Get Your Creativity to Explode: the Method

Think creativity and methodology are opposites? Well, they kind of are, but there's more, if you look closer. Any writer who's struggled to get the creative juices flowing knows that these two things can complement each other, and it's natural to find a method to inspire creativity. Yes, there's a method to your madness!

James Scott Bell said it well in The Art of War for Writers, one of his books on writing. (I'm in the middle of a re-read of the book, and it's so full of great information that it keeps showing up in these posts. :)  ) Bell says you have to feed inspiration, and one way to do that is develop a method for releasing your creativity. As a writer, you have to do this, because you have to become "a walking idea factory."

Walking is one of Bell's main methods of releasing creativity, and he suggests that there are few things you can do before, during, and after walking to capture the ideas that surface (pp. 54-55). To paraphrase:

• Before you walk, get fully focused on your idea that you want to develop
• While you walk, listen to an audiobook or do something else that will allow you to be creative without thinking about it. While you're listening, for example, ideas for your own novel will be sparked unconsciously and rise to your consciousness.
• Write those ideas down, while you're walking. Take a pen and pencil or a voice recorder with you on your walk.
• When you get home put all those ideas in a file on your computer, expanding each one as you add it. Let the words flow.
• Let the ideas cool down for a day. The next day, look at them again and assess them, after you've slept on it and let your subconscious do its work.
• Set aside the ideas you don't use, but don't delete them. They might come in handy someday.

Bell believes that if you get used to thinking this way, your creativity will explode. Makes sense to me! But I do think it pays to be aware of how important tapping into your subconscious is for this to really work. Yes, the movement of walking frees up our creative energies, but two of Bell's steps—one before the walk and one after—seem critical to making sure it's the type of idea generation we're after.

First is getting fully focused on the idea you want to develop before you walk. Do this during your writing time which is, yes, before.

Second is to sleep on the ideas before you even begin to think about them critically. Let your subconscious mind work on them while you sleep.

So, what do you think? Do you use a method like this, or something totally different?

Interview with Cory Doctorow by Bill Kenower for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association

Cory Doctorow, well-known science fiction writer, talks fast and doesn't use extraneous words, so he gets a lot of info into this ten-minute interview. For those of you who haven't got the ten minutes to spare, I've summarized a bit of what he says below. Or you can start at about minute four, which is where Doctorow gets into his process and what he thinks it takes to succeed.

Included in his perceptions of what it takes (which were honed over years of not only writing, but working in a bookstore where he got a strong understanding of what happens to books once they're published) are, first of all, believing that you can write a book, and having mentors to help in that belief and in the outcome.

He also talks about developing an understanding of what he calls "the extremely temporary nature of books" when he worked in the bookstore, by which he means the limited shelf life, sales, and presence in consumers' awareness of the great majority of published books.

Selling a book does not mean you've made it, he says, and goes on to talk about what the successful writer's life looks like.

Luck plays an important role in success, according to Doctorow. You do have to work hard and have talent, but those factors alone don't promise success. He speculates that the luck part might be partly that for some reason or other, the publisher or the writer figured out how to get the book into readers' hands better than usually happens.

Doctorow's closing comments revolve around being workmanlike (his bottom line); the value of finishing each day's writing in the middle of a sentence; the likelihood that blood sugar and seratonin levels play a role in a day's output; and the importance of not being "precious" about your writing or about yourself as a writer. He says he was, and talks about the process he went through that burned that out of him and made him a productive writer.

All in all, a fun and informative listen. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Three Essentials for a Successful Novel and How to Achieve Them

James Scott Bell's The Art of War for Writers is a book on writing I come back to again and again for pithy, excellent advice. In Chapter 24 (pp. 71-76), Bell harkens back to the hallmarks of successful novel writing that were put forth by one of his idols: John D. MacDonald. Below are MacDonald's essentials, and some of Bell's comments on how to achieve them:

Essential #1

First, there has to be a strong sense of story. I want to be intrigued by wondering what is going to happen next. I want the people that I read about to be in difficulties—emotional, moral, spiritual, whatever, and I want to live with them while they're finding their way out of these difficulties.                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                  —John D. MacDonald

       James Scott Bell's comments: Notice . . . that the reader has to wonder what is going to happen   next. To people.   . . . Create characters readers will be drawn to and put them in desperate straits soon.


