This is an author's blog written by Pico Triano. 'Pico's Profile' will tell you a little about me. 'Pico's Stuff' will lead you to links and information on how you can access all my publicly available writing. 'Friends and Family' advertises websites on behalf of family and friends. The 'Friend Book Reviews' page is where I review materials written by the many friends I have made as a writer. Finally I recently added a review page for general reviews.

Friday 29 March 2013

Gearing Up For Camp NaNoWriMo



Last November we had four successful participants in NaNoWriMo in the family. April marks the beginning of Camp NaNoWriMo http://www.campnanowrimo.org and four of us have signed up and a fifth possible. My goal is not to write a completely new book, but rather turn "Rat in the Shadows" into a complete manuscript. I have eight chapters written. That's a really good start but it is not a novel. I think the story line is a winner in the same realm as my first book. People who like "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" will likely like the new story. For me completing the camp will be a success as long as it doesn't interfere with getting the first book out there.

I am a little jealous of my daughter who can put a full manuscript in a month in her sleep. She finished NaNoWriMo last November in ten days. There was a write in late in the month at the local library and she sat there twiddling her thumbs because she was already done. One of my twin boys is going for his first manuscript (he's not in the picture but looks almost exactly like the blond young man next to me). His genre this time out will be steampunk. That should prove interesting. Great to have so many family members pulling for each other.

Thursday 14 March 2013

Added Link For eBook Software

I am grateful to my friend "An Indian" from my Book Junkies friends for leading me to this free software. I thought it would be useful to any of my readers. I have found it to be quite easy to use and have had no trouble with it. The website link should appear on the right hand side of this page underneath the list of pages for this blog. The page I have linked to should allow you to select the appropriate format and then download from there. Happy reading.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

LSDL Character Development Part IV

There are a whole raft of secondary characters and they all got developed to one degree or another. I started off writing out complete profiles for all my characters before putting them in action in my book. At the start it did help especially with the main characters. I used a basic form which I saw in Robert J Ray's book The Weekend Novelist. Doing the background work helped. In all honesty for the minor characters of the book this process was over thinking things a little. A character who is going to be on the stage for short period of time doesn't really need hours of preparation before going on. NaNoWriMo style writing got me through a lot of the over thinking. Some of those lesser characters just got tossed in and I think they turned out just fine.

Related Articles and Links

Sneak Peek: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Chapter I
Making a new major character for Rat in the Shadows
LSDL Character Development Part I
LSDL Character Development Part II
LSDL Character Development Part III

Saturday 2 March 2013

Odds and Ends

Got my first group email from InknBeans Press. It was exciting to see me and my book welcomed in the first paragraph. I've been describing my book as an action/adventure book with a strong romantic subplot. They described it as a noir mystery there. I start off with hero on the path for vengeance and justice and a heroine who is lured to a job which isn't quite what it was advertised to be. My bad guys are working together as organized criminals. I can see this. Guess the story has a little something in it for everyone.

I downloaded a copy of Kitty Sutton's latest book through Smashwords called Wheezer and the Shy Coyote. When I'm done reviewing it, there will be a new review written up here and submitted to some of the online bookstores. I do like her historical fiction built around Native American history. I'm also grateful for the work she put in to get me noticed by her publisher. I thought it was cool to get a mention in her acknowledgements at the beginning of the book.

InknBeans did get a picture of me for their website so it is probably only a matter of time before I post a picture of myself here as well. It's great to be a Bean.

LSDL Character Development Part III

The Villians

Mike Zapparoli, Serge Cote and Francois Rodrigues are bad bad bad. While I like to create more complex antagonists, I didn't make much effort to give these guys any likable characteristics. I was more interested in making them "real". Probably put as much time into developing these characters in profile as I did the hero and heroine. Dialog and actions had to realistically portray what a person in their line of work would be like.

Characters like them bring along a certain amount of violence and foul language. I tried my best to keep those things to a minimum. Most of the violence is "off camera". I don't think there is anything there that is unnecessary to the story. Realistically people of their ilk will cuss. They have much cleaner mouths than some of the people I encounter on a regular basis. These things are not the focus of this story and I won't be making that the focus of any future work. My goal is to tell a believable story not to shock or upset.

I don't want to give away too much information about my villains. Hopefully they will add the spice the story needs to make it exciting and interesting.


Related Articles and Links

Sneak Peek: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Chapter I
Making a new major character for Rat in the Shadows
LSDL Character Development Part I
LSDL Character Development Part II
LSDL Character Development Part IV