Make A Break For It

You know how every artist, actor, writer what have you has that story about when they FINALLY went pro? Just got divorced, lost the dog and the house and the car and the job, lost everything. And they scrounged and made ends meet painting baseball cars or started that bakery they always wanted by just catering cupcakes for 5yr olds?

That's where I am. Hell, it's where I've been a long while.

My name is Blake! I'm an early transition FTM (trans guy) and artist, writer, clown, comic, RPer... I have lived in squalor my entire adult life, shoved unceremoniously from an overcrowded nest and trying to make it with what little I had. I went to college on my mother's life insurance policy until it ran out. I worked almost full time at the only job I could get, and I lived $200 in the red for a good year and a half. In the meantime I started an Etsy shop (ladyksknerdyknits.etsy.com) made a webcomic (kmlssticks.thecomicseries.com) andwrote a few novels and a couple screen plays... I ended up meeting a lovely girl online where I was RPing as Mr. Gold on Twitter (character study and improv training for the shoestring budget) and I moved all my belongings to the other side of the country to be with her. For a couple years, things were good. Got a new (to me) laptop and a scanner so I could get my art back up, invested in a (cheap) art tablet, started working on my epic fantasy series (Dragonsbane) and writing a comic series (Rats With Wings) and got a mic so I could start voice over (Soundcloud.com/LadySLupe13) and make some money that way.

Then I got sick. Onset of bipolar disorder. It's a pain to the best of us. Took me a year and a half of red tape, three month-waiting periods for doctor's appointments, and half a year of testing medications until we found something that worked. Which is a good turnaround, actually. Some people go years before they find a diagnosis or regiment that works for them. In the meantime, my marriage failed. With crap work history, I had a hard time getting a job. With my health, working fast food at Jack in the Box indefinitely was making things worse.

In November of 2016, I did finally lose my job. And in December, I got evicted. In February, I got kicked off the couch I was sleeping on, and I only got my own place at the beginning of April because of my tax return.

Back in October, when I was still employed, I had the brain bug idea to start a quarterly geek & gamer magazine to build a brand and start a community full of the kind of people that would sponsor a brick-and-mortar place like is my dream. In the midst of a new job and tensions high in the living room I was staying in, I published the first issue. 66 pages of favors from friends that I edited myself in GIMP on my computer.

In May, when the second issue came out, it was 94 pages. I had a couple of friends, and some new contacts I'd made at Wild West Con, and added an interview with best-seller Tamora Pierce along with the Cog Is Dead, Brian Kessinger, and our spotlight cover girl was Alyssa King, Joker's Harley. That, a couple of Etsy and art commissions, and $200 from a friend was what paid rent. Selling half of my possessions (including a violin my father had given me when I made concert master in middle school, something I've carried with me for 15 years, and the film collection that was my pride and joy...) paid for June, and even then only because a very generous friend bought my Bookman's credit for cash, instead of the half (or even third) of it they would have given me.

My phone bill was due weeks ago. It's at $200+ and climbing, and soon it'll shut off. That includes the Mobile Hotspot I'm using for internet, to keep contact with my UpWork account and freelance writing, my fanfic, Facebook and friends, basic things...

It comes down to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I need a place to stay, money to feed myself, and get about town to do the things I need to do. That's shipping for giveaways. Supplies for custom orders. New business cards printed, and press kits for the magazine to take to cons.The novels and comics and art queues I have literally been needing to finish for years and just don't have TIME for. I am trying to make the most out of what I've got, but all I get is, "Be patient, and keep trying."

I've been trying. For a long time. It's not getting any better. I'm trying a new tactic.

I have some friends in Cleveland with more house and land than they can keep up with in need of an extra set of hands. They've offered me a fixer-upper (that doesn't even have power or water, it's in such bad shape) in exchange for fixing it and helping out around the place. I could build a lot of it myself and have my own space. The rest of the home would be modified into an art studio for all of us, and I could have space and encouragement for my art there.

Also, they are both gender fluid/FTM-types, and they are more than accepting of my own transition, and the proposition was offered to me specifically because I am understanding of theirs.

SO WHAT I NEED IS MOVING EXPENSES. Plane ticket is in the $350-400 range, but I'll be bringing as little as possible. That's still shipping a box or three of my crap from Tucson to Cleveland, and buying new things. Bedding, dog crate, groceries to help not eat my new hosts out of house and home. Baggage fees. Replacing almost everything I own that I can't take with me.

If you wanna help, you can also go to Patreon.com/LoonyMoonyProductions for a full list of the things I'm doing and sign up to support me there. That's a regular, monthly thing, and in return you get sneak peeks and gifts and etc. of my work. I have a "Thing A Week" promise in place to keep me giving you guys content, and proving that I'm doing the work.  I also have a published short story you can buy, called "The Milk Blossom Festival" by B.T. Light. There's also a RedBubble for LoonyMoonyProds and the Etsy shop I mentioned earlier. I also do art commissions, and not only are they a great way for you to get what you want, it helps me get my art out there.

I need help. I'm not asking for charity, I'm asking for support. BDQM is going to take off eventually, and I will live off of it in due time. But she needs time to grow. In the meantime, please. I need help making it day to day, but you can see, YOU CAN SEE, IT'S EVIDENT ON MY PATREON, that I am working!

Please. Even if it's only $20. That's more than I have right now. Go to RedBubble, by a shirt. Buy a sticker, buy the ebook, whatever strikes your fancy. Go to blakesdungeon.weebly.com to check out the magazine, buy a copy. Become a Patron there. Just please. Help.

~Blake