Essential #2

Second, I want the writer to make me suspend my disbelief; I want to be in some other place and scene of the writer's devising.
                                                                                                            —John D. MacDonald
      
       James Scott Bell's comments: Simply put . . . (w)e have to to create the impression of something really happening in a real world to real people. So how do you do this? 

First, by being accurate. If you're writing about 1905 Los Angeles, do not include the Dodgers.  . . . You have to know your world before you write about it. . . .

And always choose the telling detail over plain vanilla description.

      "He jumped into his car and drove away."    
        Wait, what kind of car was it?
       "She was beautiful."
        Was she? I don't believe it. Describe her so I know it. Show me how other characters react to her.



Essential #3

Next, I want [the writer] to have a bit of magic in his prose style, a bit of unobtrusive poetry. I want to have words and phrases really sing.
                                                                                                           —John D. MacDonald

      James Scott Bell's comments: The key word here is unobtrusive. If the prose stands out too much, shouting "Look at me! I'm wonderful writing!" the suspension of disbelief takes a hit.

But if it's dull, if it moves the story along like a burro in Calexico, it creates no magic.

Example, from John D MacDonald's Darker Than Amber:

      "She sat up slowly, looked in turn at each of us, and her dark eyes were like twin entrances to two deep caves. Nothing lived in those caves. Maybe something had, once upon a time. There were piles of bones back in there, some scribbling on the walls, and some gray ash where the fires had been."

Suggestions from Bell: Say you want to describe someone's wild hair. Write for five minutes without stopping. Describe the hair in two hundred or three hundred words. Let the images fly. Go back later and find the good parts and edit them down. . . . Write hot, revise cool. . . . And read some poetry.  . . . The lilt of language will help you tap into different parts of your writer's brain.

Like I said, excellent advice from Bell. I'm at the beginning of revising a novel, over half of which I wrote eight years ago, then put aside. It was just more than I could carry at the time. It's a huge, powerful story that took all I had to give when I worked on it back then, and now, after writing other, lighter stories and novels while it lay fallow, I'm back at it. I've learned a lot about writing in the intervening years. Believe me, I want to get this novel right, because I think it might be real and moving and compelling—it deserves my best efforts. More about that in a later post, but I bring it up here because when I sat down to laser-focus in on making those revisions on the opening chapters, I wanted to test the results against excellent standards. I think these essentials and comments from MacDonald and Bell are great standards for that purpose. Or any novel writing, for that matter.

Do you have a favorite book on writing you go to to test your work against? There are many good ones. I'd love to hear what works for you, and why.

Amazon Removes Author Reviews

You may have already seen this—it might be an attempt by Amazon to deal with the 'sock puppet' issues that have plagued the credibility of book reviews posted on their listings. The company has removed reviews of books by fellow authors.

Here's the article.

On another topic, I hope you're all having a safe and happy holiday weekend. Personally, I'm loving being with family and once again realizing how lucky I am in life. Sometimes I need a bit of a jolt to put life in perspective! Thanksgiving is a great holiday to remind us of all the good things we enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Best Books of 2012: Publishers Weekly's (and Our) Selections

It's almost Turkey Day, and I'm thinking we all want an easy, fun few days to surround it, so instead of posting on an industry topic of controversy and/or intensity, I thought this would be a good time to just share some book selections.

Below are Publishers Weekly's choices of their top ten books of 2012. But before we get there. . .

Let's all add one or two. Here's my selection: Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple: it's  hilarious, and a little dark and twisty. You'll laugh out loud if you've ever had to deal with holier-than-thou parents at your children's school, or if, by chance, you live in Seattle and don't care much for certain aspects of it (or if you understand why someone else might feel that way until they get to know the city), or if you sometimes think you might be crazy and nobody understands (wait, no, none of us writers ever feel that way).

So, what's your favorite book of 2012?

PW's list: Top Ten Books, 2012

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

E-Book Metadata: Key to Sales

One blog reader, Chihuahua Zero, commented on Friday's post that he'd like to read more about metadata—one of the key elements identified by Jon Fine of Amazon as important to e-book sales, and discussed briefly in my post. I appreciate that request—thank you Chihuahua Zero!

Simply put, what I gather from reading about the topic is that metadata is the information about your book that describes your work, and is used to classify it for e-book sales. The e-book publisher uses the metadata you provide to categorize where your book belongs in their lexicon, and how they will present it to potential readers (much like deciding which bookshelf it goes on in the brick and mortar bookstore). 

