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It’s Time To Pay More Attention To Me

May 21, 2013 / Lane Diamond / 4 Comments

Well, I have been woefully neglectful of this, my blog and website, for the past few months. In the grand scheme of priorities, it somehow found its way to the bottom of the list. I decided late last night – or perhaps I should say early this morning – that this must change.

One of things I needed to do first was ramp up my motivation, my drive, my sheer enthusiasm for my own work. So I decided to visit my Goodreads page for Forgive Me, Alex and read all those reviews. Yep, that got me pretty well fired up.

Life in general has offered a few distractions as of late, and my work at Evolved Publishing has swallowed up the rest of my time, but I’ve resolved that it’s okay to say to folks, on occasion, “Sorry, I can’t do that.” Scheduling work a little further in advance has become not just okay, it’s become a necessity if ever I’m to write my own books.

Of course, some pretty great things have happened at Evolved Publishing, including an ever-expanding team of talented individuals, a constantly-growing catalog of fine books, a Facebook Street Team that’s both supportive and great fun, and even that terrific new website we have.

Still, my second novel, The Devil’s Bane, simply refuses to write itself. The nerve! And this blog? Fuggedaboutit!

Well… until now. Yep, I’m back, and I mean to stay back if it kills me. It won’t, of course.

Are there too many books out there, or never enough?

February 12, 2013 / Lane Diamond / 5 Comments

Dear Reader, we striving, emerging authors need you.

Prompted by a recent Facebook post, I just checked one author’s listings (she happens to be self-published) at Amazon, and she has 3 books out, the highest ranked of which is #972,xxx. That means she sells about 1 copy every 2-3 months. Her other two books are even worse. So no one is reading her books.

Yet she mentioned in a recent post that her 4th book is coming soon, and she’s all excited.

I’m not sure what to make of that. Part of me wants to say, “For God’s sake, go back to your day job and stop muddying-up the market for everyone.” Yet another part of me wants to say, “Way to stick to it.”

Sadly, one has merely to sample her work to understand the first part of the problem: no editing. It is simply rife with bad structure and grammar. And the covers are… err… not good. She’s trying to make her way completely on her own, without professional help, and not making it at all.

Yet, as a fellow author, should this bother me? Does it really muddy-up the market? Will you, Dear Reader, still find what you’re looking for in the vast sea of reading options? Will my book stand out because of its polished, professional presentation? Will you, Dear Reader, find it difficult to find the gem-like drops (he says not-so-modestly) amidst the ocean of poor work?

Honestly, I’m back and forth on this, and haven’t quite decided on the right answer. Some instinct deep inside me, however, believes that if the process becomes too confusing and disappointing for readers, they’re simply going to revert to their old stand-bys and give up on discovering new authors. This, of course, would be bad news for those of us newbies who are seeking to step into that light.

Yet one surefire method remains for us to find our way out of the abyss: word of mouth. Yes, if someone reads my book, and enjoys it, she’s likely to mention it to someone else, who might then give it a try. This is a time-tested and effective method of of bringing a new author out of the darkness. The problem with that, of course, is that if the author doesn’t have a great level of visibility out there in the world, and people are slow to find him in the first place, this process can take years.

Is there a viable alternative (without spending thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising)? Probably not.

So, Dear Reader, you now understand why it is so important to all of us authors that you post a review at Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or iTunes, or Kobo, or Goodreads, etc. You also know why we love you when you say to a friend, “Hey, have you read this book? It’s awesome!”

And, of course, we authors must continue to write. The author I mentioned above has that part of the equation right, if not the others. I’ve been struggling with that due to time constraints, but am determined to get my sequel out soon. For now, I’ll just have to hope that more people discover Forgive Me, Alex and feel compelled to shout from the mountaintop, “You must read this book!”.

Then, I must get The Devil’s Bane out soon.

Six-Sentence Sunday #4 – Devane’s Reality – A Short Story

December 30, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 0 Comments

Welcome to Six-Sentence Sunday.

The idea is to give you a small taste (6 consecutive sentences) of one of my pieces, but a compelling one. You can find previous Six-Sentence Sunday excerpts by searching under the Category by that name.

So, is the excerpt below effective? Only you can tell me that.

Six-Sentence Excerpt – Devane’s Reality (A Short Story)

My mind roils as I cling to hope and expectation, only to find, one day after the next, disappointment greater than in the day before. Only one creature creeps out of the darkness to haunt my nights. I’ve known this stalker before—loneliness, my sole companion on this bizarre expedition.

