Crowdfunding: Connecting Creators and Patrons

Our theme this month was "tricksters." I worked from noon to 4:15 AM on Tuesday, so about 14 hours 15 minutes, allowing for breaks. I wrote another poem later. This time there was a nice spread of lengths, from a handful of medium-short pieces through a few medium-long and long, then some epics.

Participation was more lively this session, with 36 comments on LiveJournal and 21 on Dreamwidth. A total of 22 people sent prompts. Please welcome new prompters brushwolf, gingicat, corvi, and LJ users Freshbakedlady and Veralynnwildfir. You have them to thank for the second freebie.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the October 2013 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Brothers at Heart"
"Eshu's New Coat"
"Flatter Than a Grass Mat"
"The Golem of Chelm"
"The Hippie Magician"
"Plan C"
"The Small and the Swift"
"Tod Fox and Friends"
"Tricky Dick"
"Weaving Damask"
"What He-She Said"

"Backtalk" (July 2013 Creative Jam, An Army of One)
"Building Where We Are" (September 3, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl, Schrodinger's Heroes)

See also "That Kind of Hero," a direct sequel to "Weaving Damask."


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the list of unsold poems from October. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available. The linkback poem "Building Where We Are" still has verses available; you can reveal those by linking to the unsold poetry list or to a favorite poem from this session.

All currently sponsored poems have been posted. Backchannel copies have been sent to prompters. Per the $200 goal, "Backtalk" is the free epic. Per the $250 goal, that's one tally toward a mid-month fishbowl. Per the $300 goal, there will be a half-price sale in One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis. The extra general fund poll will be open until this evening; if you don't have a LiveJournal account, just post your vote in a comment or send me a private message here on DW. I still need to write the donor perk-post.

Donors this month include: janetmiles, Anthony & Shirley Barrette, and Tumblr user Axelerate13. Please welcome new donor Axelerate13, who helped make the second freebie appear. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm.


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.

This month's theme was "homonyms, puns, and wordplay." I worked from 1 PM to midnight, so about 9 hours allowing for lunch and supper breaks. There were a few prompts early on, a trickle later, but far less than usual. I only wrote 13 poems.

Participation was so low, I actually didn't write enough to activate all the perks, although people could've covered those with general donations. Remember, it takes prompts to make the fishbowl work. I got some extra activity by doubling up on people who sent multiples, but there's a limit to how well that works. 

I've had fishbowls tank before; it happens once or twice a year. I suspect it was due to the theme. It was popular in the poll but then people didn't prompt much; they may have found the topic hard to work with. I kind of expected it to be a challenge for me but was willing to give it a try. Sometimes those kinds of themes have turned out really well. But after this, I'm likely to be more selective about what goes into a poll or what I accept from the voting results, and weed out themes that I think might be harder to work with. 

Most of the poems were free verse. Some used single prompts while others stacked a bunch together. I finished out theRainbowfic Sunlight list. Length ran shorter this time: a lot of medium, some short and long, only three epics.

Activity was low. There were 41 comments on LiveJournal and none on Dreamwidth. A total of 11 people sent prompts. There were no new prompters or donors.


Read some poetry!
The following poems from the February 2013 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Balance and Tangle"
"Command Line Errors"
"The Geometry of Language"
"Greetings and Solicitations"
"Irony of Eight" (One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis)
"Ohm's Lawyers"
"Portmanteaparty"
"Spathic Personalities"
"Tantalizing"
"That Is the Question"
"Whole Loops"
"Won True Way" (An Army of One)

"The Voyage to Vaucouleurs" (11/6/12, The Arc of Joan)
"Scotch Hobby" (12/4/12, The Steamsmith)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the list of unsold poems from May. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available. The linkback poem "The Voyage to Vaucouleurs" (The Arc of Joan) currently has 12 of 16 verses posted. You can reveal more by linking to the unsold poetry post, or to your favorite poems from this fishbowl. 

All currently sponsored poems have been posted. Per the $200 goal, "Scotch Hobby" is the free epic. The other perks did not activate this month. We do have a carryover from previous activity, however. There will be a half-price sale running May 20-26. I'm doing something a little different this time, offering the unsold stuff from the Rainbowfic Vellum list, which consists of 9 poems and 1 short story, spanning several different series.

Donors this month include: LiveJournal users Laffingkat, Zianuray, rix_scaedu, janetmiles, and technoshaman. The donor perk-post is "Wordplay."


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.

My poetry fishbowl is open with a theme of "homonyms, puns, and wordplay." Come give me prompts or watch the fun!

The November theme was "humor & whimsy." One prompt came early, then a pause, then most of the prompts arrived in a big blob. A few appeared later in the day. A total of 14 people sent prompts, which is on the low side. There were 99 comments including mine. I worked from 1:20 PM to 11:40 PM, so about 8 hours and 20 minutes, allowing for breaks. I wrote 17 poems. Many were free verse, though I did some short forms (limerick and triolet), some quatrains, and one in haiku verses. There were plenty of short and medium poems this time, with a handful of long and epic ones.

There were no new participants this time, all regulars. Special thanks to minor_architect for running the linkbacks perk this time. I've reposed "Winter Apples" (Fiorenza the Wisewoman) on my blog. It's not completed yet, so I'm letting folks continue to reveal verses by linking to favorite poems for this fishbowl. Now that I've posted the unsold poetry, you can also pimp that for linkback love. Thanks to my_partner_doug for handling the ticker during the fishbowl.

We've reached the $150 goal for a free series poem. I'll need to check what's available and eligible so you can vote on which series. We're currently $48 from the second goal for an extra fishbowl.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the November 1, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Dancing in Rain and Sun"
"The Four Humours" (NEW series: The Steamsmith)
"The Funny Farm"
"In Good Cause" (The Ocracies)
"Jest in Fun"
"The Other Truck" (Monster House)
"Overdrive" (rude limerick)
"The Steamsmith" (NEW series: The Steamsmith)
"Third Road Signs"
"wadding" (The Origami Mage)
"The Wizard Who Did Windows" (NEW series: Practical Magics)

Notice that there are two new series! The Steamsmith series is brand-new this month, beginning with two poems. It is steampunk set in an otherworldly London, featuring a black hera who is an expert with steamworks, and while the principles of scientific method hold true, the information revealed differs greatly from the physics and biology of our world. Steampunk is a genre that I rarely write, so I'm excited about exploring new territory; please forward widely to steampunk fans, because they probably haven't seen my work before.

Practical Magics is following up on a character introduced in an earlier fishbowl, Jenina, who does low magic for everyday purposes. She invents spells in the "hearth witch" or "kitchen witch" field. Sometimes it's the littlest things that make the biggest difference. So if you're sick of stories where the gee-whiz magic distracts from the characters and events, look here. This series still has its first poem available for sale, "Wipeout."


Buy Some Poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the list of unsold poems from November 1, 2011. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

All currently sponsored poems have been posted. Prompters have been sent private copies of their unsold poems. I still need to write a perk-post for donors. The general fund contains $5 so far, and after I tally the total donations Friday evening, I will post a generally sponsored poetry poll.

Thus far the November donors include: the_vulture, marina_bonomi, rix_scaedu, janetmiles, and aldersprig. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm.


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.

The November 1, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl is now open in my LiveJournal.  Today's theme is "humor & whimsy."  Please drop by to give me prompts or just enjoy the audience interaction and free poetry.

filkertom is working on a new album, donations welcome. Yay, funny music and crowdfunding!