Reston, VA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/17/2006 -- Pedro Vera continues his exploration of the political climate of a Caribbean Basin without American influence, with the publication of 'Pulling Strings' in conjunction with Lulu (www.lulu.com), the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books.

Pulling Strings is a novel of political what-if's involving a near future in which the United States allows the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to become an independent country, without knowing that the island nation sits on huge oil reserves that dwarf the biggest oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Alaska and Venezuela. The Republic of Puerto Rico is now five years old and starts to put into action an ambitious expansion policy that threatens every country in the Caribbean Basin and the Gulf of Mexico.

This is Pedro Vera's second novel on the subject. His first novel, 'Shining Star' (ISBN: 1-4116-5667-9) was also published through www.lulu.com.

Pedro Vera wrote Pulling Strings to help himself and other independently published authors get noticed by the media. He came to Lulu because he wanted to be in control of the publishing process and found Lulu's print-on-demand tools to be fast, easy and, most importantly, free. Pulling Strings is available for purchase at www.lulu.com, in a marketplace filled with other unique and wonderful surprises.

"I want to raise awareness of the political status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, " said Pedro Vera. "My novels are just but one of many scenarios that could play out upon the creation of an independent Republic of Puerto Rico. By using the Lulu process I can work outside of the conventional political pressures and prejudices of separate publishers."

Pedro Vera is a firm supporter of the Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) initiative that helps authors with tools to help them license their works while protecting their intellectual rights. Both 'Shining Star' and 'Pulling Strings' are available as free downloads under a Creative Commons license at the author's website, www.veraperez.com.

Link to Publication*: http://books.veraperez.com
Publication ISBN: 1-4116-6884-7

ABOUT AUTHOR
Pedro Vera is an accomplished engineer with over 16 years of software development experience, plus a 5-year enlistment in the US Army. He has a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York. His web log (www.veraperez.com) is a popular web destination with frequent readership from more than 25 countries. He is currently working on his third novel.

ABOUT LULU
Founded in 2002, Lulu is the world's fastest-growing print-on-demand marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. Please see www.lulu.com for more information.

MEDIA CONTACT: Pedro Vera, pedro@veraperez.com, 202-538-1510.