In my 30 plus years of working as a full-time author, I never once imagined the idea of subscriptions as having anything to do with me or my work. I thought of them as having to do with magazines or newsletters. Life is a fascinating thing, it is a wheel that turns and turns and subscriptions now loom large in my grand scheme of things. I plan to use them to maintain and grow my blog, to replace the vanishing royalties I once counted on, to pave the way for my transition to the new kind of writer evolving and changing in once unimaginable ways.

Subscriptions are what makes it possible for me to keep the blog going, to post my photos and stories, to write about things are hopefully of some interest or use.

Subscriptions to bedlamfarm.com support the blog, which is pretty much a full-time job for me now. Writing books, my passion and livelihood, is also something that is important to me, but the blog has become the centerpiece of my writing and creative life. I see it as a living memoir, my great work.

Some things about the blog. It is free, to those who subscribe and those who do not. You do not receive anything for subscribing beyond reading the blog and supporting it and paying me for the work I do writing on the blog and taking and permitting free usage of my photos. Nothing is watermarked here, you are free to use any photo or idea you like, information does want to be free, but writers also need to get paid for their work, just like you do.

It takes a great deal of time and research for me to write about issues like the New York Carriage Horses or Joshua Rockwood, that is work I am not paid for in any way beyond subscriptions. It is important to me, and I hope to keep doing it. Subscriptions support our life and work with animals.  I am proud of the blog, it is different than I imagined.

I offer a number of ways to subscribe. You can pay $3 a month, $5 a month, or $60 a year. You can use credit cards or Paypal. The site is as secure as it it is possible to be.  I have no access to your money, I can’t authorize subscriptions or remove them, that is for your own protection. No financial information of any kind is stored on my website, two different companies monitor all traffic and maintain security. Should devious foreign nations or vengeful animal police or anyone else come after me, there is nothing of monetary value for them to get, unless you count my golden words.

I’m afraid they have been devalued by the publishing revolution.

Canceling a subscription is as easy as subscribing, I will not be one of those sites who hook people into monthly payments and then make it as hard to cancel as it is to have lunch at the NSA. I can’t cancel subscriptions (I have no access to your money, ever) but you can, anytime and easily. One week before renewal, you will be notified so you can decide with the click of a button to cancel or re-subscribe, and you can cancel any time in between. I understand the realities of life, I don’t want the money of anyone who can’t afford it or doesn’t want to pay for it.

And the blog will remain free to those who can’t afford it, and even those who can but won’t pay. You never turned your backs on me, I will never turn my back on you.

If you support the blog,  you do not buy me or my opinions. I respect anyone who cancels for any reasons, some cancel because they disagree with me, I wish for them to go in peace, but go. If you wish to read a blog that you never disagree with, I suspect this is not the blog for you.

The blog has grown beyond my own expectations, there are millions of visits a year, hundreds of thousands of unique visitors, some days a half-million. It is read all over the country and the world, this is as shocking to me as it is humbling.

So subscribe if you can and wish. Subscriptions are the foundation of my new writing life, my plan for changing into the future. Millions of people come here, but very few pay me for my work. It’s nice to be paid for my work, it does make a difference,  and it makes writing possible for me. It also ensures that people with little money can read it as well. So thank you if you choose to subscribe, and thank you for thinking about it. I am getting there.

Either way you are welcome here.