FA+
Shop
A 2020 Farewell Message from Dissident Love Studios
4 years ago
Good day, y'all, and welcome to THE END...
... OF 2020.
Been waiting a while to say that.
First off, I would like to thank all of you for your love and support and readership over not just the last year, but the last 13+ years of writing. From Myles and DL, and Amber and Boi-Of-The-Week, to TruU and Ilsa Calamata, it's been a pretty wild ride. I originally sauntered vaguely over to the furry community just because they were an open and accepting audience for my own stable of kinks and obsessions, lured by the works of Winger and Gideon and the friendship of a few delightful individuals. I had a dozen stories under my belt before I would even entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, I was a furry myself. Heck, it was only this year I tried to nail down a 'sona for myself (and it's a sona that explicitly has no fixed form or gender, so... still not really nailed down very well.) I don't know where I'd be without this community, but I'm certain it would be a darker and lonelier place.
Secondly, and I apologize if I was making this sound more dire than it is, I am going to be stepping away from the role of "Dissident Love - The Writer" for 2021, shuttering my Patreon, and not putting out any stories for the forseeable future.
Why am I doing this? Since I seem to be very fond of lists, there's numerous reasons!
Reason The First: Writing as Dissident Love (for Patreon supporters in particular) has prevented me from writing nearly anything else. This is no-one's fault but my own. I had high hopes at the start, but it turns out that I can't split my projects between 'long term goals' and 'things I need to do for the people who inexplicably pay me money every month'. I've long said that Patreon was negatively affecting my creativity, and it's about time I do something about it.
Reason The Second: I attempted to submit stories to nine anthologies and publications last year. I... succeeded zero times, because I never finished any of the stories before the submission deadline, let alone even got to the proofreading and editing stage. Every time I would start working on one of these shorts, I would be immediately overcome with guilt that I wasn't working on something for Patreon.
Reason The Third: After thirteen years, it's REALLY getting difficult for me to write hyper and fwoomping and have even the remotest sense that I'm satisfyingly original. Several people have told me that's fine, they LIKE my niche, and gosh knows I love other artists' niches, but it makes it more difficult for me to start and finish projects. Again, this is purely a 'me problem', that I've tried to solve by... ignoring it. Amazingly it hasn't worked.
Reason The Fourth: I've been putting off writing for my other 'sonas... yes, I am more than just DL. I've got a G/PG-rated fursona, who was going to be the author of several of the previously-mentioned failed submissions. I've got a human erotica 'sona, who found some limited success on Literotica before being driven away by right-wing chuds (my sona is femme on the internet, so... that's expected). Over 2019 and 2020, though, a handful of people reached out to that sona and said that my stories really affected them, and in some cases helped them, and they urged me not to give up. And lastly, I've been putting off writing literally as myself. I've got four 'novels' on my desk right now, which I've had full jackets designed for, with my name and cover art and blurbs on the back (I just slipped them over other books I already own). I had them created to provide me inspiration, but now they're just making me feel worse, particularly the one I had planned to give to my daughter for her birthday... in 2019.
Reason The Fifth: This one is still a little bit up in the air, but what the hell. At the urging of my wife, two past professors and my one remaining real life friend, I am pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and slowly shifting my career from cubicle-dwelling CAD-monkey to something in the literary field.
I will still be around, of course. Dissident Love isn't leaving Twitter (though I will be toning down my content there) or Discord (though I could hardly be less noticeable on there). I will always be happy to talk about big things getting bigger, and bigger things going where bigger things shouldn't be able to go. I'll never escape that part of me.
Thank you all.
I am still made of love...
Dissident Love
... OF 2020.
Been waiting a while to say that.
First off, I would like to thank all of you for your love and support and readership over not just the last year, but the last 13+ years of writing. From Myles and DL, and Amber and Boi-Of-The-Week, to TruU and Ilsa Calamata, it's been a pretty wild ride. I originally sauntered vaguely over to the furry community just because they were an open and accepting audience for my own stable of kinks and obsessions, lured by the works of Winger and Gideon and the friendship of a few delightful individuals. I had a dozen stories under my belt before I would even entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, I was a furry myself. Heck, it was only this year I tried to nail down a 'sona for myself (and it's a sona that explicitly has no fixed form or gender, so... still not really nailed down very well.) I don't know where I'd be without this community, but I'm certain it would be a darker and lonelier place.
Secondly, and I apologize if I was making this sound more dire than it is, I am going to be stepping away from the role of "Dissident Love - The Writer" for 2021, shuttering my Patreon, and not putting out any stories for the forseeable future.
Why am I doing this? Since I seem to be very fond of lists, there's numerous reasons!
Reason The First: Writing as Dissident Love (for Patreon supporters in particular) has prevented me from writing nearly anything else. This is no-one's fault but my own. I had high hopes at the start, but it turns out that I can't split my projects between 'long term goals' and 'things I need to do for the people who inexplicably pay me money every month'. I've long said that Patreon was negatively affecting my creativity, and it's about time I do something about it.
Reason The Second: I attempted to submit stories to nine anthologies and publications last year. I... succeeded zero times, because I never finished any of the stories before the submission deadline, let alone even got to the proofreading and editing stage. Every time I would start working on one of these shorts, I would be immediately overcome with guilt that I wasn't working on something for Patreon.
Reason The Third: After thirteen years, it's REALLY getting difficult for me to write hyper and fwoomping and have even the remotest sense that I'm satisfyingly original. Several people have told me that's fine, they LIKE my niche, and gosh knows I love other artists' niches, but it makes it more difficult for me to start and finish projects. Again, this is purely a 'me problem', that I've tried to solve by... ignoring it. Amazingly it hasn't worked.
Reason The Fourth: I've been putting off writing for my other 'sonas... yes, I am more than just DL. I've got a G/PG-rated fursona, who was going to be the author of several of the previously-mentioned failed submissions. I've got a human erotica 'sona, who found some limited success on Literotica before being driven away by right-wing chuds (my sona is femme on the internet, so... that's expected). Over 2019 and 2020, though, a handful of people reached out to that sona and said that my stories really affected them, and in some cases helped them, and they urged me not to give up. And lastly, I've been putting off writing literally as myself. I've got four 'novels' on my desk right now, which I've had full jackets designed for, with my name and cover art and blurbs on the back (I just slipped them over other books I already own). I had them created to provide me inspiration, but now they're just making me feel worse, particularly the one I had planned to give to my daughter for her birthday... in 2019.
Reason The Fifth: This one is still a little bit up in the air, but what the hell. At the urging of my wife, two past professors and my one remaining real life friend, I am pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and slowly shifting my career from cubicle-dwelling CAD-monkey to something in the literary field.
I will still be around, of course. Dissident Love isn't leaving Twitter (though I will be toning down my content there) or Discord (though I could hardly be less noticeable on there). I will always be happy to talk about big things getting bigger, and bigger things going where bigger things shouldn't be able to go. I'll never escape that part of me.
Thank you all.
I am still made of love...
Dissident Love
Fucking "2020 won" just keeps giving... >.<
I think the path you're taking sounds perfect for you, and I'm glad that you could see what needed to be changed and that you're going about it.
Best wishes!
That said, any chance we'll be seeing any of your hyper stories in illustrated print form? I know I'd buy em.