An Arkansas state park called Crater of Diamonds is the only diamond-producing site in the world that is open to the public. A woman sat down in the shade and noticed a 2.93-carat diamond about the size of a pea just laying there. And she gets to keep it!

A visitor certainly has better odds of finding a diamond than winning the lottery. About 27,000 diamonds, most very small, have been discovered at the 37.5-acre park since it opened in 1972. The largest ever was 16.37 carats – a hefty haul for an afternoon at the park.

Diamond lovers willing to dig a little might consider including a stop at Crater of Diamonds during their next vacation. It might pay for the trip!

It was in the half-unpacked mess that (Eira Thomas) lost a pair of earrings set with two-carat diamonds from the Diavik mine. She’s pretty sure her dog Melville ate them. (“He likes shiny things,” she says.) – from an article at Portfolio.com

Back in 1994 when she was only 25, beautiful red-haired geologist Eira Thomas led the field team that discovered a multi-billion dollar diamond deposit in Canada’s Northwest Territories. She became a very wealthy woman known in mining circles as the “Queen of Diamonds”. Eira is also the inspiration for the character of Petra Paris, the diamond hunter geologist in Diamond Lust.

So whatever happened to Eira?

According to Portfolio.com, “Thomas is out to prove that she is not just the luckiest woman in the world but that she remains a diamond explorer to bet on.”

Now 41, she is Executive Chairman of her company, Stornoway Diamonds Corporation, and married with children. See her photo. The company is focused on Renard, a promising diamond development project in northern Quebec. According to the Globe and Mail, Renard will be Quebec’s first diamond mine, going into production in late 2013.

“Renard” is French for fox. Coincidently, I originally chose Fox Lake rather than Ptarmigan Lake as the name of Diamond Lust’s fictional diamond mine.

But I digress…

Although Eira’s dog ate one set of earrings, the Queen of Diamonds has buckets of the sparklers. The studs have been replaced.

Marcia James, author and public relations expert, is a freelance video scriptwriter and advertising copywriter by day and writer of humorous romance fiction by night. She shares a wealth of marketing and promotional information with other authors on her site, in on-line workshops, and in person. I met her at the RT Booklovers Convention in Columbus, Ohio in April.

Without further ado, here are Marcia’s Top Ten PR Tips:

There are numerous ways for authors to promote themselves before and after “The Call”, but many authors dislike PR and don’t know a lot about it.  Today, I’m discussing promotion for the newly published author (although most of these suggestions are pertinent to all authors).  Here are some tips to get started and others to narrow down which promotional options are right for you.

1. Choose a pen name, Google it to make sure it’s unique, lock in your domain name, and create a website.  I chose my pen name in 2001, and there were only two other “James” romance authors with websites.  Now there are so many that I interview a different one each month for my website’s James Gang page (http://www.MarciaJames.net/James_Gang.html).  You can make lemonade from lemons like I did if things change in the future, but when you’re starting out, it pays to do some research before picking a pen name and branding it.  And since your website will be your #1 PR tool, make sure it’s professional.  I’m a technophobe, so I hired a Webmistress (Karen McCullough — http://www.KarensWebWorks.com/) to create and maintain my site.

2. Understand branding, learn your brand, pick a tagline that summarizes it, and make all of your marketing efforts reinforce your brand. Branding guru, Jenn Stark, has a Know Your Brand website (http://www.KnowYourBrand.com/kyb/) with resources and helpful information, and she also presents detailed workshops.  I cover the basics of branding in my workshops, and here’s how I developed my tagline and branded my PR materials.  I knew my author’s “voice” and manuscripts were funny and risqué, so I wanted a tagline and brand that would let readers know they’d get a funny, risqué read when they picked up my books.  And I chose a simple tagline (”Hot, Humorous Romances”) that was general enough to encompass all the romance subgenres I want to write — from comic contemporaries and funny romantic mysteries to lite paranormals.  My website reflects my comic voice (with the cartoon visuals, the light tone of the text, etc), as well as my books’ sensuality level (with my R-rated book excerpts and my sex advice column “written” by a sex therapist character of mine.)  Everything from my business cards and bookmarks to postcards and thumbcuff keychain giveaways reinforce my “Hot, Humorous Romances” brand.