I now understand that we humans do not suffer solitude well. I long for contact—any contact. I yearn to meet a one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed, elderly gypsy woman who spends every waking minute singing show tunes with a voice like a howler monkey undergoing torture.

Available at Amazon

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A Shadow on the Mind, A Blemish on the Soul

December 27, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 0 Comments

(Note: I first wrote this several weeks ago as part of a blog hop I participated in. It appears for the first time here.)

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”

That classic line from the 1930’s serialized radio program, The Shadow, functions as something of a theme for much of my writing. This is particularly true of my novel, Forgive Me, Alex. It also guides a fair portion of what I read.

For me, great literature has always been about great characters, and if I’m going to dig really deep into a character, the author needs to take me… well, really deep inside that character. I want to know what’s in that character’s mind, his heart, his soul. I want to know what scares him, what makes him nervous, what excites him, what motivates him.

Now, to be clear, this requires a level of authenticity that will bring the character to life in a realistic way. However, it needn’t be all puppy dogs and daisies. Let’s face it: there are some real sickos out there. But what makes them sick?

If you heard that a neighborhood kid was stealing people’s pets and first torturing them, then dismembering them, how would you react? Would you say he’s sick? Would you wonder how anyone could even think to do such a thing? Would you fear letting your dog out? Would you call that kid… evil? Yes, I used the E-word. So many today seem to want to hide from the possibility that true evil exists, to explain it away as something else, to make it not a cause, but a mere symptom. Why?

People fascinate me. Specifically, the inner workings of the human brain fascinate me. After all, as human beings, our brains are what separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom. That brain is complex, mystifying, and still largely misunderstood. Indeed, in the medical sciences, the brain is truly the final frontier. For all the extraordinary things they’ve learned about how the brain works in recent years, they’ve still barely scratched the surface.

Human emotions and psychology are particularly difficult to understand. How many times have you scratched your head at another person’s actions, wondering what in the world they must have been thinking, or feeling? Now, imagine a person who has no feelings. Would he be easier to understand? Perhaps. Would he also scare the bejesus out of you? Probably. As well he should.

Let’s return to that kid above who likes to torture and kill the beloved Fido and Mittens. The mere thought of such acts might bring you to tears, turn your stomach, and make you want to grab a baseball bat and pay that kid a visit. For that kid, however, ripping Mittens limb from limb is merely a… curiosity. As a psychopath, he doesn’t process emotions the way you and I do. (Please tell me you’re not curious what it would be like to tear Fido limb from limb.)

Why doesn’t he feel in the same way we do? The cause could be physical, environmental, or… nothing at all. Dare I say it? Some people are just evil.

It’s hard to understand, and it draws us in, perhaps out of our own sick curiosity, natural though it may be. Why is the TV show Criminal Minds, which brings us a weekly parade of some of the worst sickos in our midst, so popular? Setting aside the obvious—great cast, solid acting, exceptional writing—might it be because we’re all, at some level, fascinated by how a human being can do what we ourselves couldn’t even imagine doing, at least not without puking our guts out and collapsing into a weeping mess?

And might that sicko—that twisted, despicable, unrepentant psychopath—make a great character? Oh yeah, baby! Come on… tell the truth: you love reading about that kid who’s sharpening his knife right now, even as he’s eyeing Fido in the neighbor’s yard. At least, you love hating reading about that kid. Or is it hate loving?

Well… let me introduce you to Mitchell Norton, the devil. http://bit.ly/EPbhFMA

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As I prepare to wrap up the year, I look forward to a more engaged 2013.

December 25, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 2 Comments

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and have a very Happy New Year!

All in all, I’d have to say that 2012 has been an exciting year. It’s certainly been a busy one. Whew!

Those of you who follow my blog (Thank you!) know all too well that I’ve given it short shrift in recent months. I’m not the kind of person who thinks I should be sending you a new blog post every day. Bluch! Who has time to read them? Especially of you’re like me, and subscribe to about 200 of them. So I try to pick my spots, and provide 3 or 4 decent posts a month. Usually. Yeah, the last few months haven’t been so good.

My only real excuse is that I’ve been working insane hours trying to keep up with an insane editing schedule for all those insane authors at Evolved Publishing. (Just kidding! They’re terrific.) Seriously, though, the pace of things at EP this year far exceeded our expectations, which, I must say, certainly beats the alternative. 😀

My business partner D.T. Conklin and I had hoped to have 10 good authors and 20 quality books in EP by the end of 2012. Well, we ended up with 14 and 35, respectively. It’s been a grind, and we experienced a few growing pains — which, in retrospect, seems perfectly natural — yet even with those few challenges, it was just plain exciting! And 2013 promises to be a good year, as we continue to build our catalog of quality authors and books.

