SHAMELESS SALES PITCH

Please see my ode to the art of writing, posted today on Fiona and Kaspalita's blog, Writing Our Way Home.

Okay, here it comes--and I'm not even going to apologize for it!--the shameless self-promotion and sales pitch. First, if you're a regular, or even an occasional reader of The Buddha Diaries or Persist: The Blog, thank you. I've said it before, but never too often. I hugely appreciate your readership.

Now I'm asking for your help. "Mind Work" is off the press and copies are available. I'm not expecting a big commercial success; indeed, the financial return (if any!) is no great motivation for me. But I do want to get copies into circulation, and this is a challenge, coming from a small independent publisher. It's hard to get book stores to order copies unless real people come in, asking for it; and those many readers who might well get something important from the book will never know about it if they don't see copies on the shelves of their local bookshop.

So here's what I'm asking, as recompense for those many delightful hours you have spent immersed in The Buddha Diaries!

1) The best thing you can do is to order a copy at your local bookstore, and give it a good mention to the people there.

2) The next best thing is to order online, through Amazon or Barnes & Noble; or directly from Parami Press.

3) You can give the book a mention in your blog; or email the link to your list of contacts, with your personal recommendation.

4) You can read the book and give it a review, or forward your recommendation to a person who might write one.

5) You can talk it up amongst friends, suggest it as a read for your book club, and so on. The buzz is enormously important.

Thank you for any and all help you can give me. It will be much appreciated. Meantime, a couple of stones...

NEWS FLASH!

I'm delighted to let you know that I will soon have copies of the new book, Mind Work: Shedding Delusions on the Path to the Creative Core. Stephen Schettini, author of The Novice and the blog The Naked Monk writes that Mind Work is "a first had account of what it is to be a human being in pursuit of greater attention, clarity, and compassion." I myself tend to see it also as a practical path to the source of creativity, as the subtitle suggests.

Mind Work is already available for pre-order at Parami Press (see link on the right hand sidebar, with a spectacular cover image by the artist Gary Lang!)

I hope that you won't mind that I ask for your help in spreading the word about the publication by forwarding to like-thinking friends these links to the Facebook page and the Goodreads group we have set up to promote ongoing discussion of the ideas in both Persist and Mind Work. I’m guessing that you will share many of the specific concerns I’m bringing to the fore, and I believe that we all need to have discussions of this kind to keep the creative fire alive in today’s challenging cultural environment.

I do very much appreciate any help you might be able to give me in putting out word about Mind Work and, even more, your participation in the conversation.