Welcome New Subscribers...
a few things you should know
A relatively large (for my little Substack) influx of new subscribers since my essay about losing faith in Sam Harris was published.
It is now my second most read post, and caused far and away my most email.
If you are curious, the ratio of “OMG thank you, you said exactly what I felt and your journey with Sam really tracks mine” to defensive emails was about 30:1, and the defenses mostly seem to be variations on “the real Trump Derangement Syndrome is not to have Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Welcome, and thank you for subscribing!
Some logistical information:
I publish erratically—sometimes 4-5 times a week, sometimes nothing at all for awhile. Depression is my particular albatross, and wintertime depression is presently giving me a hard time. Writing helps a lot, so my output tends to be higher in the colder months.
Comments are limited to paid subscribers, but if you can’t afford a paid subscription you only need to email me (hollymathnerd at gmail dot com) for a free one.
Most new issues are automatically tweeted to @hollymathnerd and sometimes I schedule tweets linking to old posts, but I am not actively reading or participating on Twitter. I will not see or respond to your tweets. Email is a reliable way to reach me, though I regret that I usually cannot answer, due to time constraints.
Topics about which I write are often dark and troubling, including trauma, depression, child abuse, and other topics with the potential to be upsetting. I give content warnings rarely, but when I do, they are not pro forma. Take them seriously and take care of yourself first.
I have a fairly new creative writing feature (which will soon include short stories, scenes, and snippets from a novel in progress). These are for paid subscribers only. If you’re interested in a paid subscription but don’t particularly care about that sort of writing, good news! Those always have “a creative writing edition” as their subtitle and they always have the following as their featured image, so they’re easy to avoid if you wish.
Thank you so much. I am honored that you subscribed and I hope you enjoy your time here.
—Holly
I'm curious - what is your most read post? [I'm sure I should know this, but I don't.]
Within the past 2 days, I've driven probably about 30% of what remains of the original road bed of Route 66, between Albuquerque and Oklahoma City, where it would otherwise head northeast, and I continued east by southeast. Much of those original layout plots that remain are the parts that pass through small towns. If you've seen the Pixar movie "Cars", you know exactly what I'm talking about, except that all took place west of ABQ. ;-) But my point is that a lot of those places look... not good. 75% - 95% vacancy rates on buildings?
Y'know, if someone had asked me about it eight years ago, I'd have assumed it was something the *Democrats* came up with. Because the theme of that movie is "Make America Great Again".
Seeing all those towns the last few days, it's easy to see why that slogan caught on. Though, again... 8 years ago I'd have assumed it was about Detroit and other industries.
Of course, now we know better, because the Democrats have no time for working class people.