This barn seems to me to have a face, an expression, and it is speaking to me of change and function.

I’m into week two of the video era. I’m still adjusting to it, and still see it as a mixed blessing.

There is so much cultural and technological change I don’t really think it’s possible to keep up with more than a fraction of it. You have to pick your spots. The world of the writer is evolving rapidly. There is great concern in publishing about writers doing the things I’m doing.

For one thing, there is a belief that people like me are giving too much away for free, and that people will have no reason to buy my books. It’s already almost impossible for many photographers to sell their work, so many people now take photos and there are so many available for free.

There is also the concern about focus and distraction – cell phones, video cameras, cables, passwords, batteries, electricity,  Ipads, Iphones, Aperture and I movies. I am on the computer more, and this blog takes more and more of my time, managing and maintaining equipment, writing, taking still photos and videos, maintaining the blog,Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Web management,  and doing my work. Yes, it is expensive and it is not clear whether it will pay for itself or if it will pay for itself, or exactly how.

I am sharing more of myself and my life, and I was already sharing quite a bit. I will work hard to maintain boundaries and privacy around my life and the representations of it.  I’m not sure how that till work.

Sometimes I do feel as if I’m being drawn into an Orwellian orb. It seems that people like it, though, and that I have opened up a potentially vast new audience for my work. That is a significant thing, especially these days. But how much do I want to be known? How much of this machine do I want to feed? And what are the lines around it and the limits to it? The Orwellian nightmare is that we are consumed by our technology, and dominated by its mindless aspects. Can it mesh with a spiritual life?

This much connectedness can also be obsessive and overwhelming, and increase the expectations of people. A writer used to connect with readers only through his books. Now…wow.

On the plus side, I love much of it. I like taking videos, and I love editing them. I am mesmerized by the possibilities for me and my work, for the blessing of these powerful new tools.  I believe writers have to change in thoughtful and deliberate ways. I need to understand the Net and the Web, Itunes, You Tube, videos and apps. Those are no part of the writer’s vocabulary, like it or not. I have found a new way to tell my story, a creative challenge. That is a momentous thing for me.

I will continue exploring the use of videos to promote my new children’s book “Meet The Dogs of Bedlam Farm,” because this technology and the dogs are a perfect fit for it. But I will hopefully be judicious about it. I have another book coming out this fall, a book on animal grieving. “Going Home: Finding Peace When Animals Die.” I want to really think about that. Thanks, by the way, for all the feedback. It seems people really like this new tool. I don’t want to lose all the mystery, though. I want to fight for that.