This is the part of blogging I hate the absolute most.
Getting spammed by combox trolls is preferable to this.
This blog is how I feed my family right now. My fibromyalgia makes my health so unpredictable that my husband has to be the full-time homemaker and care for our daughter. I am our breadwinner writing three to seven literary art projects here at Patheos. And blogging has never been more than busking on the internet. I get a very small paycheck from Patheos, sometimes as high as a three-digit number, for post reach, and the rest of my living is tips. I have to pass the hat from time to time every month to scare up tips, even though I loathe doing it. Think of this blog as a magazine subscription where you pay as much as you think I’m worth, and you get to keep reading even if you can’t afford it.
Late spring and summer are tricky times for bloggers because everyone is finishing school and going outside in the sunshine instead of staying home on the internet like the good Lord intended. In the first part of the year, we made so much money that our EBT assistance got docked by a bit (something I was thrilled about because I hate needing it in the first place). In May, our income dropped by 40% compared to April – that’s not the sharpest month to month fluctuation we have ever seen, but it is close to it. Heading into June things are looking frightening still. A huge portion of our income gets eaten up by the herbal and vitamin remedies I’ve found for my fibromyalgia fatigue– they cost more than rent, but they mean I have the energy to write and earn money in the first place. This month I had to go without them for a whole week because we just couldn’t afford it, and it was very hard to get through. Besides that we have to keep the temperature in the house cool on hot days because fibromyalgia is sensitive to temperature. This makes our electric bill extremely high this time of year. On top of it all, Rose had the audacity to grow out of last year’s summer clothes again and I need to go shopping.
So, as always, I ask: if you like what you read, throw a tip in the virtual tip jar! To do that, just click on the tab marked “donate” under the Steel Magnificat banner, then click on the yellow button and PayPal will walk you through the rest. If you cannot see the tab, you can find the page here. If that doesn’t work either, just comment and I’ll think of something.
And now back to posts worth reading!
(image via Pixabay)
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