I’ve often believed the power of a story is the voice it gives to the person telling it. Now, as my 22nd books is about to be published, I am finding new ways to find my voice, to sing my song.

The moving image has stirred me, and pushed me forward, and bless it for that. I came to see yesterday that by adding my voice to video, rather than my face, I can narrate the story of Bedlam Farm is a completely comfortable and new way. People say I have a good voice, and I have no sense of that, but I like the sound of it on the videos. I don’t need to be in the picture, I do need to add my voice to the picture.

So on Wednesday, I am offering something new, something radical for me. Bedlam Farm Diary, words and moving images from the farm that are narrated by me and photographed. Wow, what a wonderful leap for me. I am very excited by it. I took a camera out yesterday and spent some time with the donkeys and Lenore, and I wrote about the donkeys and about me and other things.

My life as a writer and my life with animals goes well beyond dogs, and so the Diary is a powerful way to affirm my voice and remain very faithful to the notion of the Farm Journal, which inspired this blog and the photography.

My idea has always been to record my life here, and the blog has always been a living book to me. Now moving images add a completely different dimension. I was uncomfortable seeing myself in some of the early videos, and I will take those down shortly. That wasn’t right. The proper use is to add my voice to the images of the farm, and Lenore’s World was a good place to start and I will move on to the donkeys and the dogs and maybe some barns and farms as well. I’ve found a new way to sing my song, and that is joy. I’ll put the donkeys up Wednesday if I can get the ending right.