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Release Date - March 25, 2006

DIANA'S DECK: ROMANCE AUTHOR CREATES UNIQUE TRADING CARDS

MILWAUKEE, WI - Romance author Diana Laurence has dealt with the label "nonconformist" before, so the unconventional idea of sharing her romantic vision via trading cards fits her style.

Laurence writes spicy romance fiction.  Her three Soulful Sex anthologies and her novel Souls' Embrace focus frankly on erotic themes.  However, her style is a somewhat spiritual and tasteful approach she calls "erotica with soul."  Laurence explains, "My writing is a bit off from typical erotic romance sold today--but there are a lot of readers who love having this alternative.  Having bucked tradition before, I thought why not do something even more off-the-wall, and turn my characters into trading cards?"

Why would a romance writer think of creating trading cards? 

For a long time Laurence was a collector of hockey cards, and in 1997 sold an article to Beckett Hockey Monthly on how to use your computer to design your own cards.  The idea of romance cards came to her as she created portraits of 47 of her characters to display on her website, www.dianalaurence.com.  "All those handsome, beautiful, and sexy faces stared back at me from my computer screen and I just thought:  trading cards," says Laurence.  "It was a crazy idea, but I just had to do it, if only for my own enjoyment."

Laurence is also a student of psychologist Carl Jung, who taught the significance of archetypes and the imagination for personal growth and self-understanding.  The author realized that in the process of writing the 23 stories from which her portraits were drawn, she had explored a broad spectrum of archetypes and themes.  Each character actually represented a different aspect of love, sex and romance.

So Laurence designed the cards with 47 different themes, from obsession to infatuation to seduction.  And it was then that she realized the collection could serve as a sort of Tarot-type fortune telling deck.  She developed a method to use the cards for romance-related fortune telling.  The directions for doing so constitute the 48th card in the set, which she named "Diana's Deck."

Each card features the name, theme and portrait of the character, a brief bio, and a quote from the work that features that character.  There's no nudity on the cards, and the text, while occasionally for adults only, avoids vulgar language.

There is also a short list of interpretations on each card for fortune telling.  "Whether or not you believe in the paranormal," says Laurence, "there's value in thinking about how a certain archetype or theme strikes you at a particular moment, and that's why the cards work.  If you turn up the card for infatuation while pondering your current anxiety, it can provoke you to realize the crush you have on your boss is problematic."

That aspect aside, the cards have other charms.  "I tried to make all the characters interesting and their stories compelling," says Laurence.  "Likewise, in doing their portraits, I made them pleasant to look at.  Readers of my books will find them especially fun, but card collectors in general should find appeal in such a unique set."

The cards are available for purchase for $9.99 plus $1.70 S&H from Living Beyond Reality Press at www.livingbeyondreality.com.  The short-run first set is uniquely marked so as to have particular value.  "I'm certainly planning to reprint," says Laurence, "but it's impossible to guess what interest will be for something so unusual.

"The response to my books has been really encouraging, so I'm hoping taking the unconventional path will work again with Diana's Deck," she concludes.

Diana Laurence's books are available from Living Beyond Reality Press and online bookstores, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Fictionwise, and Powell's Books.  Additional information is available at www.dianalaurence.com.

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