When Frieda and I were alone together in that cold and drafty barn that dark year, I would toss beef jerky at her, and look at her – she always looks at me very intensely when I speak with her, as above, she always seems to be trying to understand me – and I would say “how far can we go, girl? How much should I want from you? How much should I ask from you?” I never really got an answer, in my mind or from her, we just kept going until it came together for us. Perhaps there is no real answer.

I was thinking of this last night, as I enter a new and different phase of my book tour for “Second Chance Dog: A Love Story.” The first phase has been great – 2nd printing, lots of pre-orders, strong reviews, sold sold interviews.  I’ve never really seen the blog as a place to sell things, I always felt if the blog was good and honest and helpful, people could figure out how to buy my books. But the recession changed all of that, and writers like me had to scramble to survive, or not, and those of us that have survived so far are still scrambling, and perhaps will always be. Just like you. At one time, you and I thought I was different, I am learning all of the time that this is not so. We are the same, the recession brought me that gift of understanding.

I chatted with Frieda this morning, reminded her of those talks and I am putting together this new kind of book tour day by day, so far it is working better than I thought it might. I have a good sweet story to tell, and I am going to shout that from the rooftops as we approach Plaid Friday, as we all come together to roar our support for Battenkill Books, a wonderful bookstore, as we move into the Christmas shopping season (“Second Chance Dog: A Love Story” ends with a chapter called “The Christmas Miracle”). I feel the wind at my back here, but publishing is a rough game, unpredictable and fickle and ruthless sometimes. I love it and fear it. I’m still chasing “101 Dog Tricks” on Amazon, the book has nearly 400 five star reviews.

I am not good at asking for things, it was a Ted Talk by a musician that inspired me to move the blog to a subscription format and accept payment for my work. It took me years to do that, but the good and honest people out there responded much more quickly than that. It was not a big deal for them, most were ahead of me.

Someone e-mailed me last night, urged me to keep going, to set goals and fight for them, and this was good advice, it shored me up. I am offering videos, podcasts, photos, blogs, talks on Facebook, give-a-ways of books, photos, dog food.

And what do I want? How far should I go? What am I asking for? Good to be precise, I do not want to be coy or manipulative. Nobody needs to do what I ask, but I need to be clear about what I want.

– I want to make a big bang in publishing with my new book tour, I want to send a message to writers and readers that new technology does not mean the end of books and writing, it marks a new beginning, we can use this new machinery to take responsibility of our creative lives and control our work and be paid for it. I want to have a successful books and show that books are relevant still and I can be relevant as a writer and blogger.

– I want to sell at least 1,000 books at Battenkill in the next week, it is a symbol for me not only of a good bookstore, but of our universal fight for individuality, freedom from total corporate control of our lives. It speaks to the survival of community, a desperately important issue.  Many of you have told me how wonderful it is to call Battenkill, how good it feels. That is precious, it needs to be kept alive, Wal-Mart and Amazon will never do that. And after 1,000 books, I want to sell more books there and help them have the best year ever and turn every writer’s head about the future. www.battenkillbooks.com or 518 677-2515.

– I want the book to go into a third printing. And then I want to sell a ton for Plaid Friday, an increasingly important holiday for creative people who buy local, value small businesses and their importance, and celebrate the right of individuals to work for themselves.

– I wouldn’t mind hitting the New York Times Bestseller list, it isn’t all that important to most people, but publishers care about it.

– I would like to position “Second Chance Dog” as a great Christmas gift for people who love animals, who love love, who believe in second chances, happy endings, hope and encouragement. I am thinking gifts to dog and cat loves, gifts to Plaid Friday shoppers, gifts to friend and family for Christmas. I see “Second Chance Dog” as a virus that may just go viral. (And I have a Ted Talk popping up somewhere in there.)

This seems to me to be  a lot to ask for, especially when there is really only one blog and the community surrounding it to do all of these things, yet I feel it is all possible, if not necessarily easy or even likely. And I think – I really believe this – that people who read this book take hope and comfort from it, and that is a precious thing in our world.  Maybe I am underestimating myself, the last few years in publishing have beat me up a bit, and sometimes I have to shore myself up,  this is pretty much my show. Sometimes all of you do that for me with your kind letters and messages. So those of you who are with me on this, here we go into the next phase, those of you who are not up for it, can’t do it, or don’t want to do it, you are, of course welcome to sit back and watch the show. I guarantee you it will not be dull. Thanks to all of you.