3. Learn what PR options are out there in order to make educated decisions.  To pick the best promotional choices for you and your books, you first have to learn what’s available.  I have a 285-page WORD file of PR options I give away free to other writers.  Just go to the “Contact Me” page of my website and email me requesting the file.  I’ll attach the file to my return email.  In addition, for those who take my workshops, I offer lectures that present overviews of the different types of author promotion.  The following tips are ways to narrow down your self-promotion choices, once you know what they are.

4. Determine how much money you have to spend on promotion. You will hear people comment that you need to spend a certain percentage of your advance or royalties on promotion.  This isn’t written in stone.  Only you can decide what money you have to spend.  And there are MANY free PR options available.

5. Budget your time as well as your money. Unless you can afford a publicist, an author promotion site, or an assistant, it will fall on you to do whatever it takes for your PR push.  And any time you spend doing promotion is time spent away from creating those books you want to promote.  So take your time constraints into consideration.

6. Take into account any limitations due to your physical location. Where you live can greatly limit opportunities for in-person promotion, such as networking, booksignings, and presenting workshops.  And authors who want to promote outside of their countries have to deal with other concerns, such as customs.  So your physical location (and travel budget) will impact your PR choices.

7. Consider the PR limitations or requirements of your specific books. For example, there are different opportunities and concerns when promoting an e-book vs. a print book.  And shelf life can play a part in how you promote a category print book vs. a single title print book.  In addition, the sensuality level of your books might limit the venues where you could hold booksignings.  (For example, I have a Chinese crested hairless dog in each of my books, but I doubt Petsmart would offer to host a signing of my more explicit romances.)  Once you know what PR options are out there, you can choose which would be best for your specific books.

8. Determine what niche markets are worth targeting. Who is your target audience?  The romance-reading community is huge and voracious, but finite.  If you can spot elements in your book that lend themselves to niche promoting, you can win new readers and help grow the romance market.  For example, if you write Scottish historical romances, you might want to sell your books at a local Scottish fair.  If your hero drives a vintage Mustang, you could hand out your PR materials at a vintage car rally.  If one of your protagonists is a quilter, you can join an online quilters’ forum.  And if your heroine is a special events coordinator, you could contact the professional association for that career and ask their newsletter editor if you could send a press release about the book to their newsletter.  You can find contact information for thousands of groups, hobbyists, etc. in several library resource books: The Encyclopedia of Associations and Associations Unlimited.

9. Try not to duplicate the promotional support your publisher is providing. Nothing can beat or replace publisher support, especially when it comes to distribution and brick-and-mortar bookstore placement.  Some publishers’ promotional teams will work with authors and some won’t.  Learning as much as possible about your publisher’s marketing plan will help you avoid duplicating efforts.  For example, ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) of your book are expensive to make, so sending ARCs to the same bookstores and reviewers your publisher does is a waste of money.  And authors need to dole out their PR dollars very carefully.

10. Don’t discount the roles your personality and skills play in which PR options are best for you. Not everyone is cut out to do every PR option.  There are promotional opportunities that are better suited for extroverts — such as speaking at library functions and power-schmoozing at conferences.  Introverts might prefer presenting online workshops and cyber-networking with readers on the Internet.  Some authors might have the skills to design their own websites and graphics, while others will shy away from anything technological.  For example, I’m coming late to social media sites just because setting up “Marcia James” pages on MySpace, Facebook, etc., was intimidating to me.  But I love doing booksignings, in-person networking, being on panels, etc.  So you can pursue marketing situations that make the most of your personality strengths and your talents.  Thanks to the many PR options out there, an author shouldn’t have to choose promotional opportunities they dislike.

The bottom line…

Authors are being pressured more than ever to do a LOT of self-promotion.  It’s easy to feel guilty over not doing enough — and to worry that your promotion isn’t effective.  Consider co-promoting or cross-promoting with other authors to share your marketing costs and time.  And choose those PR options that work best for you and your books.

Happy promoting!

Marcia James

www.MarciaJames.net

If you’re interested in “balancing” work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable. - Donald Trump

Angela Easton has a rule about not mixing business with pleasure. Then engineer Harry Richards proposes that they partner for a business that is all about pleasure. He’s invented a bra that’s more fun to put on than take off! It’s love or bust for the pair.

The Next Big Thing is my new free short story. Download it at Cerridwen Press and let me know what you think.

My favorite bush plane is being manufactured by Viking Air Ltd., 22 years after the last 19 passenger, two engine workhorse rolled off the production line, according to The rebirth of a Canadian icon (May 15, The Globe and Mail).