2013 will also be exciting for me because we’re making some changes to our management team, which will free up some time for me not only to do all I must do as a publisher, but to write my own books, too. Man, I can’t tell you how excited I am to get back into the writing routine! To say it’s been driving me bonkers that I haven’t been writing would be one of the year’s great understatements.

As part of that, I expect to be more engaged at this here sad excuse for a blog. 🙁 I doubt it will happen in January, but by February, I should be well settled into my new routine. If not, I’m gonna… I’m gonna… well, I’m gonna go truly bonkers.

Next up is the sequel to Forgive Me, Alex (BTW, it’s on sale this week. Save $2.), which I’m calling The Devil’s Bane. Some of my favorite characters (and I hope yours) will be making a return appearance: Tony Hooper, Frank Willow, Diana Gregario, Linda Monroe, Ben Komura, and yes… that despicable Mitchell Norton. Mwoohaha! My hope — nay, my intention — is to publish it on May 21st. A lot will have to go right for that to happen, but I am an eternal optimist. (After all, I’m the guy who assumed my girlfriend quit smoking cigarettes when I started finding cigar butts lying around the house. 😛 )

Will it all happen according to plan? I sure hope so. I mean… err… ahem… yes, it will happen!

In the new year, be happy, be healthy, be safe. Thanks again.

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Guest Post by Angela Scott, Author of DESERT RICE

November 13, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 8 Comments

Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming author Angela Scott, award-winning author of WANTED: DEAD OR UNDEAD, DESERT RICE, and SURVIVOR ROUNDUP, for a guest post I think you’ll find interesting. This is part of a blog hop running at Evolved Publishing this week, in which you can not only discover new authors, but win some cool prizes, too.

How do you balance your religious beliefs but stay true to the story you need to write?

I’m not a religious fanatic, but I do have a moral compass and “rules” for myself that I try my best to live by. But here’s the thing…I belong to a religious affiliation who have even more rules that I should be living by, and the kinds of stories I find myself writing tend to break a lot of those rules. I’m a good person, but my characters make a lot of mistakes–some pretty big ones. These are the stories that come to me, the voices that whisper in my ear. Personally, I think I would be HORRIBLE at writing religious fiction type books, so knowing that, I don’t even try.

So why does any of this matter? I guess because I worry someone might mistake my stories as my own personal belief system. What I write about rarely matches up to what I believe to be true. Do I believe kids should be having sex at fifteen-years-old? Heck no. Do I believe it’s okay for kids to drink? Never. The list goes on.

Desert Rice deals with some pretty tough topics. I don’t go into details, but there is enough there for a reader to paint their own sordid picture. This is a book that I know might offend several people of my church. I guess, even after all this time, I still worry about what people think of me. Sad, I know.

So then why write the stories I do? Why write about zombies or child abuse? Why not just stick to my moral compass and do the right thing? Because rarely do I pick the story or its characters–they come to me. That sounds crazy, but it’s true. So I write what I write, and I will let the chips fall where they may. I don’t think what I write about pushes any major envelopes–there are MANY books out there with topics and word choices I would NEVER do–but to be a member of a religion that preaches building up the kingdom God, I’m pretty sure my books aren’t doing any of that.

Take Stephanie Meyer for instance (I know, I know. We really don’t want to talk about her, right?) but her fourth book got some members of her religious group in an uproar. They didn’t agree with what she wrote. They attacked her and questioned her standing in her church. Besides her writing not being up to par, she didn’t write anything completely offensive or downright evil, but she suffered some backlash for it, regardless.

So how can I be who I am, believe what I do, but write books that contradict some of those beliefs? Am I a hypocrite? Maybe. I don’t know. There are certain lines I have drawn, certain “things” and word choices I would never use, but I have made some “creative choices” (for lack of a better term) that some in my religious community would say is wrong–I should be sticking to my standards, so they would say.

What do I do? How do I walk that fine line? How do I explain myself…or not?

What do you think? How do you balance it? Do you draw lines in the sand or do you write the story that needs to be written…no matter what? I’d love to know.

Click HERE to learn more about Angela Scott.

About DESERT RICE: Samantha Jean Haggert is a beautiful twelve-year-old girl, but no one knows it. All they see is an awkward boy in a baseball cap and baggy pants. Sam’s not thrilled with the idea of hiding her identity, but it’s all part of her brother’s plan to keep Sam safe from male attention and hidden from the law. 15-year-old Jacob will stop at nothing to protect his sister, including concealing the death of the one person who should have protected them in the first place–their mother.