Here's part of how Jon Fine defined metadata (as reported in a Digital Book World post):

Metadata is basically the online version of everything publishers used to sell books before the rise of digital: Book cover, synopsis, author information, book-jacket blurbs and more. Ignoring the digital versions of these things can doom a book to obscurity.

It starts with the cover. Online, an effective cover is different than what works in print.

“What looks good full-size doesn’t necessarily look good on your cell phone,” said Fine.

But it doesn’t end with the cover. Publishers must make sure their books are categorized correctly and associated with the correct keywords.

“The amount of time you go online to shop for a book and use keywords has grown astronomically,” Fine said.

Perhaps the best piece of metadata that publishers can use to help readers find their books is the text of the book itself. For publishers that enable it, Amazon will search inside the text of the book when readers use the site’s search function.

Fine went on to make a strong pitch for Amazon's approach to selling e-books and how authors should tailor their metadata to fit that approach.

Fine identified metadata in terms authors can easily relate to, such as the appearance of the cover and the content of the book blurb. But there's a whole area about how the data is used technologically and how authors should enter it into e-book publishing sites, that needs to be emphasized as well. This is not stuff that many of us relate to so easily.

One way to understand what authors need to focus on when developing their metadata is to note the emphasis placed by Fine and others on 'key words.' It makes sense that the words you identify as key words to describe your book will determine the categorization and presentation, right? Anyone who's worked with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knows how important key words are to getting traffic to your blog or website.

So where and how, exactly, do you enter key words for your book, and what else is involved?

According to the website, WritersServices.com, when you are ready to make your book into an e-book for a sales site, you will find that all e-book converters give you a way to add or edit metadata. But it's important to realize that "you should try to embed as much of your metadata as possible into the source file" because editing it in the files (once they've been set up) is not easy. (Go here for the full discussion.) The discussion also identifies what and where metadata is stored—in what online files of the publisher, etc., along with suggestions for how you, the author, might use that information.

I've got to admit, I have the same emotional reaction to this sort of important information that I have when I'm trying to grasp the details of filing my taxes each year. It feels overwhelming. 

So, those of you who've been through this process, could you chime in and tell us about your experience with providing (inputting) metadata, and share any wisdoms you've uncovered? I'd love to hear how you made it work for you.

How To Maximize Sales of Your Book on Amazon

In September Digital Book World held a conference in New York where one of the speakers was Jon       Fine, director of author and publisher relations for Amazon. According to Fine, there are three things you can do to make sure you are getting the best sales numbers possible from your listing on Amazon:

1. Make sure your book is available in all appropriate formats all the time.
2. Make sure your metadata is specific and good: book cover, synopsis, author information, book jacket blurb, etc. This, according to Fine, is probably the most important piece of maximizing Amazon sales.
3. Focus on creating a great Author Page to make it easier for readers to discover you through Amazon.

These suggestions sound excellent for all book sales, to me. For more detail on Amazon's suggestions, check out the DBW report on Fine's presentation here.

More on the Penguin/Random House Merger: A Historical Perspective on This Sort of Business Behavior

An interesting article was published this week by The New York Times that offers an analysis of what the Penguin/Random House merger might be leading to for the book business.

In "How Dead Is the Book Business?" journalist Adam Davidson says, "The entire book industry may eventually become an arm of an infotainment giant. Is that a bad thing?" This sets up his discussion of the merger from a historical perspective, comparing it to what happened around the turn of the 20th century when new technology created a new industrial paradigm in many businesses, from the steel industry to the envelope business. He says:

"There are two competing predictions about commerce in the digital age. One is that companies will get smaller and more disruptive as nimble entrepreneurs can take on giant corporations with little more than 3-D printers and Web sites. The other envisions a few massive companies — like Procter & Gamble, Apple and Nike — that design everything themselves, have it manufactured cheaply in Asia and use their e-commerce sites to gather information about their customers. Nearly the exact same conflict occurred more than a century ago in the decade that straddled 1900, which was also a period of rapid technological change. In just a few years, 1,800 small companies were swallowed up as the electrical-power, telephone, auto, steel and chemical industries grew from patchworks of tiny companies into conglomerates. In “The Great Merger Movement in American Business 1895-1904,” the Yale economist and historian Naomi Lamoreaux wrote that back then everyone worried about the same thing that authors, editors and book buyers worry about now: Are large companies good for the economy? Do they grow through efficiency and innovation or by abusing their leverage?" (emphasis added)

So which of those happened back then? According to Lamoreaux, both. 

