The dogs of Bedlam Farm are in good hands. Tomorrow – early – we head out for Portland, OR. I will be doing interviews  and will appear at Powell’s Books, Portland,  at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
  At 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 16th,  I will be at Village Books, Bellingham, WA (360-671-2626).

  On Thursday, September 17, I will be making two bookstore appearances in Seattle, along with a number of interviews.
  At noon, I will be at The Elliott Bay Book Company for a talk and signing. (206 624-6600).
  At 7 p.m., I will be talking and signing at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way, NE (206 366-3316).

  The blog will be in repose until Friday or Saturday. I might get some tweets off on Twitter.
  I am bringing my camera and will try and get some photos of the tour. I am not bringing any dogs, as I don’t like to fly them. I appreciate it if nobody else brings any dogs either, as it is distracting. Sometimes I read from the book, although I don’t really like reading. I always take questions, and usually the bookstore staff ends up turning the lights off to get us out of the store.
  “Soul Of A Dog” is still on the NYTimes Extended Bestseller List at No. 27. I see it as a transition book to my next work, which is fiction, “Rose In A Storm,” a novel about a border collie alone on a farm in upstate New York during an awful blizzard. It is an awakening story, I think, and I will talk about it on the tour along with my new turn to children’s books. Lots to talk about, including my decision to sell Bedlam Farm.
  Those of you not on the tour route, I appreciate your continuing support of my work and my life, and will be black blogging shortly. I’m coming home next weekend.
  Next week, I am going to Sandusky (hospice benefit at the Sandusky State Theater Tuesday, Sept. 22 (416 625-5269) and Cleveland, Ohio, (talk and signing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Legacy Village, Lyndhurst, Ohio (216 691-7000).
  And then on Wednesday, September 23, I will return to the Skokie, Illinois Barnes & Noble, where I have so many friends, for a talk and signing at 7:30 p.m.
  And then, the book tour is over.

   Hope I do the same.

  The hens are fascinated by the Daily Egg, poking and pecking at it. I am thinking about what I will miss
when I head out again on the next leg of the book tour Monday morning.

  I will miss Maria.
  I will miss the dogs,
  especially Izzy chasing
  sunsets with me.
  And Lenore licking my nose,
  And Rose keeping an eye on me.
  And Frieda groaning and grumbling.
  I will miss the farm.
  I will miss the blog.
  And the barn cats yowling
  for their wet food
  just after dawn.
  And the industrious chickens,
  pecking at bugs.
  And my lenses.
  And my study.
  And writing my novel,
  And my children’s books,
  And taking photos whenever
  there is a spare minute.
  And talking to Maria,
  And making dinner for her,
  And riding around with her,
  looking at the light,
  And the mountains,
  and the mist in the morning.
  And my friends.
  And the garden,
  And the path,
  And the big red barns
  And my truck.
  And fresh cheese at Gardenworks,
  And Kinney Road,
  and the farmscapes
  that define my life.
  I will miss my daughter,
  and doesn’t live near me and
  I always miss her.
  I am fortunate to have so many things in my life
  that I miss.
  I remember leaving the farm and going on trips and
  missing less. Having things to miss is a kind of wealth.
  I am still a bit in shock over learning about myself,
  and the loneliness that engulfed me for some time.
  Loneliness is an awful place to live,
  And I don’t miss that.
  I am lucky to have so many thing to miss.

People in my life. Christine Nemec, my gallery (I love saying that)

  September 13, 2009 – Nothing gets me more dithery than the question of selling photographs. I have a gallery – Redux in Dorset, Vt., run by Christine Nemec, above. I have a printer, Image Loft in Manchester, Vt. I’ve shown my photos and won awards. What I can’t quite figure out is which photos to sell or for how much.
  I don’t really want to sell photos of dogs and farm animals, which is what people keep asking for. I’d like to sell the photographs that seem inventive, special and artistic to me. Those are expensive to print and frame so they can’t be sold cheaply.
 I went to Christine’s classy and inventive gallery today, Redux, to bring her five new photos – cows, a flower, an egg, the award-winning hens and she will put them up on her website shortly. She asked what I thought we ought to charge, and we both agreed that $300 or $400 – what I would normally charge, is just too much money right now. Only rich people could buy them, if anyone did. We agreed to start them out at $250. Any less and I can’t recoup the printing and framing costs, and any more, and it seems too high. We’ll see what happens. These are all limited editions, 1/10.
  Maria will also be selling her potholders at Christine’s gallery, LARAC and Red Fox Books in Glens Falls, as well as her website.
  My problem is that I love taking photos, but am not on fire to sell them. And the website gives me a forum to get them around). I’ve submitted the John Clark Dairy Farm Photos to LARAC (The Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Center) for consideration for a show next year in their gallery, and am waiting to hear back. Seems a great use of photographs.
 

 John Clark’s cows, on their last day at the farm, at Redux. I have mixed feelings about selling it, as it’s my favorite photo.
I’m not sure if it’s going for $250 or $300. It’s the only black and white I brought to Christine. In addition to portraits, I’m doing more B&W.