April Daniels Survival Fund

Hello,

My name is April Daniels, and I am a disabled transgender author. I am best known for my book Dreadnought, and its sequel Sovereign. I have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a consequence of all the abuse I have received over the decades, abuse that was largely inflicted on me for being transgender.

My symptoms range from an inability to eat and a tendency to vomit to difficulty sleeping to missing time to flashbacks to panic attacks to rage eruptions. Every way that PTSD can fuck your life up, it has fucked my life up. 

Fortunately, there is a reliable, effective treatment that I am undergoing, and that is long periods of rest, reflection, and the love of my wonderful puppy. I am also attending therapy and challenging myself in small, healthy ways to encourage growth and rapid recovery, but the main thing is rest.

It's scary to ask for money from people to help me in this, because I know it sounds like I'm not doing anything, but I am. Every day I work on healing myself. The self-reflection, the inventory of my memories, the agonizing reconsideration of my past--all of it has been among the most grueling experiences of my life.

I don't feel like I'm the same person I was when I started. I don't know who I will be when I'm finished, but I am eager to meet her.

I can and do work independently, on my own projects and by my own schedule, but the ruthless grind of capitalism makes that insufficient for providing for my own sustenance. If I could support myself, I would, and to that end I have been actively seeking to sell the adaptation rights for Dreadnought so that I might be able to keep my head above water long enough to recover from this disorder which has taken so much away from me.

My prognosis for recovery was 6 months to 6 years, and I'm about 2 years into treatment. I'm asking for four months of living expenses right now. I am currently seeking to get put on disability so I will be able to stop asking my community for help like this. 

Please, consider donating so that I can continue to live in safety while I recover.

Book sales help me sporadically, but I do not yet make enough money from my creative work alone to survive. Because of how badly I was waylaid by my disability, I cannot do other work to support myself at the moment. If I attempted to do so, I would have to give up my creative work entirely, and would likely begin to suffer renewed or even more serious symptoms of my disability. 

My hope is that by the end of this four months I will either have serious progress toward getting on SSDI for long-term financial support of my recuperation, or that some business efforts I have quietly been making will pay off and I will be able to support myself.

Please help. If you do not wish to donate to my fundraising drive, please consider buying a copies of my books. Every book sale helps. Every donation, no matter how small, is generous and appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

- April