U.S. Steel, on one end of the spectrum, stopped trying to innovate and instead bought up existing steel-related companies to create a behemoth that monopolized ownership of iron ore. This led to short-term success but long-term disaster.

On the other end of the spectrum was Sears & Roebuck, which "grew by solving market and technical problems" and innovated to stay ahead. Importantly, it didn't monopolize its industry—competition with the likes of Montgomery Ward and K-Mart kept the industry healthy.

So where does the book business fall? In the middle, according to the scholars. Consolidation, like that of the steel industry, has been going on for a long time and the Penguin/Random House merger pops as leading toward more and more consolidation to the point where "it’s possible that there would soon be only one or two publishers and that they might be folded into some larger infotainment company like Time Warner Penguin or maybe Random Viacom. There would still be books — just not large book companies."

But, Davidson points out, in a digital world where self-publishers and bloggers compete, too, monopoly is unlikely, Instead, "(e)ventually, it’s likely that book publishing will embody both conflicting visions of digital-age commerce — lots of small businesses and a few massive ones that handle big-ticket items."

Is this a dire situation? Whether we're comfortable with that scenario or not, it's functional. But, there is an underlying threat that isn't being recognized by our government or publicized by the industry right now. It harkens back to when U.S. Steel bought up all the iron ore so it didn't have to compete. There are laws now to prevent monopoly, but there is an iron-ore-monopoly type of element lurking in the book business: patents.  

According to Davidson,  "government issued patents . . .allow large corporations to buy up vaguely worded deeds that can be used to sue upstarts out of existence. This is the iron ore of the digital age and many large companies are gobbling up as many patents as they can. Reuters recently reported that Amazon (which somehow holds a patent for the "one-click shopping" button) was hiring several high-profile patent lawyers with the mandate to "identify and evaluate strategic I.P. acquisition and licensing opportunities.” The company has argued that it buys up patents to defend against the lawsuits of others. That may be partly true, but the worst fate for readers isn’t the merger of a few struggling companies in a diminishing business. It’s the threat of another U.S. Steel."

Check out the full article here for a more in-depth discussion of the arguments made.

oops

Sorry, all, there's a bug going around town and it got me. I'd post something this morning just to keep the side up, but it would come out like this . . . ummmmm. . . no . . brain . . synapses . . working . . ahhhhhh.

:((

See you soon in less unfocused times.

How To Hit Your Creative Stride

Kathryn Ramsland Ph.D, is a member of Sisters In Crime, an organization that I also belong to. Dr. Ramsland wrote an article for the September 2012 InSinC newsletter in which she described study findings that support two of my favorite things as states of being worth cultivating if you want to tap into your most creative self. What are they?

Meditation, and Being in a Good Mood! Awesome. Here are the findings:

"constructive tips

A regular habit of meditation appears to develop areas of the brain that are involved in mental agility. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that people who meditate for 30 minutes each day have measurable differences in their grey matter—especially in the association cortex. A study involving Buddhist monks confirmed this. They had more “gamma power” in the frontal, parietal, and temporal association cortices. This finding suggests that training can improve our brain’s functioning.

Research at Northwestern university revealed that people in a good mood are better problem solvers and use sudden insight more often than methodical calculations. Seventy-nine participants completed mood state inventories just before they performed an experimental task that involved word completion exercises. When their brains were scanned, activity in the part called the association cortex was consistent with insight solu- tions. The better their mood, the more creative they were. The researchers suggested that a positive mood broadens the scope of attention, externally and internally, which allows for a greater range of data input."

p.s. the ‘association cortex’ referred to above is described by Dr. Ramsland as follows: The association cortex is a part of the brain that "receives and integrates information from a variety of sources and then organizes our cognitive processes. The brain appears to be a system of feedback loops that constantly generate new thoughts."

So here's my plan: meditate 30 minutes each morning, and make sure part of the intention I bring to the meditation is to elevate my general mood. Sound good?

