If you’ve been following me for a while, you may have noticed I don’t actually tour the way many escorts do; I just don’t like traveling to strange cities and sitting around in hotels hoping for business. So unless you’re willing to spring for a long enough session to justify a special trip (at least as long as round-trip travel time, which basically means an overnight for much of the US), you would generally have to wait until you’re coming to Seattle or I’m coming to your city. Well, in a few weeks there will be a situation kind of midway between “special trip” and “I’ll happen to be there”; I’m giving a presentation at Minnesota State in Mankato on April 29th (4 PM in the Ostrander Auditorium in the Centennial Student Union), then speaking at the Libertarian Party of Illinois convention on May 4th (Parke Regency Hotel in Bloomington). That means that from April 30th to May 3rd I’ll be in the area between those two points with a rental car, so if you’re in Minneapolis, Chicago, or some place between, I’d be willing to see you if you book a dinner date on the 30th, 1st or 2nd. If you’re in Chicagoland, I’ll have shorter apointments available on the 3rd. Obviously I’m not going to bounce around like a pinball, but if you’re flexible and have the means & desire we can talk about a visit. Don’t wait, though; I’ll be building my schedule as I get appointments, and as the schedule fills in I’ll have less flexibility. Better still: I’m willing to give you a special price if you’re willing to pay in advance. And if you’re in Washington DC or southern Florida, keep your eyes peeled for similar specials in the next few months! Of course, you don’t have to wait; I’m willing to make special travel deals for anyone who supports my documentary, and if you’re interested I’m just an email away.
Posts Tagged ‘The War on Whores’
Catching Up With Maggie
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, advertising, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, The War on Whores, Washington DC, Wisconsin on April 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Pledge Driving
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged activism, Presents, sex rays, The War on Whores on April 12, 2019| 1 Comment »
I’m happy to announce that the funds disbursement issue with the fundraiser for The War on Whores has been solved! Those who don’t follow me on Twitter may have missed that for over two weeks, WePay (the payment processor for GoFundMe and a number of similar sites) kept cancelling my withdrawals, sending me emails which announced “Action required” in the subject line and yet not telling me what action was required. And like many modern web-based businesses, neither GoFundMe nor WePay has a proper customer service phone number, pretending instead that in an age of instant communication emails that take them days to answer constitute adequate customer service. Eventually, someone decided to finally tell me that WePay recently demanded that GoFundMe (and presumably, other crowdfunding sites as well) ban the rewards for different donation levels which have been a staple of crowdfunding since it was invented (I smell FOSTA’s baleful influence here). A few days after I deleted the rewards from the GoFundMe page, their cstomer service told me that WePay was apparently satified and would stop playing “Mother May I?” with my readers’ donations; on Tuesday, the day of my Bay Area screening, the funds finally hit my account. And now that’s done, I’d like to remind readers about the fundraiser and ask for your help again, and to remind y’all that even though I can’t list them on the donation page the rewards are:
$30 or more – Donor
Permanent inclusion in blog-supporter deals (free stories, etc).
$60 or more – Friend
Autographed DVD of The War on Whores (will be sent when DVDs are delivered to us, probably late spring)
$125 or more – Sponsor
Autographed copies both of my books, plus The War on Whores DVD when it comes out.
$250 or more – Patron
When I’m in your city, I’ll have coffee with you and hand-deliver the Sponsor-level gifts plus an autographed poster!
$500 or more – Angel
When I’m in your city, I’ll have a leisurely dinner with you and hand-deliver all the Patron-level gifts!
$1000 or more – Producer
I will make a special trip to the city of your choice and give a full screening of the movie, with Q&A session, to the group of your choice! If you have no special group, I’ll give you the Angel package without your having to wait until I reach your city!
Paul Johnson told me yesterday that the closed captioning is done, so the movie will soon be available on Amazon; also, thanks to my generous donors I was able to send him the money for burning the DVDs. Onward and upward!
Diary #458
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, California, The War on Whores on April 9, 2019| 3 Comments »
Tonight I’ll be screening The War on Whores at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland; Kristen DiAngelo will be joining me for a Q&A after the showing. The show starts at 7:30; tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance. I hope to see all of my Bay Area fans there! Next screening: Minnesota State University in Mankato, MN on April 29th, at 4 PM in the Ostrander Auditorium in the Centennial Student Union; that event is free to students & faculty. Of course, most of y’all reading this don’t live close enough to make it to either venue, but that’s OK; there are plenty of other ways to see it. You can watch or download it on Vimeo; it should soon be available on Amazon as well, and we’re working on getting it into the iTunes store. As soon as we can get my fundraising troubles sorted out (more on that later in the week, or you can read about the problem in this Twitter thread) we’ll be starting the process of getting DVDs made, and those will be for sale as well. And if you’d like a screening in your own city (whether you have a nifty theater like this or not), just take a look here for info on how to do that. 
