Safe to say, we’ve been a little busy recently.

You may have noticed a flurry of announcements across our socials the last few weeks – about our upcoming Big Indie Weekend (20^th to 22^nd February) and our live event taking place in Shrewsbury this May. If you haven’t already made the (very wise) decision to attend one or, ideally, both events, there’s a whole heap of reasons why you should.

You can find them right here.

One of those reasons is that our in-person event this year is completely free to attend. You don’t need to book a ticket, you can walk (or skip, run, frolic or saunter) in on the day and spend a whole, wonderful day with real-life, actual human writers and creatives who aren’t bots (or cake). But this blog post isn’t my subtle attempt to promote the live event. No, it’s my rather unsubtle attempt to plug our new Patreon.

The Patreon is already up and running, although it doesn’t officially launch until during the Big Weekend. We’ve been adding – and will continue to add content all week in the run up to Friday and beyond. But why have we decided to start a Patreon, I hear you all cry (very quietly)? Simple. We rely on the kindness and generosity of sponsors and supporters. That’s how we’ve managed to keep our events – so far – either free to attend or as low cost as possible.

Now, I could wax lyrical about the benefits of joining – the behind-the-scenes updates, announcements about our events, our expanding library of short stories by our favourite indie authors, access to our exclusive Discord and the Patreon-exclusive AMAs and workshops (am I selling this yet, Tim?). But I won’t.

Instead, I’m going explain what your membership will mean to us and what it will help us to build. Before I do that though, I have a request. If you’re on the fence or think you might be interested but feel a bit hesitant, I’d recommend speaking to someone who joined us at our first event. I know I might be bias, but I truly believe we started something a bit warm and fuzzy and special that day.

‘What we want most is to provide a space filled with positivity and shared joy’

Beyond promoting indie books and helping writers hone their craft, what we want most is to provide a space filled with positivity and a shared joy of crafting stories and putting them into the world. As we say on our website, we’re here for the beginners, the overthinkers and the imposter syndrome wrestlers. We don’t guarantee you fame, fortune, or success; what we do guarantee is a place to meet like-minded, creative people and hone your craft. It’s a space where it’s okay to be a beginner, and there’s no such thing as a stupid question.

If you think this year has been busy for us – to quote Frasier once more, strap in.

Because there is more awesomeness coming.

We’re talking about more events. Smaller, local and more intimate get togethers, writer events and talks. Not just in the Shrewsbury area – we’re already in discussion with venues in Sussex, Manchester and Derby. Not only this, but we’re also currently making enquiries about a permanent static base in Shrewsbury where we can offer regular workshops and masterclasses with visiting authors and creatives.

We’re partnering with local independent artists, performers, collectives and creators to explore new avenues for bringing indie works to life – helping authors to branch out into other mediums and imagine new ways of telling their stories.

For 2026-27, we’ll also be launching our first shared world, interactive multi-media collaborative story project. We can’t say too much yet but trust us when we say it’s going to be something very exciting and a little bit unusual.

It’ll be a lot – but we believe the hard work will be well worth it. Because we really believe in what we’re building here. We believe in its value and its importance, especially right now. We want you to believe in it too.

And if you’re still not convinced, maybe you should come and see us in May.

We might be stressed-out, sleep-deprived and fuelled purely by caffeine by that point (in the words of my spirit animal, the dowager countess of Grantham, ‘what’s a weekend?) but we’ll be happy that you came. Especially if you bring a friend or two.