[UPDATE] Reminders, New Streaming Schedule, and MORE! (Patreon)

Hey patrons! Got an update for ya, hot off the presses!

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A Reminder:

Today is the last day to submit song suggestions for the latest Milestone Goal celebration! ICYMI, patrons get to suggest and vote on a song for me to sing as Kermit the Frog! Starting next week, I’ll post a poll for you all to select the winning song. You can submit your suggestions to the Google form here.

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July Events and the Future of Scheduled Streams:

This year I’ve been streaming a lot. No, really. A LOT. Scheduled streams were originally a Milestone Goal when I didn’t stream as often. Now, I easily stream at least twice a week, though the streams are on random days and times. I think I can do better than stealth streaming constantly. I’d like to test out a tentative streaming schedule PER WEEK. I checked my streaming habits over the last 30 days and noticed I stream most regularly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. So I’d like to try the following schedule:

Tuesdays 10am-1pm CST

Wednesdays 1pm-4pm CST

Thursdays 5-8pm CST

I’m going to try sticking to this schedule for a few weeks to see how I like it, then make adjustments accordingly. But for now, I’m excited to finally have an answer for people when they ask when I stream! I will also update the Doodle for Food events Google calendar to reflect this stream schedule.

As for this month’s Patron livedraw, it’ll take place on Friday, July 24 6-8pm CST

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My Mental Health:

For those that may not know, I have anxiety and depression. I’m not sure how shocking that is, since I feel like a LOT of people experience both, particularly other artists, and especially this year. After years of just ‘dealing with it’, I started going to regular therapy sessions at the start of 2019, and started antidepressants in December. The improvement in my overall mental health since then has been incredible, but it’s been and continues to be A LOT of work. 

Last month, I was also officially diagnosed with ADHD. This pretty much changes nothing, but for me it was very validating and enlightening. I’ve been reading a lot of books and articles on how to better manage my symptoms/habits (stuff that I just assumed I had to suck it up and deal with because that’s just ‘who I was’) It’s been exhausting but so rewarding to finally work with my brain’s natural tendencies than to try and power through or fight them. 

Why am I telling you all these things?

I’m a bit tired of trying to ‘hide’ when I’m not doing great, mental health-wise. It feels a lot like I’m shoving down a part of myself for the sake of always appearing happy to the outside world. I like drawing cute things whether I’m happy or sad, so I felt it was time to share this about myself to just feel more comfortable being a truer version of myself online.

I want to help normalize talking about mental health. I don’t feel my news changes anything about how I’ve been approaching my art or comics for the past seven years. I’ve had these conditions pretty much my entire life, and I’ve managed just fine and will continue to get by okay.

2020 has been insane so far, and to be honest, I don’t see it getting better any time soon. I’ve had some pretty low points this year, but I’m working through them. I just wanted to finally come clean about a big part of what’s going on with me behind-the-scenes. I wanted to provide context and blanket apology for the times when I’m quiet online, slow to update, or whatever. You all are my patrons, and I want to be honest and open with you when I can.

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Other Things of Note and What I’m Currently Focusing On:

These updates always take a lot out of me for some reason! So here’s some more stuff I wanted to share in convenient bullet point form:

The graphic novel. I’m still working on the Good Boye Guild graphic novel pitch. This is taking way longer than normal for REASONS (See: Previous section) but recently I had a bit of a breakthrough and things seem to be going smoother now. I shared some art with $5+ patrons last month of preemptive character designs and hope to finalize those designs soon. 

Short-term projects and income. Since the end of my series on Webtoon, I’ve been working on things like building up the Patreon and finishing the graphic novel pitch to help supplement the lost income. However, those are long-term projects, and I need to make sure I can pay the bills and keep the pups fed until then. That’s why you may notice me working more on portrait commissions and new merch coming up. This may or may not slow down comic updates until I can get better at juggling the workload. Thank you for your patience while I try to figure it all out!

Patron polls. Get ready to name so many characters. SO MANY. There will be two big naming events and patron polls soon. One will be for the remaining DnD class characters and the other will be for the above mentioned graphic novel characters.

The Next Milestone. I can’t express enough how excited I am to bring back the discord server! I think it will be a really nice place for us to gather and chat more casually. I’ve been keeping track of all the ideas I have for the server, and I look forward to hearing suggestions for you all about what to add to it. If you know anyone who reads the comics and enjoys my work, let them know about the Patreon and encourage them to join so we can hit this cool goal sooner!

Thank you. The Patreon continues to grow at a steady rate, and I can’t thank you all enough for choosing to support me and my work. This year in particular, your support means so much. Whenever possible I want to do what I can to shower you all with my love and gratitude. You can’t see it right now, but I’m hugging the computer screen at this VERY MOMENT.

I think that’s all from me for now. Thanks again and see you all soon with more content!

Much love,

Megan