: About Me

I publish under the pen name, Lane Diamond, but my real name is Dave Lane. I am the author of one novel (and counting) and many short stories, poems, and song lyrics. My writings cross over many genres and focus on diverse subjects, ranging from the mysteries of the human mind, with its fragile psychological and emotional states, to the everyday joy and anguish of life on Earth. I seek to provide a smooth, flowing style for those who enjoy the English language, and to carry them on a literary excursion, an escape from the mundane workaday stresses.

I've done my tours in both the U.S. Air Force, as an Accountant, and the business world, where I've been everything from a Forklift Operator to an Operations Manager, a Bartender to a Business Services Manager, a Salesman to a Project Manager. I even "played around" for a while as the Lead Singer for a couple of Rock 'N Roll bands.

These days, when not writing, I'm a Professional Editor who works with several published and aspiring authors. I currently seek literary representation for my debut novel, "Forgive Me, Alex," a psychological thriller, and its eventual sequel, "The Devil's Bane."

I WRITE BECAUSE:

As it is with many writers, the act of writing is for me a psychological imperative. I put on paperokay, on a computer filemy thoughts, frustrations, anger, dreams and aspirations. The process relaxes me. I pour out my angels and demons onto the page, and they refresh my soul. It's been that way since 1972, when I first started writing short stories and poetry at the age of twelve. It was all very juvenile, of course, but it started a process to which I've clung desperately in the years since.

HEY, THIS IS HARD!

Okay, so this thing we call "writing" is not the easiest thing in the world. So what?

In modern times, the marketing folks at Nike said it succinctly: "Just do it."

Larry the Cable Guy simplified even that: "Git'r done!"

Good advice, indeed, but I prefer Shakespeare's slightly more eloquent version: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, and all the voyage of their lives is bound in shallows and miseries."

The flood now rises. I intend to catch the wave.

I READ BECAUSE:

One cannot write who does not read, of course, and I started reading in earnest, and for sheer pleasure, in 1979. I've suffered large gaps in my life during which I read precious little, due to insane work schedules or crazy stress levels or relationship problems or.

I had many excuses. As I look back on it now, having rediscovered the path, I wonder how I survived without books.

My earliest influences were Stephen King and Robert Ludlum, though I quickly added Frederick Forsyth, John LeCarre and J.R.R. Tolkien. I especially loved a good espionage thriller back in those Cold War days.

It wasn't long, however, before I expanded my horizons. I now find inspiration in the works of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Charles Dickens, John Irving, Tom Clancy and Harlan Coben, to name but a few.

My favorite author is Mark Helprin, whose gift of language and extraordinary characters raise me up. If you haven't read "A Soldier of the Great War" or "Memoir from Antproof Case," you're missing a wonderful experience. That's this reader's opinion.

THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL:

I wrote my first novel in 1981, a pedantic and clichd espionage thrillerutterly horrendous. All right, so the characterizations were strong, but the rest of it so embarrassed me that I later disposed of it. Nonetheless, I learned a great deal.

In 1987, I started a new novel and completed about 280 pages of the manuscript before I realized it was, while better than my 1981 attempt, still short of professional standards. I had more to learn, so I scrapped it and concentrated my efforts on learning and reading and reading and reading and reading. One will find no better education than that.

In June 2007, I finally took another crack itmuch better! I've completed my first true novel, a psychological thriller called "Forgive Me, Alex," for which I now seek agent representation.

It's a frustrating process (How's that for an understatement?), yet I remain hopeful and anxious to start my life as a novelist. I cling to confidence despite the industry barriers that first-time authors must overcome. The trick, of course, is to convince someone to read the manuscriptnot as simple as it sounds.

My second novel, "The Devil's Bane," a sequel to the first, progresses nicely.

My passion is ...

literature and music

I know too much about ...

physical pain

My parents always told me ...

to give 100% to everything I do

My childhood ambition ...

to be a professional baseball player

My favorite memory ...

I can't pin it down to just one

Why I write ...

because the alternative is unthinkable

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

a few literary classics, a few modern thrillers, all to background smooth jazz

My first job ...

dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant, at age 12

My best moment ...

is yet to come

My inspiration ...

all the great writers

Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Let me be myself

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"Step Aside" Dare I step aside or merely walk the brazen path? I know not, either way, what tide it brings. Perhaps I've not the knowledge, nor the will to knowledge, To fear, embrace, or understand these things. Think of me a prince, or a humble, lowly jester. Yet make me free to step my lonely dance. I'll sing to you my song, and I'll carry you along, To revel in my maddening circumstance. Do not dare to tease me, nor falsely try to please me, Nor steal my mask of quiet reverie. Whenever I pretend, or whatever I defend, I mourn no less for all I'll never see. I find comfort in what's rig...

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