Join ADEQUATE PROJECTS 2022...

…and together we’ll produce books, essays, art, podcasts, events, & other stuff.

Members get discounts, perks, and the teeny tiny thrill of supporting my work.

You can join as a monthly (£10), yearly (£100), or lifetime (£1,200) member.

Patrons Home is >> HERE <<

What You Get When You Join

Hello potential member!

Join as a monthly, yearly or lifetime member for immediate access to:

  1. Members-only livestreams, where I talk about what I’m working on without all the hoopla of “performing” for a wider public audience.
  2. Regular “office hours” slots, to share what’s going on (first come-first served).
  3. A signed, limited edition art print every six months (first 100 members only, so please be one of them!)
  4. A 30% discount on all artworks and paid events that I create in the future (yearly or lifetime members only)
  5. A limited edition, numbered signed welcome postcard:

But the main reason to be a member should be:

I like what you do, JPF, and the world needs more of it.

If that’s good enough: well, crumbs, thank you.

Unlocking for others

As well as the members-only perks, your membership supports the production of projects that I want to make available publicly.

  1. Everyday Writing (monthly newsletter, in which words always come first)
  2. Portraits of the Artist in A _____ (aka, PotAias, a pop-up newsletter, led by illustration: one artwork each day for a limited period)
  3. Great Speeches (another pop-up newsletter, weekdays for four weeks)
  4. Alt Text Challenge (another pop-up newsletter, of several series, each typically a week long)
  5. How To Change The World: 10 Years On (yet another limited-time pop-up newsletter)

Together, these do already and will comprise a way to blow up ideas into something bigger. They will help me to make sense of my vast archive of writing and art on this site. As you read, I hope it will be like looking into a notebook of work-in-progress on future books and essays.

What We Made Last Year

Here’s how I was supported through the year by some wonderful people.

In January, I decided to create a mutual support group to run to April, through months that can be hard any year (and in 2021 we were in lockdown). The Whizzy Group comprised a mix of creative people and proved a great success.

It’s confidential, so I can’t tell you what others did, but I can say that I found it enormously helpful to have that support at the launch of my latest book – so helpful that I started the Whizzy Group again (May to July), and again (September to December).

The Whizzy Group is smallish, with nowhere to hide. We meet on Zoom every Wednesday lunchtime, take turns to share our projects, and to give and receive feedback.

Adequate Projects is different. As a member, you can support my work without (necessarily) getting involved.

You can get involved: sign up for AP Office Hours and say hi, join an AP Livestream (off-camera) and use the text chat while I share my work in progress. But some AP members choose to stay back entirely, happy to receive things from me occasionally by email or in the post. The choice is yours.

If you’d like to join the Whizzy Group, I will always offer places to AP members first.

Writing

Before everything else, I’m a writer. Sure, I do speaking – but I only started that because I was asked to talk about my books – first Sew Your Own, then How To Change The World. And that speaking experience in turn led to A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.

I’m ecstatic to have an agent, Jaime Marshall, who has already sold two books to great publishers, extending my experience beyond fiction and non-fiction, into poetry and illustration.

I’m also a journalist, having been feature writer on The Financial Times magazine, and on the Sunday Times. I’ll never stop being a journalist.

This membership allows me to write things I need to write, regardless of whether they fit the agenda of a particular newspaper or magazine, and / or to elaborate on what I’ve written for publication elsewhere.

Art

If I hadn’t put out my art on Instagram, I wouldn’t have raised money for Woman’s Trust. I wouldn’t have been commissioned, by a major publisher, to illustrate someone else’s book (Nic Hooper’s The Unbreakable Student.)

And I wouldn’t have been commissioned by another major publisher to write my next book: a collection of my own poems and illustrations (about 50 of each). The book hasn’t been announced publicly, so I won’t say more here – but I delivered my work in May 2021.

Adequate Projects members get to see my work in progress and received a signed, limited edition A5 print every six months. Members also take priority for commissions.

Talks, workshops and events

In the last few years I have given talks and run workshops and courses for thousands of people, on topics including How To Write, How To Change The World, Become A Better Speaker In 30 Days, Create Your Own Family Project Heirloom, and How To Have Better Conversations.

With AP, I can schedule similar things for members only.

I will also continue to create new ones. These might be like the Desktop Pilgrimage we did during April 2021, “walking” from home in north London to Canterbury entirely by Google Streetview. Every weekday afternoon, we gathered online to share stories, ideas and good company.

I didn’t tell many people about it, because I wanted the space to be natural, authentic – not forced, and showy as public events can be sometimes. A membership group makes that easier.

Other events – courses and one-offs – will often be open to a wider public, but AP members get priority access and discounts wherever possible.

If I can’t offer a discount, I’ll try to offer something extra on top.

For now, that’s all I can tell you.

Join ADEQUATE PROJECTS as a monthly (£10), yearly (£100), or lifetime (£1,200) member.

Thank you.

Some questions you may have

Why “Adequate”?

Because the word amused me when I came up with the title of A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech, and it still amused me when I used it for An ADEQUATE Podcast.

It doesn’t mean “rubbish”. It means good enough – and good enough is good enough.

Wasn’t this previously called SPECIAL PROJECTS?

Yes. I needed to call it something, and I was following closely the model provided by somebody else. At the end of my first year, I told the person in question that I’d copied the name and general structure of his Special Projects, and he was fine about it. You’ll do it your own way, he said.

All the same, I said I would change the name (done) and that I would write something acknowledging his influence (not done yet).

Is it easy to unsubscribe?

Yes, instantly. Just send me an email. No hard feelings. I don’t want anybody unhappy.

Are my payment details safe?

Absolutely. I don’t see any of your details, and nor does anyone else. Payment goes through Paypal (Monthly and Yearly subscriptions) or direct to my bank (Lifetime).

I’ve never heard of you, just landed here. What should I read to get a sense of whether this is something I’d like?

I wouldn’t sign up either yet!

I recommend that you read carefully through what you find on this page, and about Me, In Brief. Take a look at some of my Books and Essays. Listen to my ADEQUATE podcast.

If you like what you find, I hope you’ll come back.