How you can help...

Hello! You're ace! Thanks for everything!

Street art in Brick Lane, featuring @mrbullsays

I contemplated a different headline for this letter. Perhaps “want to know my dirty secret?” or “you’ll never guess who I just heard is shagging” and you’d open, intrigued and then BOOM! I’d hit you with… just me, asking you for your support.

But that would be mean and click baity. And also, despite my deep love for gossip, that has very little to do with the theme of Crocuses In The Snow which is, of course, grief.

As you (probably) know I normally do a longer newsletter on a Sunday and a shorter, normally audio based newsletter on a Wednesday. But today, I just wanted to send a little letter to explain why, sneakily a few weeks ago (wanna know my dirty secret?!) I turned on the paid subscriptions for this newsletter.

I’ve been writing this newsletter for almost four months now, twice a week trying to open up about the reality of grief and its impacts on our lives. It’s really, really important to me that these conversations keep happening and I won’t be putting that behind a paywall now or ever. The weekly Sunday post, whether it’s me trying something out as an exploration of grief, interviewing someone, opening up about my own experience or inviting others to do the same, will remain free.

But there’s so much more I want to write about. I’m also not an expert in grief and it’s such an important topic that I want to be able to spend more time speaking to others for their input and valuable advice.

I also want to invite others to share their grief more, something I’ve begun to do, but feel slightly guilty about as - at the moment - I can’t pay them for the time they’re spending. I believe in paying writers for their words, always, but particularly when it’s something that could potentially cause anguish, or bring up unwanted memories. I didn’t anticipate how much writing this newsletter would bring up… It’s very easy to fall into your words and struggle to come back out of them.

Essentially I want to offer as much as I can, within this complex subject, with as much due diligence and care as possible. Money can, god dammit, allow me to do that as I can turn down other projects to focus on Crocuses In The Snow. It's £4.50 a month and £50 for a year, I plan on paying guest contributors £50 so one yearly subscription will be paying a writer for their work.

It’s probably a little naive of me to say “I’m going to keep giving you this for free… but if you could pay for it, will ya?” and expect a flood of cash so I will be also be offering added benefits (can I really say benefits when it comes to grief? Feels icky) to paid subscribers. I’m thinking coaching and/or courses on how to write your way through life’s tough moments, perhaps a monthly Zoom call where we can discuss our grief in an open way… but perhaps that would be too intense for people? Maybe one-on-one chats with me? Or a closed group where people can share their stories? Or, perhaps, I’ll write about topics other than grief and share those with paid subscribers?

I’d love to know what you think so if you’re thinking of subscribing and there’s something that you think you’d like to read/get out of this newsletter please let me know. You can comment below or reply to this email.

If you’re not able to pay right now, don’t worry, I get it. But you help me every week by simply opening my emails and having a read. Sharing (either via Substack or on other social media, this is my Instagram and Twitter) really helps too - I want to reach as many people as possible.

Thank you so much to everyone who has read so far, I really have loved getting to know you so far...