Why Help?

I'm not going to blow sunshine up your ass: it doesn't cost a whole lot to keep this site running. With hosting and domain name registrations, it's less than $200 a year. That's not what I'm asking for donations for.

The donations made to The Pub go directly to help support me (Eric Storm) and my significant other (Keeshaba). Both of us live on disability, and between debt, medical bills, and monthly bills, our two disability checks just don't meet our obligations well enough to let us do fun things like... eat.

So, why should that concern you? Well, two possible reasons: First, you just don't like to see someone else struggling if you can help out. If that's too abstract, then consider this: When I can't easily pay my bills, I get highly stressed out. When I get too stressed, I find it very difficult to write. When I can't write, you don't have anything from me to read. So, if you like my work, and want to read more of it, you might think that donating would be a good way to keep my stress down and my word count up.

Please understand that when we ask for "donations", we're not talking about $100, $200, $500 at a time. We certainly won't reject those donations, and we will be very grateful for them, but we don't really expect anyone to shell out that kind of dough just to keep me in sandwiches. Small donations all add up, so whatever you can donate to us is helpful.*

* Donations smaller than $0.31 are actually not helpful, as PayPal will consume the entire donation.

We do ask that donations are kept to a minimum of $6. The reason for this is that PayPal assesses charges for each transaction, and below $6, they're taking too much of a percentage of the donation. $6 is the minimum level we've set for you to receive a "thank you gift".

So, what kind of thank you gift will you receive? At this time, our usual gift is what I refer to as "special access" to the site. It does a few things:

• Removes the ads
• Adds different file formats to the download options
• Grants access to "Pre-Release Material": story chapters that have not yet gone public, but are available to those with special access.

Special access is gifted for a certain amount of time based on the size of the donation. To determine the amount of time, the donation amount is divided by 2, and the remainder is ignored. Thus, a $12 donation gets 6 months of special access, and a $13.99 donation also gets 6 months of access.

Ways to Donate

Below is the list of ways you can make donations. They've been listed in order of our preference. That preference is based solely on the limitations of where the money can be used. (PayPal donations can be used anywhere. Walmart donations are only useful at Walmart or Sam's, Amazon donations only at Amazon... we shop more at Walmart than at Amazon.)

It makes no difference otherwise which method you choose, so simply choose the one you prefer. We are well aware that some people just can't stand PayPal, which is why we give other options.

Donations made via snail-mail are also possible. Contact Eric Storm by email to get a postal address to use. Be aware that no thank-you gift will be issued until the donation has arrived and cleared (if it's a check). This is by far the slowest method, and we cannot even guarantee that your donation will arrive.

Please Help.

Monthly Donations Target: $700
Received So Far This Month: $149
Received Last Month: $565

Please Note: A $6 minimum donation is required before special access is given as a thank-you gift.
(For more information, please click here.)

PLEASE NOTE: Make sure to click the "Return to Merchant" link after making the donation. If you don't, then your donation cannot be processed automatically. It will still be processed, not to worry, but it will have to be handled manually, which will take longer.