I sometimes think my blog and it’s messages are a meme, a good virus spreading electronically throughout the ether. The message varies, but it centers on connection, community, the love of nature, the love of animals, the love of life, the love of love, and an existence that rejects anger and cruelty and conflict as a means of living one’s life. We don’t always get there, we never stop trying.

Why, I sometimes wonder, would anyone care about the Battenkill Bookstore in Cambridge, N.Y., where Connie Brooks and her mother Marilyn work so happily and closely together for the love of each other and the love of books? They do care, a part of my new book is Battenkill, where I offered (with Maria) to sign and personalize any books purchased there. There are few places outside of the farm itself where the bedlamfarm message is more evident or on display. Connie and Marilyn have reached well beyond me and my blog and touched the hearts and imaginations of people all over the country, whenever I come in there one or the other of them (Kate Reid also) are on the phone, talking to friends in Minnesota, Nevada, Texas and London, courteously and patiently taking book orders.

When “Second Chance” dog came out, I said I wanted to sell 400 copies of my book. We did that in a day or so, so I set the goal at 600, then 800, then 1,000 and this became a symbol to me of my new book tour, a sign of the power of my blog and my new platform for writing and selling my work. Sunday Connie told me there had been a “huge” surge in orders and we had passed the 950 mark, I wanted to cry, we are just about there. Books ordered by the 18th will arrive for sure by Christmas (Connie is getting more books today and tomorrow, she sold out over the weekend). We are giving away lots of free stuff – photos, bookmarks, potholders, Fromm Family dog food. Not everyone will win, we are not that big or rich, but lots of people will and Maria and I are going into Battenkill almost every day to sign books there.

This part of the book tour may be its sweetest element. Marilyn and Connie are about family, about individuality and the power of a meaningful life well lived. It is not any easier running a bookstore than a farm, probably harder in many different ways. People fantasize about both, but fantasies rarely survive close scrutiny. Life happens everywhere. Connie has worked hard making her bookstore work in the face of enormous challenge and change, and we respect that in one another, I am doing the same with my writing career, both come together in this Quixotic campaign of ours to sell these books together.

I love sitting at my table, signing stacks of my book, picking up the phone and saying hello to startled readers and chatting with them for a bit about our lives. Most of the time, Maria is there too, swept up in the Battenkill Experiment, somewhat to her surprise. I like to kid Marilyn about the cost of her wonderful paintings (they are quite cheap) and she is beginning to poke me a bit too. Connie doesn’t kid around much, she does not lose focus, she is relentlessly focused on her store.

This kind of connection between writer and reader was not possible until recently. I’m not the only one who sees the magic in Battenkill, so do many of you, now loyal customers of this magical and symbolic place, the kind of place we never want to risk losing again in America.

So there are several days to go, and once we pass 1,000, I’m ending the formal part of the book tour and letting the book make it’s own way in the world. Time for me to move on after that, I told Connie we would make it and I could see in her eyes that she doubted me. We will make it, and this week, and I hope to be there when we pass 1,000. That will be a free book to the buyer and he or she will get some other good stuff as well. And thanks to all of you. The book tour has been nothing but a wonderful success (you can check out the early reviews here) and nothing speaks to that more than that my wonderful community bookstore will have sold 1,000 copies of “Second Chance Dog.” I would not have thought that possible just a few months ago.

We are at the fine, 40 or 50 books to go. You can buy the book on the store’s website, they take Paypal and ship anywhere in the world. Or you can call the store at 518 677-2515. Maybe I’ll be there to thank you myself. It is quite special to get to do that.