The “blog,” a clunky term for such a revolutionary form of personal communication, came of age in the early 90’s and has mushroomed into one of the most powerful forms of expression in human history.

The term “blog” comes from “weblog,” a hierarchy of text images, media and data, all arranged in chronological order, and that can be seen in an HTML browser. Blogs are many things now, but most often, a blog is frequent, even daily chronological publication of personal thoughts, something that can be linked to other sites and blogs on the Web.

A blog is basically a journal that is  available on the web, and in recent years, artists and writers have moved almost en masse to blogging as form of survival as publishing becomes more corporate, market driven, narrow and marginal.

Blogs are moderated, that is the author approves comments before they are published. In this form I can eliminate much of the hostility that has plagued the Internet since it’s creation. There are lots of broken people out there.

Blogs have also become one of the fasting growing forms of expression for tens of millions of people – there are about 40 million blogs in America now – who would otherwise have little or no access to conventional forms of media and communication.

A leading cable channel, in contrast, might have two or three million viewers at peak times, that is a fraction of the number of blogs being published every day.

Blogs are, without question, the most vibrant, creative and exciting forms of communication on the earth. They are future, they allow individual voices to grow and flourish, but they are also connected to other voices. There is something quite wonderful about that.

Although I still write books and loving writing books, my work is focused on my blog, bedlamfarm.com, and Maria’s blog, fullmoonfiberart.com is now essential to her creativity and her life as an artist, she sells almost everything she makes on her blog.

We almost never know what the other one will write about. Maria’s blog is different from mine, she writes about her art and her own development as a woman seeking to find her voice and strength. She writes almost daily, but less frequently, my blog is my art, she has her art.

My blog is my heart, in many ways.

I write all day, she makes beautiful things all day. Our blogs support our work. We almost never see the other’s work before it is published, but will almost always read each other’s work at the end of the day, we often talk about what we have written, or about the art discussed, or the photographs published.

Maria’s blog has also grown steadily and greatly developed in range. She often publishes videos and has become an accomplished photographer and writer.  The blog has been good for both of us, it often helps us to understand our own lives and goals and troubles.

In the morning, I get up early and write on my blog until early afternoon. Then I do chores, work as a volunteer, try to support the refugees and  immigrants.

In the evening, after dinner, Maria and I both retreat to our computers, she sits in the living room, I go to my study.

I consider my blog my great work, a living and radically new kind of memoir. I have written several memoirs, I consider my blog a literally memoir, written memoir form. The writing is informal but faithfully reflects my life, for better or worse.

The blog is my natural medium, it never feels like work for me and I have a rich and often sparky dialogue with the people who comment on my work. I’ve found that many people like to express themselves strongly online, but are furious of their own words or presumptions are challenged.

I believe we are all responsible for our words, online or off, you as well as me.

This dialogue has taught me a lot for all of its frustrations and limits, it is important to me.

The blog is teaching me what it means to be authentic, and that is a liberating thing for me and for my writing.

Lying or withholding information would be, in my view, unethical, cheating the reader. I try to be open and honest.  I like to say you get the good Katz and the bad Katz, but you always get the real one. I owe that to the blog, you could hardly do it in a book published every few years.

It is ironic that this form of communicating should be so important to me, and to Maria. We are truly well suited to one another. My blog reaches far more readers than my books, and has become my primary creative work. There are millions of visits a year to bedlamfarm.com and several thousand people regularly contribute to the blog’s continuing free publication. Those voluntary payments or donations are important to my financial well-being and my creative life.

I believe they are the future for mid-list writers like myself, I am excited to be helping to pave the way. this is the new life of the writer, it is the life for me.

I loved this image of Maria settling down to write on her blog tonight, just as I set off to work on mine. I hear her clacking away on her laptop, she sometimes likens my own typing to a kind of  ballet, a dance across the keyboards

I love that image.

On my blog, I am free to write in my own voice, my own language. There is no editor to tell me what to say, or  squawk about my grammar,  no marketing department to tell me what is permissible.

In this medium, I believe my writing is maturing and deepening. The blog is very free, and thus freeing.

Writing every day is like running every day. Your creative circulation is good, your creative muscles strong, your stamina grows. Thanks for being here.