My friend Claire often talks about serendipity.
Me, I’m an old statistical analysis guru, I don’t believe in serendipity. And yet…

One of the things I have been worrying these days – and I was not the only one worrying about it, from what I heard – is what will become of Karavansara and strategie evolutive, my two blogs, now that I also have a Patreon page.

Patreon is a fantastic platform for doing what it does, but it also has a requirement – it wants me to live there, to do my things there. My patrons are hungry for contents, and I am supposed to provide them a steady flow of contents.
But what about my blogs?

As luck – or serendipity – would have it, an artist I have been following for a few years now launched her Patreon page two weeks ago.
She is Terri Windling, a multi-talented artist whose Bordertown stories are among my favorite young (and not-so-young) adult reads. She is also a poet and a visual artist, an essayist and a blogger.

And she did a post, on her blog Myth & Moor, about her Patreon experience, that addresses some of my fears, and answers some of my questions.
I invite you to read it.

Done?
Fine.

I know that in the last few days this blog has looked like a Patreon propaganda tool, and still is looking like that, and I am sorry.
I am very excited about being on Patreon, and the fact that we already crashed through the first stretch goal I had set is really good for the morale.
But now, let’s talk about Karavansara.
Karavansara will go back to its regular scheduled posts about adventure, literature, fantasy, history and the Orient, starting the moment you reach the end of this text.
Later I’ll tell you about a little side project I’m doing for AMARNA, and then I’ll talk about games – tomorrow, probably – and we’ll take it from there.

Because to copy and paste straight from Terri Windling’s post, my Patreon page is meant to support my writing, not to monetize my blogs.
Karavansara will remain a free place where I ramble about my stuff. You like what I do? You can join me on Patreon, or you can buy me a coffee, or you can just spread the news and bring in more people.
The more, the merrier.

There will be crossovers, because I will talk about my projects – including my Patreon projects.
I’ll post stuff here and there, I’ll remind you I’m on Patreon once in a while.
I’ll thank my supporters publicly here on Karavansara, too.
But we are talking about separate things.

I liked very much the things Terri Windling wrote about community. I do believe that storytellers and writers and people that do stuff exist thanks to their community.
Now I have expanded my community, bringing in people from Karavansara, from strategie, from my various socials, or from the stalls at Amazon where my ebooks reside.
I will not forget some to privilege others.
So, thank you for reading my blog.
I’ll do my best to keep you hooked.