Thoughts on the year that was (Patreon)

Hi family, it's Cam. This is a bit of an update on what is and has been going on here at DeepNerd HQ TN, and a bit of a transparency post for those of you with questions about care package shipping.

2023 was, in many ways, a phenomenal year for Old Gods of Appalachia. We launched our first national tour, and it was just about everything we could have hoped for. It was wonderful to see so many of you in person and to have the opportunity to chat with some of you face to face. We got to take amazing road trips with the friends who help bring our characters and our world to life with the power of their voices and their music. I'd love to say we got to visit some amazing places, but when you're on tour, you don't actually have a lot of time for sight seeing. (So for those of you who reached out with suggestions for cool places to eat / drink / visit, thank you! We appreciate so much that you thought of us, and wish we'd had more to time to see all your towns have to offer. We did, however, learn about a ton of awesome places we'd like to visit again in our downtime.)

The tour was fantastic, but it was also one of the hardest things we've ever done. We know some of you were frustrated by the fact that we were on hiatus during tour, but the simple fact is, we can't produce the show and tour at the same time. (For those who found us more recently, we've always taken a hiatus between seasons to work on other projects like tour and to plan the next season, and we always will.) Even in the weeks between tour legs, we're busy making the tour happen. There's a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into a touring production, and not all of it happens on the road. There are a lot of logistics to juggle, and we're a very small company. DeepNerd Media is technically just Steve and me. My partner, Bryan, works for us part time handling Patreon fulfillment and tour merch. We were also able to hire our good friend, Kris, to tour manage and run sound for us, and it is no exaggeration to say we could not have done it without him.

This brings me to the next bit of my post: transparency. Several of you have messaged us about delayed care packages, for which we sincerely apologize. One of things we learned in 2023 was that trying to handle tour merch and Patreon shipping was just impossible, at least operating the same way we've always handled shipping. We have some ideas about how to make it more manageable this year, and will do our best to at least have fewer delays. That said, we are still getting caught up from the delays caused by the 2023 tour and subsequent holiday shows, as well as our personal situation here in Bristol, which I'm going to tell you about now.

For me and Bryan personally, the west coast leg of the tour was an incredibly difficult time. The friend who was looking after our cats while we were on tour called a few hours before we had to be at the venue to let us know that our oldest cat, my sweet old man Bright (who was just a few months shy of 16 years) had passed peacefully in his sleep during the night. We were gutted. We were worried for our other cats, who had suddenly lost their brother at a time when their humans were away. We desperately wanted to hop on a plane and go home. And of course, we couldn't do that. We had obligations. The show had to go on. Our amazing tour family — and a few fans who had heard about Bright — were very kind and supportive. We could not have managed it without them.

There was even more going on than that, though. The west coast leg of the tour also afforded us the opportunity to visit one of Bryan's dearest friends for the last time. She had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2020. They gave her a year. She ended up getting more than three, for which we're very grateful, and at that time was still feeling well enough to join us for the Seattle show. We got to spend the day after the show with her and her three sweet cats. We had hoped to see her again in the fall, after the tour ended, but unfortunately, her health took a turn for the worse, and eventually she decided it was time to discontinue treatment.

Bryan's friend passed in November. When she learned she had cancer, her dad promised to adopt her three cats. Her only wish was that the three of them, a bonded trio, not be separated. Bryan promised we would take them, should her dad be unable for any reason. Well, as it turns out, three years of intensive cancer treatment is expensive. Her ended up selling his house to pay for her treatment, and thus, he wasn't in a position to adopt them when the time came. Thanks to the support of our Patreon family, however, we were. The week after Thanksgiving, he flew them cross-country to their new home, here in Tennessee.

It's been... a lot, y'all. Losing his friend was especially hard for Bryan, and I just don't have it in me to pressure a grieving person to ship merch. These poor cats were also pretty traumatized. One day their mama went away, and she never came home. For three months, they just got check-ins from friends and family a couple times a day. Then they had to travel in an airplane all the way across the country to live with a new family. They had to meet new siblings, one of whom is OMG a DOG! They needed time and attention. I hope you understand. I'm sure you will, because our Patreon family has always been so kind and supportive. Y'all are good eggs.

Anyway, now that I've made y'all sad, we come to the happier part of the post. Our friend's three cats have settled in nicely with our own fur babies. With one notable exception (who's still just hissing at my enormous 9 month old baby, Beerus), everyone is getting along great. And now that you've slogged through all this, you get to meet them.

This is Ginny.

Ginny lost her left foreleg when she was around a year old, before our friend adopted her. While she sort of hops like a bunny, it hasn't slowed her down all that much. She's a chatty, energetic 7-year-old who uses her three legs to run circles around all the boys. Baby Beerus is absolutely obsessed with her.

This is Sammy.

Sammy is an 8-year-old with a few special needs, most notably asthma. So far he's been doing really well here (thanks, Mila air purifiers!), with the notable exception of the intense jealousy he's developed regarding Ginny, who immediately inducted our three boys into her personal harem, resulting in the aforementioned hissing and carrying on.

This is Ninja.

Ninja is a convicted felon wanted in seven states for armed robbery. We are doing our best to reform him, but can make no promises.