I Need Help: An Appeal

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2012 EDIT: Thank you everyone for your support the past few days. The response has been incredible. I have met some wonderful people, and am working on completing some requests, and hashing out some work. To everyone who donated, retweeted, emailed, and offered support, I can’t thank you enough. And to everyone who might donate in the future, I extend the same thanks, and the same humility and admiration.

The long and short of it, is that I’m in trouble. I’ve hit bottom, and I don’t know what to do. I’ve exhausted all other options. I want to ask for your generosity and empathy. I’m uncomfortable just asking for help. I’m willing to work for it. If you want me to do something, I will try my hardest to do it. I want to earn your help, and to give something back to you. I hope you will read on for my story.

Writing is basically the passion of my life. I didn’t go to college for English because I knew it’d set me up for life. I did it because writing is what I am. It’s my only real talent, and my only great passion. I couldn’t be an engineer, or a lawyer. I’m just not wired that way and I understood that. Every time I sit down to write something whether it be my ~SECRET MANUSCRIPTS~ or stuff for this site, or stories for the tumblr, I basically float off into space. I frame every scene of my life in writing. When I meet people on the street, I think about how they’d fit as characters in a story. I describe landscapes to myself.

You see me on twitter sometimes and I’m either bubbly or I’m down, and probably the latter is when I’m not writing. I love writing. Unfortunately, of late, it’s been hampered by certain things I want to share today. It’s not easy talking to others about this sort of thing. I’ve been writing with my real name for a while now because I want to take ownership of my writing. I’m proud of it, even if it’s not the best thing in the world. So I’ll take the good and the bad of my decision here.

I live in the sticks of Florida. I basically live in the woods. It’s affordable and quiet here, moreso than living in the city, and everything goes pretty okay – if you have a job. A job in the city. And I had a job, right as I was tackling the tail-end of my senior year of college. In fact it was a pretty good job, it gave me time to write and time to say silly stuff on twitter as well as time to graduate with my Bachelor in English. I thought things would go peachy. But then the company went bankrupt before I could get a paycheck. I don’t think I’ll ever see a dime out of my work there. The financiers and investors get the first cut of the compensation when a company goes down, and the little people who are owed something will have to wait more. I’ve tried to find work since then, but unfortunately, there isn’t any to be found. At least not physically.

I live with my family – parents and siblings. We do much better together than apart. Over time, every little tragedy we’ve had has stacked up. Pretty much every member of my family has gone through a few jobs, but we’ve never been retained. I got a kidney stone and had to go to the hospital uninsured. I’m still paying that off, because a second stealth bill came up after I paid the first one. The family car broke down, and we had to shell out rent money to pay it, because otherwise we’re stuck. You need a car in this place to get around. We’re struggling to make ends meet. And through this all, I’ve felt pretty useless. All I can do is write. I wrote through the kidney pain, wrote through the car troubles. I write through life.

So today, what I’m asking, and this is difficult to ask, is not just charity. It’s for a chance. I know if I can help pay off these bills, even for just a little bit, we can pull out of this. I know there’s work to be found, if I had the money to put more gas into the tank to go find it. I’d drive up and down the state if I could. I know there’s chances to be had, if I could get the hospital bill paid. If I could get some of these other bills out of my way. If I could do something for my family. If I could get a little money to put a project forward maybe. If I could get just a little boost, I know I could walk out of the mire.

This is what I’m asking. If you’d donate some money, either through the amazon link, or a paypal donation, or by buying something you want through my affiliate links. I get portions of those sales and every little bit of money that comes in would really help. I want to try to make it up to you and do something for you if you donate. So send me an email, at wyattsalazar@gmail.com, or write a tweet to @WyattSalazar on Twitter, and ask, if you want.

I write stuff. I could write something for you. Got copy to write? I think I can write copy. Got a blog you want some updates for? Tell me about your audience and I’ll whip something up. Want me to write an article where I make fun of your name in seven different ways and then promote your blog at the end of it? I could do that. Want me to write something here on Spirits of Eden about a topic of your choice? Why not. Want me to be your Modern Warfare 3 wingman or play some other games on Steam or something? I’ll play Domination with you for hours and I’ll tell bad jokes all the while we both get camped dead.

Got a campaign you need stuff for? I’ve played D&D 3rd and 4th Edition, GURPS, Warhammer 40k Rpgs, World of Darkness, and some Legend of the Five Rings. I could help you out. I write fiction too. I could put together something to entertain you or maybe inspire you. Need help understanding a piece of English literature? I graduated from that! Want a political rant about social issues? I do those for basically free! These are my strengths, and I hope there’s something in there that would be of value.

I will keep writing this blog, and my other fiction blog. They’ll keep getting updated. Because I write through everything. I’d write through a storm, through the third world war, through a nuclear winter. I like to think that I could always keep sharing my writing with you. But lately I just don’t know if circumstances would allow that. I hope they do. Because just a few weeks ago, I was resigned to losing the domain name I’ve had for this site for going on four years. I had no options and no real time left and I had given up. And then a friend swooped in and paid for it, so I could write on spiritsofeden.com for another year.

I’m eternally grateful. Everything I do on this site, I do because somewhere out there, someone is inspired, someone is entertained, someone is happy because of this site. I want my love of writing to be your own.

I want to keep that going, be it through good times or bad. I don’t want to just ask you for money. I want you to ask something back. I want to try my hardest for you. I want to work just as hard for you as I’ve had to work all this time to try to help my family and my situation. I want you to know that I will give everything I can for this.

Finally here’s a picture of me riding an alligator statue. Those were better times.