Violet Blue

Where does your money go (and what do you get)?

1. Curated news roundups. I have an unusually high metabolism for news and developed systems to find and filter relevant stories on challenging topics. This becomes my weekly cybersecurity roundup (every Tuesday on Patreon), and sex news posts on TinyNibbles. My primary standards are factual accuracy, diversity, and telling you why these stories are important.

If I reach 500 supporters I will add a weekly privacy news roundup on Thursdays.

2. Features. One recent feature funded by supporters was a three-part series on surviving toxic people, online attacks, and news cycle anxiety. Each was written in collaboration with mental health professionals. Also, guides for security conference attendees and key conference wrap-ups.

3. Behind the scenes. I’m a security reporter and author at a time when layoffs are skyrocketing; Patreon support provides me with sustainability to conduct proper investigation research. This allows me to take you behind the scenes in my reporting, and show you methodology as well as key pieces of troubling information that didn’t make the editorial cut in publication.

4. My next book. I am in the final stretch and finishing work on a book describing the experience of growing up in the shadow of Silicon Valley as a homeless punk in San Francisco. With support here I have been able to unlock secrets of my own past, including my (missing) mother’s career doing offensive hacking for the US government and her acts landing us in the witness protection program.

Supporters at the $25 level get copies of the book in multiple forms, including audio, and that level unlocks over 100 posts chronicling my research including work with Striker-Pierce Investigations and every update about the project. The $10 level unlocks a weekly podcast of the book in serial form as I finish writing it, and written commentary. Both levels get intimate, non-public updates about the project as it moves toward publication.

5. Other cool stuff. Like server costs and maintenance for one of the oldest, longest-running sex blogs on the internet (with vast, sex-positive resources on everything from health and wellness to books and art). My ability to do spontaneous homeless outreach in SF. Also, Max.

About me:

Some know me from my reporting; I’ve broken key stories about hacking and cybersecurity, as well as magazine features on human sexuality. Others know me as the first female podcaster (Open Source Sex, from 2004), as the San Francisco Chronicle’s sex columnist, or as Engadget’s privacy and security columnist. Or you know me from my award-winning sex books, my books on digital security and privacy, or my appearance on Oprah to talk about women and porn.

I fight for at-risk populations to have a voice in their own conversations. My work draws attention to hypocrisy and abuse; it is powerfully grounded in gender and orientation inclusivity. Like my reporting on PayPal’s financial discrimination against sex workers. I regularly report on hacking issues that big outlets don’t cover, attempt to cover up, or try to lie about. So you’ve seen how much I get attacked and censored.

I’ve bootstrapped everything. I work at industry rates (which aren’t great), I constantly have to chase down writing clients who take months to pay invoices for my writing, and I was homeless as a kid, so I’m out here on the financial edge of things.

If you prefer to support these projects differently, PayPal is sales@digitapub.com.

Anything — even from $1/month up — makes a difference in my world.

Thank you for reading.
-Violet