge drive.  For myself.

Here’s the thing:  I’m basically facing financial ruin.  Or, I’m not even facing it.  It already happened.  I’m doomed.

About a year ago I left my job.  I quit, under duress, with few prospects, and in a way that was wonderful.  Since I quit I put photo and video work in a couple of gallery shows, and I curated three others.  I fought for public libraries, testified against throwing prostitutes in jail, and dedicated a lot of my summer to raising money for a prison book program.  This Thursday I’m hosting a reading event that I organized, and next month I’ll be reading in public for the first time at an event in New York (about which more later.)  Oh, and I get regularly paid to write now.  All of these things are great, and none of them would have happened were I still working at a full-time desk job surrounded by bitter old ladies.

But.

I also haven’t been making money steadily.  Part-time blogging covers the rent, more or less, but it doesn’t pay the utilities and certainly doesn’t cover anything beyond that, like food.  And getting another job seems very unlikely right now.  I live in a state with 14% unemployment and over 21% real unemployment.  I can’t move anywhere, because moving costs money and anyway I have a boyfriend and a family here.  Blogging for about two hours a day actually means I’m better off than one-fifth of the population.

So.

I have a proposal:

Mail me your gold.

No, ha, just kidding.

Really.  I don’t know how many people read this blog, but I’m thinking that some of you might be in a better financial position than I am.  Probably a lot of you aren’t, but I bet some of you nice people are.  So I’ve decided to put a donation button on the site.  If it’s possible, I’d like to raise $1,000 in the next couple of weeks.  That’s kind of a big goal for a low-traffic personal blog that doesn’t sell any ads.  But it’s a nice round number and would help me immensely.  A thousand dollars won’t won’t save the world, and it won’t even solve a lot of my problems, but it will get me out of the hole I’m in right now, and it means I’ll be able to pay my rent and that my electricity won’t be shut off.

As a perk, I have a couple of small projects coming up.  One of them is mixtape-related, and one of them is book-related.  Both of them are very small and homemade, but I think they’re both going to be pretty cool. I’m not ready to go into more detail about either one of them, but if you donate at least $20 I’ll give you first crack at both of them, as a little thank you.

I don’t want to be annoying, and I know this is tacky, but I’m at a loss about what else to do.  Being broke is really stressful, but being broke with no hope of getting paid soon is kind of incapaciting.  I spend a good six to eight hours of my day worrying about money and spend much of that time feeling literally queasy.

I’m putting a PayPal button on the side of the site here, and if/once I make the money I need I’m going to take it down.  Should anyone choose to accept this mission, thanks in advance.