Privacy · last updated 13 September 2026
What this site collects, and who else gets to see it.
I run this site myself. It takes email addresses, contact messages, comments, and the ordinary web analytics — and a handful of companies touch that data because I use their software to do it. Every one of them is named on this page. Nothing is hiding behind a phrase like “trusted partners.”
The list · everything, in one table
What gets collected, and who processes it.
This is everything I know to be running on the site on the date above. If you find something I missed, email me and it goes on the list.
- MailerLite forms
- Four email signup forms: the blog signup, the Subterrania sample chapters, The Belrose Journals, and the readers list. Each takes your email address and records which form you used and when. They feed four separate lists inside MailerLite, which is my email provider and stores the addresses.
- WordPress.com list
- A second and unrelated subscribe box sits at the foot of every blog post, with a popup version on the same pages. That one belongs to WordPress.com, not MailerLite, and the address goes to Automattic. It is a different list with a different unsubscribe link.
- Contact form
- Name, email, message. It emails me and also keeps a copy in this site’s own admin area, where it sits until I delete it. Akismet, Automattic’s spam filter, reads it first.
- Comments
- Whatever you put in the name, email and website boxes, the comment itself, and your IP address. The comment box is served by Jetpack, so it travels through WordPress.com. Gravatar turns your email address into an avatar. Akismet checks it for spam.
- Analytics
- Google Tag Manager (
GTM-PMFWHC9R) and Google Analytics 4 (G-171Q80GF99), loaded through the Site Kit plugin. Then Jetpack Stats and WordPress.com Stats, which count the same visits again. Pages viewed, rough location, browser, and whatever site or search sent you. - Hosting
- The site runs on WordPress.com. Automattic’s servers handle every request made to it, your IP address included.
- Video embeds
- Some posts have a YouTube video in them. Google sets cookies the moment the player loads, whether or not you press play.
- Shop links
- The Amazon and Audible buttons are plain links with no tracking tag on them. Follow one and you are on their site under their policy, and nothing comes back to tell me you did.
Email · two lists, two unsubscribes
The list exists so I can tell you when a book is finished.
You get what you signed up for. The free book if you asked for one, new field notes when they land, and an email when a novel is done. I am one person with a day job teaching seventh grade; the volume takes care of itself.
MailerLite records whether you opened an email and whether you clicked a link in it. That is where the open rates in my dashboard come from. It is standard for every email provider and worth knowing anyway.
Every email carries an unsubscribe link. One click, it takes effect straight away, and nobody asks me to approve it. If you would rather not hunt for the link, email me and I will take you off by hand.
Because the WordPress.com subscribe box on my blog posts is a separate list, leaving one does not take you off the other. If you want out of both, say so in one email and I will do both ends.
Cookies · no banner, an explanation instead
What the analytics can actually see.
Which pages you looked at, roughly where in the world you are, what browser you used, and what search or site sent you here. Aggregated, it tells me that forty people read a post about mushrooms. It does not tell me your name, and I have never tried to work out who anybody is.
There is no cookie banner on this site. I would rather write down what is running than make you dismiss a box about it. What is running: Google’s tags, Jetpack’s and WordPress.com’s stats, Gravatar and Akismet where comments are involved, and YouTube’s player on posts with a video. Your browser settings and any tracker blocker you use will stop most of it. Nothing on this site needs cookies to work.
I do not control what Google, Automattic or YouTube do with what they gather — that sits under their own policies, not mine. What I can tell you is which of them are here and why.
Your data · access, correction, deletion
One email address, and it comes straight to me.
Write to robertcadethompson@gmail.com and say what you want. Ask what I hold about you. Ask me to correct it. Ask me to delete it. Ask to come off the list. You do not need a form, a reference number or a legal phrase, and there is nobody here to escalate past, so it gets done by hand as soon as I see it.
If you are in the UK or the EU you have these rights under your own law, and more besides. I am not going to claim this page makes me compliant with that law. It does not, and a claim like that is worth nothing to you. What I can do is tell you exactly what is running, who holds what, and then do what you ask with the tools I have.
I write for thirteen-year-olds, so some of the people reading this are young. No form on this site asks for anything beyond an email address. I do not knowingly keep data about anyone under thirteen — if your kid signed up for a free book and you want them gone, email me and it is done.
If any of this changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it.