Publishing Tips from William Bernhardt, Author and Extraordinary Teacher

I've excerpted part of Bill Bernhardt's Red Sneaker Writers Newsletter below in order to share some of his insights with you about the changing publishing industry. I was in a week-long writing workshop of Bill's a few years ago, and the man's intelligence and ability to teach writers how to put together a book that will sell are fantastic. Here's some of what he has to say in his current newsletter:

"What you need to know:  Much as you might like traditional books, as writers we must realize that in the future, the ebook clause will be the most important part of your publishing contract, and the paper book clause will be an “ancillary right.”  Traditional books will not disappear altogether, but they will eventually become a luxury item indulged in by an older demographic that can afford to send money on something they can get more efficiently, quickly, and inexpensively in digital form.

WHAT ARE AGENTS LOOKING FOR?
 
I polled a different panel of agents this month, but the answers were not tremendously different:
 

1. Romance—with vivid (but not off-putting) sex scenes, and a unique twist readers haven’t seen before.  The largest traditional publisher of romances, Harlequin, has suffered significantly diminished sales all year.  The success of Fifty Shades of Gray and its clones have apparently siphoned away sales of traditional romances.  We could be witnessing an enduring shift in what readers want.
2. Paranormal teen romance--with high stakes and a unique approach.  What previous generations saw as fantasy or horror is now considered mainstream.  Note that the most popular television show in America at this time isThe Walking Dead.  This is the first time a cable show—a program not on one of the three major networks—has been number one.  I’m also pretty sure it’s the first time the top show has involved a group of people being slaughtered by zombies; and
3. Some record advances are being paid for inspirational fiction, particularly at Thomas Nelson (which was recently acquired by deep pocket Harper Collins).

WHAT SHOULD THE RED SNEAKER WRITER DO?
 
Here are my suggestions:
 

1. Write every day.  But you knew I was going to say that, right?
2. If you’re writing something you consider Christian fiction, consider whether you can give it broader appeal without sacrificing your personal writing goals.  Could it be inspirational or spiritual without specifically targeting a particular religion?
3. What do you think is the biggest problem facing this country today?  Can you concoct a story that in the course of the telling exposes that problem?  This was the approach Dickens used when he planned his novels, and they turned out fairly well.
4. If you’ve pitched a book and the agents are turning it down cold, you need to make the premise more unique, interesting, or large.  In the more likely case that they ask to see your manuscript but don’t take you on as a client, it indicates that your writing needs work.  Consider more revision or getting outside help."

If this resonates with you, and you're looking for a serious, good writing workshop, I highly recommend working with Bill Bernhardt. Here's what's coming up:

"UPCOMING WRITING PROGRAMS
 
I’m teaching a Level 1 seminar on November 12-16 in Oklahoma City.  The class is limited to eight people or fewer.  Be prepared to work.  We meet approximately four hours a day, you will have homework, and I will read and edit your work every night (and before the seminar begins).  This requires a lot of effort, but you will see a difference in your writing by the time it's all over.  I’m also planning a Level 3 seminar for the week of April 15-19, 2013. 
 
For more info on the small group seminars, visit my website: http://www.williambernhardt.com/small_group_seminars.php."

Sound Effects In Your Writing

Writing is more effective when the sounds create a rhythm in the reader's mind. Whether the sentences are short and direct or long and complicated, if the words rise and fall through their impact or through their sound, or through the way they sound next to each other, then they hang together with memorable meaning.

Novelists are often told that it's best to mix short and long sentences to create good rhythm and to avoid boring the reader. Cadence, syllable length, sentence length, and word choice all count. This applies to all genres.

We are not often told to pay close attention to the sound of the words next to each other, but that is precisely what Priscilla Long focuses on in her excellent discussion of the use of sound effects in prose. In her book, The Writer's Portable Mentor, she explains the use of sound effects at the word level. Essentially, what Long says we want to do is go for the echo of word sounds.

In poetry, this is done all the time. In prose, all the time is too much for many of us. If you are a writer who values story over words, you will not want to sacrifice pacing to making the words as beautiful as possible. But it's important to realize that even the fastest-paced novels have far greater impact if the writing uses word sound effects to advantage.

Here are two of the types of sound effects that Priscilla Long identifies as effective for creating echoes in prose:

Alliteration: when first consonants make the same sound and thus set up an echo.  For example: 'Power to the People.' Slogans often use alliteration, but in prose writing it's important to use alliterative echoes without overdoing it. Too much is obvious and kitchy (my word, not Long's).