Back in the early 80s I flew as a passenger in almost every type of small plane then available for charter in the Northwest Territories. Depending on the season, they were equipped with skis, floats, balloon (tundra) tires or regular tires. We landed on water and on strips made of ice, snow, gravel or (occasionally) pavement. Here is a photo of my younger self on a sand strip in Rae Lakes. Now that was a short landing.

Then why is the Twin Otter my favorite small plane?

Because two engines and two pilots make it safer.

During a flight to Inuvik with two colleagues over lake-dotted tundra in a four-seater, the single engine suddenly sputtered and choked. Not a good thing. The pilot franticly flipped switches as the rest of us gripped the armrests and grimly contemplated the prospect of a forced landing. The plane had balloon tires, but there was an awful lot of water down there. An eternity later the engine roared back to life.

The pilot had fallen asleep, unaware of a fuel tank gauge inexorably dropping to Empty. After he switched to the full tank in the other wing, all was fine. Except our nerves. Inuvik has a bar, and we headed straight for it.

With two pilots you’d think the odds are better that at least one stays alert. One dull winter day on a scheduled Twin Otter flight we were flying over an endless blanket of white snow dotted with what I presumed were trees. Suddenly I was pushed back in my seat as the plane steeply gained altitude. Those weren’t trees, they were bushes! Neither pilot had been monitoring the altimeter.

The new Twin Otters will be equipped with modern avionics. I recommend that those state-of-the-art electronics be programmed to monitor cockpit activity. When things get too quiet, the headsets should blare: “Wake up, wake up.”

Readers of Diamond Lust expressed the desire to know more about its heroine, Petra Paris. After Petra’s adventure at Ptarmigan Mine, she accepted a short term contract to work out of a field camp in the Mackenzie Mountains west of Yellowknife. Petra made herself available for this interview via satellite phone.

Why did you decide to become an exploration geologist?

Petra: I grew up in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. When I was a kid my parents took me to visit ghost towns from the Gold Rush days and we panned for gold in cold mountain streams. I also loved those dusty old westerns with prospectors who spend their lives searching for gold. I guess you could say I caught gold fever. But by the time I graduated with a geology degree, diamonds were the “new gold”, and the far north was the go-to place for prospecting.

What are you searching for right now?

Petra: There are rumours that a geologist from a rival company has stumbled across a promising emerald deposit. My team is checking it out.

What is the worst aspect of working in the far north?

Petra: The black flies. They’re miniature vampires. Their bites hurt.

What is the best aspect?

Petra: The beauty of the landscape. In the early fall the tundra vegetation transforms into a tapestry of muted greens, golds and soft reds interspersed with the stark blue of innumerable tiny lakes. When you’re flying above that stunning carpet and then spot a herd of caribou or some musk ox… well, the sight fills the soul.

Also, there is no other place on the continent where you can be dropped off by helicopter for days or weeks and be literally hundreds of miles from the nearest human being. For some people that might seem like the worst part of working up here, but the isolation has strengthened my connection to Mother Earth. I feel at home in the subarctic in a way that I don’t in the city.

You encountered many dangers during your stay at Ptarmigan Mine. What was your greatest fear?

Petra: Hmmm… (Long pause). Actually, nothing that happened then scares me as much as a new fear.

What’s that?

Petra: Becoming a mom. I am so independent and an only child. I’m terrified that I won’t adjust to being responsible for a little one.

Is there something you’re not telling us?

Petra: (Laughs) Next question.

What are you reading?

Petra: I enjoy Sarah Andrews’ mystery series about the investigations of a female forensic geologist. Beside my camp cot is the tenth in the series, Dead Dry.

Thank you for your time, Petra. Good luck with your emerald hunt.

Petra: Thanks. It’s always a pleasure talking with you. Bye now. (Click)

On April 30 in Columbus, Ohio I participated in my very first book signing event ever. Actually, I signed cover flats supplied by Cerridwen Press, and the purchasers received a confirmation code to download a copy from the Web site.

The first to buy an e-copy of Diamond Lust at the signing had just returned from Emergency and was floating thanks to painkillers.

“Is this a good book?” Jennifer from Seattle asked me.

“Yes,” I assured her. “It is a very good book.”

So she bought it. (Thanks so much, Jennifer! You made my day.)

