Ten Reasons Tuesday: Haley Cass' Patreon

10 Reasons you Should Join Haley Cass' Patreon Today!

I am a massive Haley Cass fan. I was once tweeting about Cass and received this comment which really sums up how I feel perfectly:

Brenna 🌈✨ Preorder The Shattered Lands! @Brennawritesnow

@1MaconLeigh You have never been more right. I am a Haley Cass Stan first and a lesbian second!

I started writing Ten Reasons Tuesday because I wanted a way to share writing that has been bringing me joy. No writing has brought me more joy, lately, than Haley Cass’ Patreon. I really think you should get into it. Let me give you ten really great reasons why – outside of I need more humans to talk to about it, which the number one most pressing reason.

1. Cass cut her authorial teeth writing fan fiction. It is quickly becoming my favorite trait in a writer. Growing up in the mean streets of AO3, Wattpad, and Fanfiction.net just gives you something special, especially as a genre writer. It also uniquely sets you up to run an exceptional Pateron. Cass’ Patreon feels like nothing so much as it feels like Tumblr in its glory days. There are fancasts of her novels (past and future), head canons for things like how characters feels about Valentine’s Day, and alternate universes.

2. Speaking of alternate universes, Cass is releasing a serialized Those Who Wait AU that imagines what would have happened if Charlotte never made her grand gesture and it is everything.  Every. Single. Thing. If you think you love Charlotte now, wow are you in for a treat of how much further you have to fall.

3. Have you ever wondered what Brooke and Taylor’s first kiss was like? The one when they were in their early twenties that Brooke is so endlessly humiliated by? I don’t have to wonder, I know, because I am a member of Cass’ Patreon.

4. Cass is a uniquely talented world builder, and she does it in a way that is not talked about enough. So much of world building in fiction is focused on place, political structure, and concept. However, especially in romance, the most important pieces of world building are tone and people. Cass’ is a master of tone and character building. It was with her Patreon release of her Those Who Wait annotations that this really clicked for me. Her world feels lived in and is easy to connect to because it is populated with people that are realistically and thoughtfully constructed and rendered tonally with open and genuine affection and tenderness. Cass loves these people, even the assholes, and in doing so invites you to love them as well.

5. Abbie Dalton is the GOAT.

   Also, confirmation that green for is science, not yellow, which is maybe the most important reason to join. (Thanks for asking. Red is math, Yellow is history/social science, Blue is English, Purple is ludicrous and I’m suspect of any school that used this color when Orange was right there for electives.)

6. Cass has stated releasing written interviews with other sapphic authors that are full to bursting with insight and delight. There is one specific question she asks about a seating arrangement that never fails to make my run the next day my favorite of the month. I had no idea how many feelings I had about seating. But, turns out, it’s SO MANY.

7. Did you enjoy Better than Expected? Of course, you did, it’s a Haley Cass novel. What I need you to know is I enjoyed Better than Expected a full year before you did.

8. I love listening to an author read their own work. There is something so insightful about hearing the book the way it sounds in the authors head. Readings are a regular part of the HC Patreon experience, and it’s really fun and changed bits of my understanding of When You Least Expect It in ways that make the experience of reading it richer.

9. I am an In the Long Run Truther – see review coming later this week –but if Those Who Wait is your all-time favorite HC novel, there is a 1 year anniversary post with TWW bonus content that will absolutely make you wet. It just will.

10. In 2009 Elizabeth Gilbert did a TED Talk that has forever altered the way I think about creativity. As part of her talk, she reminded the audience of the Roman origins of the idea of a genius – which they say was a spirit that lived with an artist and gave them inspiration. Cass has a very active genius. It is fascinating to get an insight into the story factory that is her brain. In Big Magic, Gilbert returns to this idea of having a genius and writes, “The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.” Cass’ Patreon provides incredible insight into the mining of the strange jewels of creativity. It’s inspiring and incredibly fun.

You can join Haley Cass’ Patreon today. You will not be sorry. Everything I discussed here is available at the First Kiss ($10) tier. If you do join, please let me know once you’ve read Midnight Rain – I have feelings and not nearly enough humans to discuss them with.

I’m so passionate about HC’s Patreon I want to sponsor a year for someone. Comment below with a book you think I should read and one reason why by Friday. I’ll pick a winner and provide a year of First Kiss membership.

Keep Reading, Macon.