Here's an example of good prose alliteration I found in a short story called Selway, by Pam Houston:

"They threw us their rope and we caught it. There were three of them, three big men in a boat considerably bigger than ours." (Pam Houston, Cowboys Are My Weakness, p. 27, Selway)

See all those 'th's' echoing each other? Notice how the echo creates rhythm and emphasis? Also alliterative here are 'big,' 'boat,' and 'bigger.' Same effect.

Assonance: the echoing of vowel sounds. The words, 'historically, stiffness, and discourse,' for example, assonate in their hiss-stiff-ness-dis sound. Another example Long provides is about saxophonist Ben Webster:

"His tone is thick and reedy, almost as full of air as note." (Ira Sadoff, "Ben Webster," 255)

Priscilla Long points to the long 'o' sounds in this sentence: tone, almost, note.

The reader's ear hears these long o's and strings them together to create an underlying rhythm/sound to the sentence that adds resonance.

Other types of word sound effects are also explored in Long's chapter on Working With Language in The Writer's Portable Mentor, but these two, alliteration and assonance, are techniques that come naturally to most prose writers.

If you take a look through a chapter of your work, you're sure to find places you've used sound effects. If you're like me, you'll find plenty of places where you can improve the writing by realizing what you might do with sound effects to create more emphasis at key points without using more words—just better words, ones that create an echo.

Do you have a standout sentence to share that uses word sound effects well, whether from your own writing or another favorite author?

Laura Diamond's NEW PRIDE Blog Blitz

I'm delighted to help Laura Diamond, psychiatrist, blogger, YA writer extraordinaire, celebrate her launch of NEW PRIDE, the prequel to her upcoming novel release of SHIFTING PRIDE. Here it is .  . TA DAA!!!

NEW PRIDE RELEASE DAY BLITZ!

New town, new love, new terror.

It’s here! My prequel novelette, NEW PRIDE, releases today. I’m SO stoked for it to run wild in the world.

NEW PRIDE was born from my upcoming novel, SHIFTING PRIDE (coming December 7, 2012!). In SHIFTING PRIDE, the main character, Nickie, searches for her missing father, Richard…and NEW PRIDE is all about Richard’s journey to independence and new love.

NEW PRIDE Blurb:

A shape-shifter without a pride, Richard Leone strikes a tenuous friendship with power hungry, Derek, from an unstable, rogue group. On a hunt in the forest, they encounter a gorgeous brunette, Molly, partying with friends around a campfire. Derek tells the rogue pride and they bristle at humans trespassing on their territory. Richard risks life and tail to protect his secret and the humans—especially Molly—while simultaneously trying to win her heart. When Molly is kidnapped, he faces taking on the rogue pride alone, but quickly finds he has to put his trust in Derek, not only to rescue his new love, but to ensure the rogue pride doesn’t wreak havoc on his new town.

Author Laura Diamond:

Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist and author of all things young adult paranormal, dystopian, horror, and middle grade. Her short story, City of Lights and Stone, is in the Day of Demons anthology by Anachron Press (April 2012) and her apocalyptic short story, Begging Death is in the Carnage: Life After the End anthology by Sirens Call Publication (coming late 2012). Her debut young adult paranormal romance, SHIFTING PRIDE, is coming December 2012 by Etopia Press. When she's not writing, she is working at the hospital, blogging at Author Laura Diamond--Lucid Dreamer , and renovating her 225+ year old fixer-upper mansion. She is also full-time staff member for her four cats and a Pembroke Corgi named Katie.

How to find Laura Diamond on the web:

Blog: http://lbdiamond.wordpress.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/diamondlb

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laura.diamond.52

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLauraDiamond

Amazon.com Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Diamond/e/B009Y7L432/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_8

Website: www.AuthorLauraDiamond.com

YouTube interview:

In The DM Zone—Talking about SHIFTING PRIDE

<iframe width="560" height="315"src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TSoavea6gbo"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

A bonus:  I will be giving away copies of NEW PRIDE to several lucky fans! Please click the link below and fill out the form on my fan page to enter. Thanks! http://authorlauradiamond.com/?page_id=37

And, here's the link to purchase NEW PRIDE on the web.

*GROUP HUG* Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to celebrate with me and for helping me spread the word. This wouldn’t be happening without you. Yes, you! Without you, I’d have given up a long time ago. ;)

I hope you enjoy NEW PRIDE and SHIFTING PRIDE.