Huh... that's weird... {Hatchfund Update}

this was going to be the cover. I already know
I can do better

The most important thing you need to know from this post is that even tho I dropped the ball on this project, I still have the ball, and what it becomes will be even better than it ever could have been without me failing in this endeavor. Everything has changed since I initially came up with the idea for FibroShark Hungry, and the project has never left my plate.

I was ready to start updating my project page again and... everything's gone. Hatchfund is now "powered by FundRazor" and I couldn't sign in with my account. Searching for the project page yields nothing, & going back thru my links from the project's fund-raising emails runs me into 404 errors. It's gone. From 4 years ago (when it was funded). Even the "help" link goes to a page-not-found. I guess the last 3 years really have been as long as they've felt.

Luckily I do have records for who backed the project and I will be getting in contact with everyone I can reach in order to fulfill my end, because I do actually take this very seriously. But since the Hatchfund Dashboard had everything in it, I have to track people down via Facebook. Fun times. Some of you wanted to be anonymous and I had to rely on my silly memory! (I did actually take notes somewhere, I just have to go back and dig them all up to double check.)

See, I was almost done with the whole thing when I put it on hold. A lot of things happened and I needed the time to make changes, take care of my health, lose my mind once or twice, and actually develop the style that would carry forward the message I wanted to send. Once I got finished with what I thought I was making I realized it wasn't good enough. It wasn't what I truly wanted to make, it wasn't what I promised you, and it wasn't going to do anything beyond a single run of vanity publishing. I had to mature in order to tackle this project in a way it deserved, but I also had to learn how to manage being sick so I had something to teach.

That failure was depressing, and I won't say that I didn't try to hide from it for a while. I told people who asked that I was still working on it, which was true, and when my health took a downturn it was suddenly fine with me that it was stuck in "development hell". One of the things I learned from being a capitalist was that sometimes you have to sit with your desires and acknowledge you need to learn more before you can move forward in a truthful manner. Fortunately, I know personally just about everyone who donated to the Hatchfund and most of the are up to date on what's been going on with my health.

But because I was making progress with all of my health issues, (and because I also don't care about hiding anymore), I have been able to start working on FibroShark Hungry again, and I will be following-thru with my promises to my backers. Since I no longer have a way to update my backers, I'll have a special project tier on Patreon and I'm figuring out how to make a database that ONLY my Hatchfund backers will get a link to for early access to interactive stuff, and exclusive access to what I learned from this career defining failure; Including a PDF of the file that has been languishing in my hardrive.

honestly, it was going to be a mediocre
"idiot's guide to blah blah blah".
We deserve better.

Everyone fails. This isn't the first time I have been unable to produce what I promised when I promised to do it, either. Art happens on its own timeline, and I never give up on a project, even if it takes a while for me to come back to it. Thank you all for your patience and forbearance on this matter, I will be in touch with everyone I can reach to offer the digital materials when they're ready.

So, while I feel a small amount of shame for this taking so long to come thru, it's propelling me forward into my next venture during which I will have a much shorter calendar for content delivery.

Watch this space...

❤❤R