Sam and Jacob try to outrun their past by stealing the family car and traveling from West Virginia to Arizona, but the adult world proves mighty difficult to navigate, especially for two kids on their own. Trusting adults has never been an option; no adult has ever given them a good reason. But when Sam meets “Jesus”–who smells an awful lot like a horse–in the park, life takes a different turn. He saved her once, and may be willing to save Sam and her brother again, if only they admit what took place that fateful day in West Virginia. The problem? Sam doesn’t remember, and Jacob isn’t talking.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Six-Sentence Sunday #3 – Forgive Me, Alex

November 11, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 0 Comments

Welcome to Six-Sentence Sunday.

So, is the excerpt below effective? Only you can tell me that.

Six-Sentence Excerpt – Forgive Me, Alex (A Psychological Thriller Novel)

Mitchell Norton, the man I’ve long considered the devil, smiles atop the courthouse steps and waves to the simmering crowd. He tilts his head back to soak in the sunshine and cool breeze of the late spring day, the tranquility of which stands in stark contrast to the circumstances of this event.

The mere sight of him pushes me to the dark edge of my mind, where sanity hangs like… like… like a balloon in a tornado!

I stand in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster’s release. As my face blazes, fists clench and teeth grind, I can easily imagine the onset of a stroke, an aneurism, a pulmonary embolism, a raging scream—

Control yourself, Tony!

Available at Amazon

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I Didn’t Disappear – I’ve Just Been Editing, Editing, Editing

October 15, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 0 Comments

Yep, I’ve been a busy editor, indeed, with no time for writing (including this blog… yeesh!).

In the last couple of weeks, Evolved Publishing has released the following books, all of which I had a hand in editing:

If you like contemporary romance, you’re going to love Secret Storm by Amelia James. This is a companion piece to her first novel, Tell Me You Want Me.

If you’re a fan of YA Paranormal Romance, or movies like X-Men, you’re going to love Forbidden Life (Forbidden #3) by Kimberly Kinrade, which is the final installment in the Forbidden Trilogy.

If you have kids 6-9 years old, they’re going to love this chapter book, The Three Lost Kids & The Death of the Sugar Fairy by Kimberly Kinrade, a Halloween adventure sure to make reading fun for the kids.

Introduce your kids 3-6 years old to the joy of reading with this picture book, Tommy Goes Trick-or-Treating (A Bird Brain Book) by Emlyn Chand, with full color illustrations by the talented Noelle Giffin. This Halloween adventure, featuring Tommy the Woodpecker, and his pal Michael the Racoon, is sure to be great fun for the little ones.

Last but not least, Evolved Publishing has put out its 2nd anthology, resulting from its 2nd Short Story Contest. Evolution: Vol. 2 (A Short Story Collection) contains 10 terrific stories from 10 talented authors, and is sure to offer a little something for everyone (multiple genres and styles).

I hope you’ll check these books out. I’m quite proud of them, and I’m sure you’ll love them.

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A High Commandment of Effective Writing: Show; Don’t Tell

September 19, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 1 Comment

From the Editor’s Desk:

I’ve been posting articles about how to write better for some time now. Many of them go back to my old freelance editing days, and many of them, I’m afraid, have been lost in the shuffle.

Well, I think it’s time to blow the dust off a few of them, and to make it simple for you to visit (or perhaps re-visit) what I hope you’ll find to be helpful articles.

Let us start with one of the primary commandments of effective writing: Show; Don’t Tell. I’ll link here 3 posts from long ago that might help you grab readers, to provide a more satisfying visual experience.

Remember: Stronger writing makes for stronger reading.

Under the Heading of SHOW, DON’T TELL: Readers Can’t See What Something Is “Not,” They Can Only See What Something “Is”

Under the Heading of SHOW, DON’T TELL: Make Your Characters Blind, Deaf and Dumb

Under the Heading of SHOW, DON’T TELL: With Words as Paint and the Page as Canvas, Paint Us a Picture

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Hardcover of Psychological Thriller “Forgive Me, Alex” Now Available

September 12, 2012 / Lane Diamond / 0 Comments

You can now get Forgive Me, Alex in hardcover. Just click on the title link.

Or, if you would like to reveive a signed copy, you can simply make your selection below. If you’d like a personalized inscription, please indicate what you’d like written in the special instructions during checkout. Prices include shipping.