From Publishers Weekly
In her bestselling The Artist's Way (1992), Cameron offered a 12-week program aimed at recovering one's creativity. Each chapter ended with exercises designed to help a reader glimpse his or her inner artist, which, Cameron said, had been buried alive under a mountain of negative conditioning. Now Cameron urges readers to go deeper still. As before, she urges them to write three daily "morning pages" of stream-of-consciousness prose and to take themselves on a weekly "artist's date," a solo outing designed to help them get better acquainted with their inner selves. But here, Cameron gives new emphasis to her advice about the value of a daily 20-minute walk: "The job of your adult self, for the course of this book, will be to walk your creative child back to health." All the exercises here?from the considerable task of writing one's narrative history to doll-making; from creating collages representing difficult relationships and mulling over the common themes of favorite movies?are intended to make readers feel deeply. "A pilgrimage is a physical process," writes Cameron. "What this means is that the tools of The Vein of Gold will be more deeply felt, and therefore more deeply resisted, than the tools of The Artist's Way." The book is divided into "kingdoms"?of sight, story, sound, attitude, relationship and spirituality. Each leads readers closer to their own "vein of gold"?to that territory of experience and possibility that, Cameron says, is indelibly theirs. For those seeking the wellsprings of creativity, this book, like its predecessor, is a solid gold divining rod. 125,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC and QPB featured alternates, One Spirit main selection; simultaneous Putnam Berkley audio; author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Coauthor of the best-selling The Artist's Way (Tarcher, 1992), Cameron here assists her readers in broadening their creativity by guiding them on a journey through seven kingdoms. Her analogy of mining for gold?mining for the heart of creativity?works very well. To stimulate creative energies while walking a path to emotional growth, Cameron suggests beginning with writing a morning meditation. Chapters on patience, courage, and spiritual gifts are all interesting, each chapter ending with a list of tasks to practice. Each page is festooned with a quote from a writer, artist, or spiritualist. A solid bibliography and discography round out this rich self-help guide to developing spiritual, creative lives.?Lisa S. Wise, EBSCO, Springfield, Va.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Cameron's The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (1992) worked so well for so many people it became a best-seller, thus turning Cameron into a creativity guru for artists of all kinds, but especially for writers. Cameron's mind-freeing exercises are the basis for many a workshop and writers' group, and the wisdom she has gained through teaching has inspired her to develop new and even more probing techniques for liberating what she believes is our innate creativity. Cameron characterizes her teachings as "a process of creative individuation and emergence," or, to use that dreadful New Age phrase, of freeing the inner child. To her credit, Cameron is perfectly aware of readers' resistance to such approaches, but she forges ahead nonetheless, reminding us that a closed mind is antithetical to creativity. She encourages readers to explore various "kingdoms" of sight, sound, story, attitude, relationship, spirituality, and possibility both in her narrative and in work sheet^-based exercises, all aimed at mining that "vein of gold," our creative heart. Donna Seaman

FROM OUR EDITORS

Examining the creative process through more than 100 imaginative, involving, and energizing tasks, this book engages readers in "inner play," leading to authentic growth, renewal, and healing.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart, Cameron again draws from her extensive artistic and teaching experience to lead readers toward ever-widening creative horizons. An extraordinary book of learning through doing, The Vein of Gold features inspiring teachings on the creative process and more than one hundred imaginative, involving, and energizing tasks. Each task involves the reader in "inner play," leading to authentic growth, renewal, and healing. Arranged as "a journey to the heart of creativity," the book guides readers through seven kingdoms: The Kingdom of Story, where the formative power of language empowers the creation of our guiding self-image; The Kingdom of Sight, where we learn to receive information holistically and honor our most personal impressions, intuitions, and feelings; The Kingdom of Sound, where we tune in to the melodic flow of creative life, literally making each day more "sound"; The Kingdom of Relationship, where we sharpen the skills and develop the will to choose the companions we can really trust; The Kingdom of Attitude, where the negative self-talk that weighs us down is cast off as we learn to pursue our creative efforts with lighter hearts; The Kingdom of Spirituality, which teaches us to examine and strengthen conscious contact with the higher realms for a working partnership with unsuspected inner resources; and The Kingdom of Possibility, where the reader comes to fully inhabit his or her creative life vision.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In her bestselling The Artist's Way (1992), Cameron offered a 12-week program aimed at recovering one's creativity. Each chapter ended with exercises designed to help a reader glimpse his or her inner artist, which, Cameron said, had been buried alive under a mountain of negative conditioning. Now Cameron urges readers to go deeper still. As before, she urges them to write three daily "morning pages" of stream-of-consciousness prose and to take themselves on a weekly "artist's date," a solo outing designed to help them get better acquainted with their inner selves. But here, Cameron gives new emphasis to her advice about the value of a daily 20-minute walk: "The job of your adult self, for the course of this book, will be to walk your creative child back to health." All the exercises herefrom the considerable task of writing one's narrative history to doll-making; from creating collages representing difficult relationships and mulling over the common themes of favorite moviesare intended to make readers feel deeply. "A pilgrimage is a physical process," writes Cameron. "What this means is that the tools of The Vein of Gold will be more deeply felt, and therefore more deeply resisted, than the tools of The Artist's Way." The book is divided into "kingdoms"of sight, story, sound, attitude, relationship and spirituality. Each leads readers closer to their own "vein of gold"to that territory of experience and possibility that, Cameron says, is indelibly theirs. For those seeking the wellsprings of creativity, this book, like its predecessor, is a solid gold divining rod. 125,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC and QPB featured alternates, One Spirit main selection; simultaneous Putnam Berkley audio; author tour. (Oct.)

Library Journal