The D.L. Mayfield Content Universe

A lil' update on where to find me and how to be involved

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash (did you know typewriters can be tools of anti-fascism? I mean, anything can be!!!)

Hello friends! Before we get back to regularly scheduled content here, I wanted to have a brief chat about all the ways you can get access to my content / community, as well as a little financial transparency moment.

It’s almost been a full year of having two Substacks going simultaneously, and I am slowly starting to figure out ways to streamline access for folks. While I am always hoping to make enough money with my writing where I can breathe easy, the truth is I am usually just barely making enough to scrape by (and pay for my somatic therapy). I am privileged to have a partner who is able to earn a living wage with his work, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t also deserve to move closer towards a livable wage as well that reflects the amount of time, energy, and inner work I put towards my writing. Besides running Healing is My Special Interest (including editing and paying for guest essays) I also put out a ton of content at STRONGWILLED (over 12 chapters, tons of discussion posts and a podcast). But when all is said and done, my take-home pay amounts to around $1,000 a month.

I hope to slow down a tiny bit this year (all that work and stress for $12,000 a year reminds me a little too much of all my days living near the poverty line for the sake of “ministry”) while still doing my normal thing of, you know, putting out a LOT of information and building community and being an anti-fascist little gremlin obsessed with healing. I also don’t want to make it seem like I’m not grateful — every tiny bit of financial support helps, and I truly enjoy spreading out the resources by paying for podcast interviews and guest posts and copy editors and developmental editors. I’ve always been happy to offer free paid subscribers to people who can’t afford that and I want to continue to do this work.

I also know that times are tough for everyone. A lot of people support one of my projects but can’t afford to support all of them. Which I absolutely understand! I have been waiting for all of the platforms I am on (Substack and Patreon) to have options where I can gift free paid subscriptions and it is actually happening! So here is what I am offering:

If you support ONE of my Substack newsletters (either STRONGWILLED or Healing is My Special Interest) I will gift you a year-long paid subscription to the other one PLUS a gift subscription to Patreon (if you want it!). Currently, HIMSI is $35 a year (the lowest amount I am allowed to charge) and STRONGWILLED is $50. If you pay for one newsletter and want access to the other one PLUS my patreon, we can make that happen! Just email me at strongwilledproject@gmail.com and let me know 1) Which email to use for you and 2) What project you already support and which ones you want access to.

Here’s what the D.L. Mayfield Content Universe currently entails / what you can get access to when you support just ONE of my projects:

• Paid-subscriber only posts for both HIMSI and STRONGWILLED, including personal essays, community discussion posts, and the occasional Zoom hang out.

• Commenting / Community discussion privileges for HIMSI, STRONGWILLED, and Patreon.

• Once a month Patreon-only podcasts where Krispin and I are a little chattier and a little more chill than usual (or a little more honest!)

• Access to our Discord server (which is already one of my favorite places ever — you can share weird religious art, rant and rave about politics, talk about witchy shit, share book recs, and more).

• That flush of pride you get when you support queer disabled creators directly, even when you can’t always engage with their content because it is intense and sometimes triggering. 🙂

ALSO if you don’t want to support Substack financially (for . . . reasons), you can also just venmo/paypal¹ me money directly and then email me at strongwilledproject.com and let me know what else you want access to (newsletters, patreon, and/or discord link) and I will set you up with gift subscriptions. It might take me a few days to respond to the emails, but please feel free to reach out again after a week if you haven’t heard back from me.

I’m so grateful for the communities we are all building together and I’m so happy to have these spaces as our society is experiencing rapid shifts around social connection and information gathering. In the D.L. Mayfield Content Universe I promise to continue to work on the values of processing childhood trauma, connecting with our true selves, and resisting fascism by taking care of our minds, bodies, AND communities.

Thanks for being here, and I look forward to being a weird little intense silly billy with you!

1. Please email me at strongwilledproject.com for my paypal or venmo information if you choose to support me financially through those avenues