Making a Splash: Migrating to Substack
Dear Friends and Family,
I’ve so enjoyed and appreciated connecting with you through this author newsletter. This week, I’m moving to Substack, where I’ll share personal essays on boating, wildlife and nature, and inside stories on shepherding my second book to publication. The “Notes from the Waterline” new newsletter will feel similar to this one in content and (low) frequency.
Soon, you’ll receive an email invitation, and I hope you accept it. If you’re already on Substack, please send me your address, so I can sign up for your newsletter.
I’ll send 2 to 3 letters a month, and only when I have something interesting, inspiring, embarrassing, or humorous to share, or a question stirring up my curiosity.
As before, you can unsubscribe at any time. Although Substack will invite you to pay for a subscription, please never feel obliged to do so.
I welcome all readers!
Results of the Author Headshot Vote
Thank you to all of you who voted!
Some of you mentioned liking the version with binoculars but noted that in a cropped 1×1 version, the neck strap would be a distraction—a spot-on observation.
The outcome was close.
And the winner is . . .
#3
(Vote-tallying equipment, methodology, results, and margin of error, or rather—errors noted in the margin—made public to avoid result challenges.)
My response to the close result is that the winner has been delivered to my publisher, but I’ll also use the vertical image with-binoculars version elsewhere.
Yes, getting your portrait taken can be nerve wracking. Or heart-warming.
As an adult, I’ve only had three professional photographs taken, one for Deep Waters by the delightful and talented Star Dewar in 2022 (Star Shots Photography, now in Oregon) and two sessions with Nick Felkey (Bainbridge Is, Washington). Due to delaying my publication date, I ended up not using photos from an earlier session with Nick, although I was very happy with them. Here’s what happened.
Back in January 2025, I found Nick Felkey online and called his business.
Tory, his wife and photo-scheduler/manager/editor, answered. “He’s got an opening in two weeks.”
On no, I thought. That won’t work. By then, I’ll have 20% less hair. Two days earlier, I realized it was falling out at a fast pace. I’d recently had my second chemo treatment. If I couldn’t get an appointment soon, my next author photo would be of a bald me.
That’s when I described to Tory how cancer had upended our lives beginning in November. Tory shifted gears, and we chatted as if we were old friends. She related stories of how cancer had struck a close friend and a family member. “Let me call Nick, and I’ll get right back to you,” she said. They squeezed me in the next day—at dinner time. On Tuesday, Nick hurried home from his construction job and walked in seconds after me.
After that scheduling phone call with Tory, when she took action to juggle their personal and work lives to accommodate my request, I fought back tears.
No. Wait. Now I remember, they fell.
If you’re a normally self-conscious person, like me, it can be worth it to hire a professional photographer. Star and Nick each put me at ease using skill and magic. And a bonus of working with Star, Nick, and Tory, is that they are now my friends.
Field Notes
As a pre-view for NOTES FROM THE WATERLINE, here are two photos I’ll expand upon in the Welcome Newsletter, which will also reveal the cover of book two.
Anna’s hummingbirds, Calypte anna, Santa Rosa, California
The email from Substack will have a heading of “Beth Ann Mathews | Notes from the Waterline.”
Some of you joined this newsletter in 2018 when Deep Waters was in its infancy, and many have been with me here through blog posts about a rough nine-week, against-the-weather, pounding journey with Jim and me—and his first-leg crew Brendan and Corwin, delivering Resilience north from San Francisco Bay to the Pacific North West.
I’ve so enjoyed hearing from you—and your patience and support through my disappearing act in 2025.
Thank you for being here!
Beth