Diary #457
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, psychology, The War on Whores on April 2, 2019| 3 Comments »
Last week was quite lovely! On Monday I went over to Lorelei Rivers’ to help her with a little decorating that required four hands and two sets of eyes, and then we had our first Who night at her new house. On Wednesday my friend Winnie had her baby, and I got to visit her at the hospital and hold the teeny girl (the first newborn I’ve held this century), whom I think will grow up to be as lovely as her mother. I also launched a new fundraiser last week to cover some of the final distribution costs of The War on Whores, and to subsidize screenings for groups (such as student or activist groups) that can’t afford a screening fee; as usual, my readers amazed me by getting me to 25% of my goal in only four days! And to top it all off, I heard from two of my favorite clients whom I haven’t seen in a while that they’ll be visiting in April. Now, I’m not saying the week didn’t have its problems; however, the week in which I don’t turn into a complete stressball at least once or twice is a rare animal indeed. So I’ve learned to enjoy the good stuff while it’s there, even if I can’t quite manage to keep the bad in perspective.
Want To Watch?
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged activism, advertising, Maggie in the Media, The War on Whores on March 28, 2019| 1 Comment »
Since the requests are staring to come in and I launched my fundraiser on Monday, I figured it was time to let y’all know how you can see The War on Whores for yourself. The easiest way, of course, is simply to watch or download it on Vimeo; it should soon be available on Amazon as well, and we’re working on getting it into the iTunes store. Next week or so we’ll be starting the process of getting DVDs made, and those will be for sale as well (and I’ll be sending out autographed copies as gifts for donations.) The best way to see the film is at a sponsored screening; the next one will be at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland, CA at 7:30 pm, Tuesday, April 9th. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance. The next one after that will be Minnesota State University in Mankato, MN on April 29th, at 4 PM in the Ostrander Auditorium in the Centennial Student Union; that event is free to students & faculty. I’m also trying to set one up in Chicago a few days later, and we’ve got possible future screenings in the works for Washington, DC, Austin, TX, Providence, RI, and Orlando, FL. The way to set up these screenings is to email me; I’ll forward your email to my producer, Paul Johnson, who sets up the actual details. Please be patient; Paul can only work on about two events at once, plus he’s got other tasks to do (like getting the discs burned) and this isn’t his only film, so he often has quite a few plates in the air at once. Obviously, nearer events and those who can pay all the screening fees, etc, are the highest priority, but my fundraiser is intended to cover the fees of student and activist groups who may not have very much money; please do not ask for this unless you really need it, because the funds will only go so far and we want to use them to help groups who really have no other options. If, on the other hand, you are in a position to be generous, you could sponsor a screening yourself; if you’d like to do that just email me using the link above and we can get to work on it! Last but definitely not least, we are trying to ignite as much buzz about the film as possible so it will be widely seen; if you can somehow help with that (for example, if you have a TV or radio show you can invite me on to talk about the film), please let me know via this link. There are many ways to help us get this important message out, and as always I’ll need the help of my readers to do it.
Diary #456
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, blogging, Canada, politicians, The War on Whores on March 26, 2019| 1 Comment »
Last week I drove up to Vancouver for the Canadian premiere of The War on Whores. Though the screening was Wednesday evening, my producer, Paul Johnson, suggested I drive up on Tuesday in case of some delay at the border. There was no substantial delay on the way there, but on my return trip Thursday I was delayed for almost two bloody hours at the border because…who knows? The line was absolutely motionless for almost an hour, then finally started to creep forward in the way such lines are wont to do. But that nuisance couldn’t ruin my mood, which was high due to the success of our screening and panel discussion afterward, in which I was joined by veteran Vancouver sex worker activist Kerry Porth, and Svend Robinson, Canada’s first openly-gay MP (who retired from Parliament in 2004 but is now running for office again). Friday was a day of catching up, and then on Sunday I started my new GoFundMe to help cover the movie’s promotional costs! My next screening will be at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland, CA at 7:30 pm, Tuesday, April 9th. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance. I hope to see all of my Bay Area fans there!
Pledge Drive
Posted in Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged activism, The War on Whores on March 25, 2019| 5 Comments »
Back in 2014, I started a GoFundMe campaign to cover the cost of my book & speaking tour, and over the weekend I decided to do a new one for all the touring I’ll be doing for The War on Whores this year. Most of my appearances are going to be sponsored, but I’m already receiving some requests from student groups, SWOP chapters and others I would like to accomodate, but they just don’t have the resources to cover my expenses. And even though my air travel costs are covered thanks to the generosity of Ghost Rider, I still have hotel costs and the production costs of the movie itself need to be paid, plus we are going to need to pay for the production of DVDs (at present, the movie exists only in electronic file format). Sometimes there also could be unseen costs when renting theaters and organizing screenings. Also, we’d like to make the movie available through as many channels as possible, but some (such as the iTunes store) require fees up front that can be rather pricey. You all know how important getting this message out is, especially now that sex worker rights is starting to gain momentum at long last; Paul Johnson and I think The War on Whores can really help to wake people up, which is why we’ve spent three years of time and effort (and money) to make it. I know we’ll reach a lot of people with sponsored screenings and online sales, and your contributions will make it possible for us to do that as widely and as soon as possible (and to also offer it at much lower cost to groups who can’t afford as much). To thank you for your generosity, I’ve come up with a number of thank-you gifts for each contribution level.
