A Contest & Housekeeping

short but important

The one-year anniversary of my monetizing my Substack is coming up, so my initial batch of paid subscribers will be getting their renewal notices soon.

First, thank you so much. I have made a lot more progress on my student loans than would have been possible without you.

On a more personal note, the sense of having some role to play in the world that’s helpful to others, where my dark backstory is actually put to good use at times, has been profoundly valuable. While that would be true with or without the paid subscriptions, knowing that people find it valuable enough to spend some money to support it is very powerful. I have an earned black belt in diminishing and minimizing any positive thought about myself (one of my more deeply entrenched defense mechanisms). That people pay to read what I write provides evidence I can’t minimize no matter how hard I try. I really, really appreciate that. It’ll never make a list of “how to cope with your depression” that you’ll read in any self-help book, but it’s extremely effective.

A Contest for Paid Subscribers

I printed and framed a ton of my foliage pictures. Most of my friends are not New Englanders, so a picture of our autumn glory will be a nice Christmas present for many of them. In taking advantage of some sales, I printed and framed more than I actually needed.

I have three 11x14 prints of this photo, nicely framed in 16x20 with black matting:

And I have several extra 4x6 photos of various scenes of autumn beauty, matted and put into 5x7 frames, including these two:

On December 1, 2022, I will select five winners by random number drawing, from a downloaded list of paid subscribers. I can cover shipping within the US. If you’re outside the US, we’ll figure out something. (I may be able to have a print made and sent to you directly from one of those services and a frame sent to you from Amazon in your country—that’s likely significantly less expensive than shipping a framed photo overseas from the US would be.)

If you’ve considered becoming a paid subscribers, now’s a good time. They’re 10% off through Halloween and you’ll be entered into this giveaway, in addition to getting access to comment threads.

If You Want to Renew, But Can’t

I get it. Email me and I’ll hook you up with a free year. hollymathnerd at gmail dot com.

If You Don’t Want to Renew

If you do not intend to renew, would you please make sure to cancel before the charge goes through? The refund process is annoying and complicated on my end and I’d really appreciate it if you could take care of things on your end before it gets that far. Thank you!