Sinfest Situation

Ok. Here is my skinny on my situation with Sinfest:

When we started Sinfest our goal was to provide Houston with an alternative to the DareWare events. We felt they were not friendly enough to the true community -- opting instead to go with the glamourous Stand And Model crowd. [Which - to be fair - are their friends] With HPEP unable to produce the annual ball, we knew we could offer a party that would be similar but not the same. Something more truly community driven and inspired than DW, but without all the community participation/support of a committee.

It has yet to be truly profitable for us. Doing an event where you generally need a commitee due to the size of the venture with just two women is HARD. It took up so much of my time and had very little return.

The first year I made $700 profit but we only worked on it for about four months. The second year it was less than $1000 and I worked dilligently for over a year on it. It means I worked for less than a dollar a day, when as a ProDom I make $250 an hour. When I get paid to do event cooridination for other people I get a minimum of $1200 and have others who handle the ad sales, the vendor collecting and the promotions.

I am the one who drove all over Hell putting flyers in tatoo shops, fetish boutiques and at meetings/parties everywhere. We volunteered to perform out of town at our own cost to build interest. With W we went all over town picking up supplies and selling ads. The friggin signs alone took me a month and a half to finish, not to mention the costume making. [Oh yeah those signs were all done by me by hand without any help from my kids!]

All while trying to support my family. Luckily I work for one of the Snakes and she gave me time off, but I didn't get paid if I wasn't at work. [Makes sense huh?]

So when Whitney asked me if I was in for this year, I replied, "Nope. You can have it. I don't want to produce fetish events in big venues anymore." She understood.

We had already dealt with DW creating an event with similar names/images on the same night for the second year in a row. People were trying to get us to go to war with him over it, but honestly that is not really my style. I wanted my product to out shine his in quality and it DID. The only complaint I ever heard from the owner of the Meridian is that our events didn't draw "as pretty of a crowd. Definately more real players, but not so pretty." Nevermind that the bartender told me we had better liqour sales than DW did a few months before!

[remember that when you buy your ticket to any DW event @ Meridian.]

The whole fucking mess with that got to me last year. I was so hurt that he booked a venue catty corner to ours for his. This man was once my friend. I can't believe what a total jerk he turned out to be in the long run. I had even helped him do what he had said was going to be his last event after his long-term GF left him for a transgendered female to male. I worked hard for him, only to have him threaten me and the livelyhood of my kids.

Fuck a bunch of that. Drama in my life is reserved for the stage. I don't have a trust fund to back me or a successful fetish shop to run to when I am out of cash. I am just a hard working woman who wanted to share her talents [and her friends talents] for the community to have one fun night a year.

After talking to Whitney yesterday it seems she too is sick of the bullshit that goes with big events. She had originally thought of getting a smaller venue and reserving it down to 200 people - presale only. Yesterday she told me she is probably going to take it down to 50 and give one hell of a house party to those she invites.

Neither of us has had an easy year. Her health has always been a latent issue and this year it really wreaked havok in her life. My kid's father died, leaving us without the $450 a month in child support that gave a little leeway for me. My health has been in the crapper as well, thanks to new tree pollens Houston has never encountered before. This is the third time I have had this upper Resp. crap since October. But neither of us has let that hold us back too much.

Except I can't afford to donate my time and the expense of traveling to out of town events. That's why you did not see me at the October Temple event, Beyond Vanilla or Fuck Valentines. All three are events I have been extremely dedicated to in the past. But all three also have a minimum cost to me of around $150 bucks and a three to four day commitment off of work. Shit folks, I aint gots no $150...most of the time I aint even gots tree fifty!

So if you want information about what she had planned please contact Lydya/Whitney. It's all hers now. I am just going to go back to the daily grind and try to get over my health issues. IT was swell, but the swellings gone down now~

Lv M