$30 or more – Donor
Permanent inclusion in blog-supporter deals (free stories, etc).
$60 or more – Friend
Autographed DVD of The War on Whores (will be sent when DVDs are delivered to us, probably late spring)
$125 or more – Sponsor
Autographed copies both of my books, plus The War on Whores DVD when it comes out.
$250 or more – Patron
When I’m in your city, I’ll have coffee with you and hand-deliver the Sponsor-level gifts plus an autographed poster!
$500 or more – Angel
When I’m in your city, I’ll have a leisurely dinner with you and hand-deliver all the Patron-level gifts!
$1000 or more – Producer
I will make a special trip to the city of your choice and give a full screening of the movie, with Q&A session, to the group of your choice! If you have no special group, I’ll give you the Angel package without your having to wait until I reach your city!
Please click here to visit the campaign and donate! Thank you so much in advance; I know all of my fans will come through for me as you always do, and help me to get this message out to as many as possible.
In Praise of Paul
Posted in Diary, Perception, tagged activism, Canada, politicians, The War on Whores on March 22, 2019| 1 Comment »
On Wednesday night, we had the Canadian premiere of The War on Whores, to a very nearly full house; the panel afterward consisted of me, veteran Vancouver sex worker activist Kerry Porth, and Svend Robinson, Canada’s first openly-gay MP (who retired from Parliament in 2004 but is now running for office again). But while I’m getting most of the attention at these events, and in the buzz surrounding the film, I think it’s important to acknowledge that my part in both the creation of the movie and the screenings largely consists of just being Maggie McNeill. Everything else, from the original concept, to the development, to running the camera and sound, to chasing down the other interviewees, to editing, to promotion, to event planning, is the work of producer/director Paul Johnson. When Paul (far left in the picture below, with Svend and Kerry) first approached me in October of ’15 with the proposal to do this film, I was interested but wary; he quickly allayed my concerns and has never once given me any cause to question his motives or abilities. In more than three years of working together he has never treated me with anything other than respect and professionalism, nor ever given me even a hint that he thought of me any differently than he would think of any other professional he was working with. He made this film happen almost single-handedly, and is still putting in a tremendous amount of work to prepare it for other distribution channels (including Amazon and DVD) and set up screenings and other publicity. I owe a great deal to him, and if the movie takes off as we hope it will, I want everyone to remember that while I’m the pretty face in front of the camera, Paul is the brains and talent behind the camera who made it all possible.
Diary #455
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, psychology, The War on Whores on March 19, 2019| 4 Comments »
Today I’m heading for Vancouver BC for the Canadian premiere of The War on Whores, which will be tomorrow night at 7:30, at 151 W Cordova St. (tickets are $15 at the door and you can reserve seats by email); if you’d like a special visit with me before I leave town Thursday afternoon, let me know ASAP. My next screening will be in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 9th; I will let you know the details as I receive them, possibly as early as next week. After that, I’ll be at Minnesota State University in Mankato, MN on April 29th; at 4 PM in the Ostrander Auditorium in the Centennial Student Union; that event is free to students & faculty. I’m also trying to set one up in Chicago a few days later, and we’ve got possible future screenings in the works for Washington, DC, Austin, TX, Providence, RI, and Orlando, FL. So I took advantage of one of the few slow weeks I’ll have for a while to take Lorelei to a special Doctor Who episode screening (of “Logopolis”) last Wednesday, then went for a short visit to Sunset over the weekend. Because I really have learned that this poor mortal body and brain really do need at least a little downtime.
Diary #454
Posted in Diary, tagged blogging, Canada, Illinois, Minnesota, The War on Whores on March 12, 2019| 2 Comments »
No sooner was SASS over than my travel schedule began to populate! As of right now, the next two public screenings of The War on Whores that I know of are 7:30 PM March 20th at 151 W Cordova St in Vancouver, BC; and 4 PM April 29th at the Centennial Student Union, Minnesota State University, Mankato MN. For the Vancouver show, tickets are $15 at the door and you can reserve seats by email. I don’t know the details for Minnesota State yet. Immediately after that appearance I’ll be speaking at the Libertarian Party of Illinois convention on May 4th; while in Chicago I’d like to do a screening, so if you can help with that please let me know. We’ve also got irons in the fire for Washington, DC; New York City; Providence, RI; Orlando, FL; St. Louis, MO; and some other places, and if you’d like to see a screening in your city please let me know so we can get working on it. Well, so Paul Johnson can get working on it, anyhow; he’s better than I am at that sort of thing. In case you’re wondering what this picture has to do with all this, the answer is “nothing”; it’s just a picture Grace took of me with my late, beloved Friday in late June, 2012. I was thinking about her last week, so I decided to share it.
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