For years, I’ve been seeking to engage my readers in a conversation. I did this first by insisting that my e-mail address be included in my books. Then by creating bedlamfarm.com, where I could share my life, not just my books. Then by adding a Facebook Page, where readers could comment on my work, and I could seek opportunities to join the conversation. My Ipad continued this work, giving me the tools to bring a broad range of people – not just people at bookstores and interviewers – an change to engage in the process of a book. For the “Going Home” book I created an interactive video with readers – they submitted images to me of their lost pets, I contributed words from my book and we created a joint enterprise viewed by nearly 70,000 people on You Tube.
For my first children’s book, “Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm” I read excerpts and reviews of the dogs and opened a YouTube channel for these images. This process is ongoing, and one of the more powerful elements of it has been inviting my readers and readers of the blog to accept Connie Brook’s request to channel buyers of “Going Home” to her independent bookstore. We do this online, and lately, in an elemental, even traditional form of communication, the telephone. On three different occasions, I’ve gone to the bookstore to take calls from readers and people buying “Going Home.” This has ironically turned out to ironically be among the most powerful conversations yet, one which mirrors the struggle of the bookstore itself. Because I am speaking to people who can’t get to readings, or speak to me personally. I talked to Chapin, a bright young doctoral student in North Carolina, Carole, who has been selling my books for years in a Barnes & Noble in Georgia, Carol, who lost her border collie in a storm in California, and many other people who know me, but who I have never had a chance to meet.
I see clearly that all of us are fighting for the same thing, for a personal and meaning connection to one another in a disconnected world. We had another great time at Battenkill. You can order any of my books by calling 518 677 2515 or e-mailing www.battenkillbooks.com. It turns out that people are important, whether you are running a bookstore, writing a book, or reading one.