As the first purchaser in person, Jennifer had her choice of promo gift: a faux diamond ring or a “diamond” fridge magnet. She went for the ring.

Bling is popular. The incredible volume of ballots for my gift basket bore this out. I had had a lot of fun assembling a velvet-draped box with a tiara, “diamond” earrings, necklace and bracelet, and a DVD of the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Marilyn Monroe who sings Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend. The American Film Institute lists the song as the 12^th most important movie song of all time!

The winner of my basket, Julianne from Lancaster, Ohio, sought me out at the book signing. I was so excited to meet her. She planned to wear the bling to the Vampire Ball that evening.

I had such a wonderful time at the conference that I plan to attend RomantiCon in Ohio in October. Hosted by Ellora’s Cave, the event will celebrate their 10 year anniversary. And yes, I will bring along a bling-filled gift basket, for sure…

You could always tell what kind of a person a man thinks you are by the earrings he gives you.

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

My hubby gave me diamond stud earrings on the occasion of our first Christmas together. The pretty set of .24 carat sparklers came with a couple of extras: a Government Certificate of Authenticity and a Certificate of Evaluation signed by a gemologist.

Canada has a great system to ensure that the diamond you purchase is in fact genuine and was mined in Canada. Each Canadian diamond has a unique identification number that is lasered into the non-visible portion.

If the diamond was also cut and polished in Canada’s Northwest Territories, a Government Certificate of Authenticity is issued by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thus you can be assured that your Canadian diamond was not shipped off to Europe or Asia to be cut and polished and then returned to be sold in North American retail stores.

This Canadian system protects you from fraud or the inadvertent purchase of a “blood diamond” or “conflict diamond”– one that was sold to fund war or uprisings, usually in Africa.   As a tea-drinker said in an old television commercial, “Only in Canada, you say? Pity.”

What is so special about Canadian diamonds? They are among the clearest, best quality diamonds in the world. They are mined ethically, with well-paid employees and measures in place to protect the environment.

So when shopping for a diamond, check out the five Cs: Clarity, Colour, Cut, Carat, Canadian.

To announce the release (woo-hoo) of Diamond Lust on Thursday, the  18 of February, I guest-blogged at two sites:

1. The Romance Dish on 19 February, 2010.  Read that post at  www.theromancedish.com

2. Author Hannah Howell’s blog on 22 February, 2010.

Celebrating,

Madelle

My first full-time job was with the Northwest Territories Department of Public Works and Highways. (There were only two so-called highways in the early 80s, neither paved. You were more likely to encounter a bear than another car.) As a junior project engineer, I supervised various construction projects in many of the Inuit and Dene communities.

Most communities are only accessible by air. In late summer or fall the few located along the Mackenzie River or the Arctic coast receive their annual resupply of freight, food, construction materials, and even vehicles by barge or freighter. In winter some are accessible from a larger community via a temporary ice road across the frozen tundra. However, for most, the only way in or out is by chartered flights or the regularly-scheduled “skeds” which fly in once or twice a week, weather permitting, loaded up with horrendously expensive fresh food, freight, and, occasionally… smuggled goods.

What would one smuggle into a remote community of 300 souls, you might ask? Young and naive, I had no idea of the “criminal” activity occurring under my very nose in some of the most breathtakingly beautiful, seemingly peaceful tiny communities sprinkled across the Land of the Midnight Sun.

One lovely summer day a very cute young Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer greeted the chartered two-seater plane that landed with me and my survey equipment on the gravel landing strip at Deline (then named Fort Franklin) on the shore of Great Bear Lake. He proceeded to inspect the items that the pilot off-loaded and then I trotted off to do whatever it was that had brought me there.

Later, Cute Officer and I must have had tea, because everyone up north visits and has tea. My memory is a little foggy as to the exact sequence of events, but I never forgot Cute Officer’s stories. You see, alcohol was and still is the scourge of the north. Deline was a dry community. The Dene elders had instituted a “no alcohol” ban, strictly enforced by the RCMP who met and searched every wheeled or float plane landing by the pretty collection of log houses. In winter they searched the sleds pulled behind snow machines returning from hunting trips. Apparently one night Cute Officer found a bottle stuffed inside a dead rabbit.

The piece de resistance to that point in his anti-smuggling campaign was the day he opened a crate of oranges, stuck his hand down amongst the individually-wrapped fruit, and squeezed. Sure enough, someone had replaced the oranges with round plastic bladders filled with alcohol.