Passing the Tip Jar for Spring

Hey friends,

This isn’t a real blog post, it’s just my every-several-months reminder that Steel Magnificat, and my family, run on tips.

I get a very small paycheck from Patheos every couple of months for clicks in the United States and a couple other countries, nothing at all for clicks outside of those countries. I get a tiny royalty check for my books and whenever I get published in a real paper. And the rest of my income is all gratuities from satisfied readers. Some of my readers subscribe to tip every month and some just drop a few dollars in the jar when they can afford to. Think of it like a very disorganized Patreon, or a magazine subscription where you pay what I’m worth and get to keep reading even if you don’t pay.

I try to write up these busking posts only four times a year if I can help it. Since I wrote the last one we’ve seen the Lost Girl find a house and finally have her beautiful new baby. In politics, we had the long-awaited laicization of my old nemesis Frank Pavone and a retrospective on my investigation of what happened to Baby Choice. I’ve had to write about SNAP benefits and mutual aid.  For Lent this year I’ve set the theme of invitation and accompaniment and tried to journal my attempts at prayer. In our family life, we lost our vehicle, then the Lost Girl’s family managed to resurrect it for us, then it broke again and we’re still waiting for the last repair.  And this winter I’ve discovered the neighborhood hawks.  Also, not at Patheos, I was honored to write for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Lost Girl’s wonderful sons. My writing is nothing if not eclectic.

So, as always, I ask: if you like what you read, give me a tip when you can! Just go to our donate page here, click on the yellow button, and Paypal will walk you through the rest. The button says “donate” but they’re not charitable donations, they’re just gratuities I pay taxes on.

And now back to writing that’s worth your time!