A very important week for me here in bedlam, one of the most important ever.
This week, the wizards at Mannix Marketing are working on a new header to run just below the bedlam farm logo, it will be a bar of white space with thematic quotes from the blog that will fade in and out. This is a statement of purpose for me, also an introduction for newcomers, and an effort to connect the images of the blog with words.
The first design was innovative and interesting, but too loud and distracting, so we have been poring through Times Roman fonts and I have found the one I like. We are closing in this new design for the Farm Journal Page, it is an effort on my book to move the blog more towards my idea of a living, dynamic book, which is what I think blogs are becoming. You can browse through these fonts on our own and pick the one you like – I’ve found mine – and post your comments on my Facebook Page.
I think I will have a new design to share today or tomorrow.
Last night, I fulfilled a long-time dream, I created the Men’s Group At Bedlam Farm.
My idea is that we will encourage and support each other in our common drive to be good husbands, friends, fathers, spouses, loves and people. The men in Washington remind me almost every day to be a better man, we are ruining the world.
A score of very good men signed up immediately and I decided to close the group right there (maybe at 25) as the group should be small to build trust and ensure privacy. I will not discuss any identities or comments, I will occasionally report to you in a general way about how the group is doing. The group is closed and confidential.
This is the third Group I’ve created on my Facebook page, another very new and exciting direction for the new publishing. Writers no longer just have readers, they are forming communities of like-minded people whose interests go beyond just selling books. This is very new, very exciting for me.
The Open Group At Bedlam Farm is the crown jewel of my online experimentation, a community of more than 500 creatives sharing their best creative work with one another in many different fields – poetry, painting, photography, blogging, sketching. The amount of creative work pouring out of this group is astounding, and so is the sense of friendship, community and support. This group has spawned a couple of new workshops – I’ll teach blogging, Jeff Anderson will teach photography. These workshops will run a few weeks and help people focus on their work.
The Open Group for Loving Animals is new, it already has more than 400 people and in this forum we are exploring the love of animals, good and bad, in a thoughtful, civil and entertaining way. The love of animals has rarely been discussed and considered so intelligently. Most of these sites are either sappy or shallow. This site is not just about posting cute animal photos or about grieving lost pets. We are exploring the root and meaning of loving animals every day. The communities forming around bedlamfarm.com represent and extraordinary evolution for me, the realization of a long fascination with the idea of the digital community, a dream that has been undermined and delayed by hackers, hostile people, complex technology, greedy corporations and conflict.
The open groups are very loose and free, there is only one rule: no argument, no hostility. The angry, combative and the righteous are banned instantly, and I believe there are none left. We are building safe and creative spaces. The Open Group is closed for now, and so is the Men’s Group. We are accepting members for the Loving Animals Group, but not many.
I should mention that what pays for all of these are your subscriptions. The blog and these groups are not free for me, there are maintenance and computing equipment expenses, design fees, considerable amounts of time and energy, words and photos.
If you use the blog or these sites, consider subscribing, this is a very significant new direction for writers and blogs. I am trying to make this as comfortable as possible, I don’t want anyone to be shut out. People without resources can continue to get the entire content of the blog for free, and for good.
People who can afford to subscribe have three options in terms of money: $3 a month, $5 a month, or $60 a year. The content is the same either way, I want people to have options, depending on their resources. These subscriptions can be canceled at any time. You can subscribe using your credit cards or using Paypal and with the credit card option, you can also upgrade, downgrade or cancel your subscriptions at any time. I cannot afford to bear all of these costs myself, writing doesn’t work that way anymore, and even if I could, I wouldn’t – I want to be paid for my work, on my behalf, and on behalf of all the writers and artists following their readers and customers and clients online.
On top of that, Maria and I are considering lambing in the Spring of 2014, an evolution for us, the farm, my photography, Maria’s work selling yarn and doing her fiberart. We are moving forward, beginning to see the makings of a creative community, a ministry of encouragement and positive connection.
__
This Sunday, I’ll be at the celebration of the new Northshire Books/Saratoga Store at noon (September 29). I’ll bring Red and I expect Maria will come also. Come and see us and have your books signed.