We need animals in our lives, they connect us to natural world, heal us, offer us love and connection. And they need us, too, I have seen this with dogs, cats and also with our donkeys, among the most affectionate animals in the world. For some years now, our day has been with Maria and I brushing them, talking to them, and Maria has the gift of agility, she gets down with them, at their level, talks with them, connects with them. In this I see their power to heal and nourish her, and I also see their need of us, they need for attention, brushing, talking and touch. It is a mutual thing, born out of our own emotional histories, and their long instinctive experience at living with humans and serving them.
It is always a beautiful and touching thing to see.
(It was only a matter of time before Lenore and the newly-retired Flo started hanging out together. Lenore knows how to relax)
I started this blog in 2007, my publisher was skeptical – if you give people things for free on the Internet, they said, nobody will ever pay for anything you write. I didn’t believe that then, and I don’t believe it now. Reading and writing is about trust from both sides, and connection.
When I started the blog, the idea was that it would support and promote the book. Blogs weren’t something writers did, they weren’t taken seriously, not reviewed in the New York Times, not discussed on NPR. Now, six years later, my world has change. The blog has, in many ways, become the book. Writing on it, taking photographs, buying all of the equipment, managing podcasts, social media, open groups, paying for Web maintenance takes me most of every work day. I love writing books, but the place of the book in our world has changed, many are given away free, published for a few dollars, there are hardly any book reviewers any longer, people are reading e-books and writer’s don’t live on royalties any more, there are few big advances.
This has been an exciting creative challenge for me, and I welcomed it, then and now. But I realized that I was working most of the time for free, no longer being paid for my work. So I reluctantly – after years of resistance – began a subscription program that, to my astonishment, has been met with little or no resistance and much acceptance and enthusiasm. The most common response is “it’s about time.” We are in the midst of a great change, and writers like myself are now figuring out how to be paid for their work. The new model is small amounts of money paid by large groups of people. It is a joy and affirmation to be paid for my work, each subscription a great review, a wonderful interview all in of itself. It has recharged my enthusiasm for this blog, the open groups, the podcasts and social media outlets.
I am no longer reluctant to be paid for my work, I really like it, and it has permitted me to feel successful again, stirred the creative juices. People ask me all the time if the blog will remain free, many say they can’t afford to pay anything for it, and I will always seek to find a way for the blog to remain free to people who need it. But I am definitely moving in the direction of a paid subscription blog, I need to be paid for my work just as everyone else is paid for their work. The blog is the book, although I will keep on writing my paper books, I will not give that up, they will occupy a different place in my creative universe. I will also offer e-books, podcasts, hopefully a community.
I am not a charity, not a worthy cause to be supported. No one should subscribe to this blog to support Bedlam Farm or pay for my life. That is my responsibility. People ought to subscribe to the blog if the work means something to them, inspires, entertains or stimulates them. And to help pay for the considerable costs of maintaining the enterprise. I am no different than the grocer who sells you food. I charge for my nourishment also. I chose a flexible subscription program – $5 a month, $60 a year, one-time payments, or no payments. The subscription payments, offered via Paypal, can be cancelled at any time. Down the road, I will continue to move in this direction. Getting paid for my work is healthy and necessary.
As of now, about one percent of the people reading the blog have signed up for subscriptions. That is considered a very good start on the Internet, as people are not using to paying for the things they read there. This is definitely where I am heading. I have lots of room to grow, there are a lot of people reading this blog, and for those of you who find this work worth paying for, I thank you. My goal is to be a best-seller again, just in a different form. For those of you who are paying me for my work through subscriptions, I thank you. It feels good, a great renewal.
