Alchemy Red Watercooler (aka that time I accidentally started a podcast)

June of last year, hypomanic on prednisone, I had an idea: what if I start a Discord server attached to Patreon and offer weekly write-ins? Added value for patrons and might give me a kick in the pants to get some things done.

One problem: what if no one shows up and I’m sitting there by myself? It’s why I don’t run contests, why I’m terrified to attempt an online book launch–folks never show up for these things and I just feel foolish.

So I asked Dina James, even though she “wasn’t a writer anymore”, if she’d show up and just…sit there so I wasn’t alone. She could pretend to write and play The Sims instead! I didn’t care, as long as I wasn’t embarrassing myself by being the only one who participated.

Instead, she wrote. And wrote. And she accidentally became a writer again.

Fast-forward to June of this year: I had another idea.

I’m trying to find more content ideas of Patreon that wouldn’t commit me to more writing (essentially, Patreon is paying me to write books, but if I have a lot of rewards that are like “I’ll write you new things if I reach ___ goal”, I end up spending my writing time on those instead of new books, which defeats the purpose). And one of the things I like to do is just chat with my writer friends about writing and publishing, so…why not make that a thing? It’s still extra work but it’s a different kind of work from writing that won’t be bad once I get the hang of it.

I’m technologically challenged in a lot of ways and I knew it would take some experimenting, so of course I said: “Dina, I have this idea–is this a thing you’d be open to doing?”

And that’s how I accidentally started a Patreon podcast.

The first episode is now live, and if you’d like to listen to me and Dina chat for almost ninety minutes about how she accidentally became a writer again, publishing, and Disney princesses, you can pop over to Patreon for a buck a month to listen in.

Future episodes will start at a higher tier for a month and then drop down to everyone afterward, but for now everyone gets the first ep as part of their membership.

Other friends are lined up for the rest of the year and I’ve got an “anyone can come back at any time” policy, because I know very clever people I like to talk to all the time.

If you check it out, do leave a like/comment, as Dina asked me last night “So are people listening?” and I had to break it to her that I had no fucking idea as Patreon doesn’t track that kind of thing, thank god, as I much prefer to think of people as lurkers rather than not paying any attention at all lol. So those likes/comments will tell her folks listened in!