Should you write more on the old character or create a new one?

October 4, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud 1 Comment

This was the the exact question I ask myself when I finish my first published novel, ‘The Writer‘

George Mason (the main character) and I spent long hours working together, trying to tell the story, trying to make it compelling, trying to keep him alive. (I write mysteries, trillers and suspense, there is usually someone dead or on the verge of) running and keeping the tension in a high level. But when I finish that novel I was done with George. I am not sure I will ever revisit him, I am not sure we will have that coffee we promised each other we will have in Colorado someday, in a way, at least for now, we where done.

Then I met, Hannah Fisher (the main character of my soon to be release novel ‘Putsch’) we also have spent hours working together, telling a story, keeping the tension and drinking merlot, but when the book was ready, finished, edited, I want it more, actually ‘Putsch’ is the first part of the story. Hannah Fisher and I had continue to drink Merlot and solving issues together, continue running and trying to the best of our abilities, to continue telling the story.

Aside point: It may be the Merlot instead of the coffee that had keep this relation alive, shame on George.

Sometimes, characters need to stay put, you may come back to them, you may never visit them again, sometimes you need a new kind of character to tell the story, sometimes, you need one that drink wine and is willing to get drunk instead of coffee so it doesn’t sleep that night.

I don’t have a definite answer. I am working on the third book now, continue the story of a Hannah Fisher, and I don’t know if after this I will continue telling more of her story or not, but at least for now, there is more to tell, more to celebrate, more to let people know about her, and her adventures. I may get tired of Merlot, and she hates Cabernet, or I may need to get back to sip coffee with George, or find me another coffee drinker for that manner.

As a reader, what is your feeling with you love a character and the writer can deal with him any more?

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Filed Under: Fiction, Writing

The Hydra is just in your mind. Notes on the new Novel

October 3, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

Last night as I was finishing a short story, I was surprise on the excuses we writers make to avoid finish the work, as fiction writers we create this images in our heads about the monsters we are going to fight, and make the battle even worse, is like having to fight agains an Hydra every single time.

As I revise that concept, I began thinking about what else is an fictional hydra in my life, about how much we tend to stop ourselves for accomplishing what we should in order to feed the hydra.

I am back to this blog, things had been insane, writing had been limited, but we are back, and I hope to begin with the catch up process, before NaNoWriMo gets here. I sent the second novel to the Editor (finally) and I hope publication continue in schedule for end of October.

This story is different than ‘The Writer’ my first novel, darker for sure, and over the next weeks I will be introducing some of the characters, Hannah Fisher for example, the main character on the novel.

In the mean time, let me leave you with the title: ‘Putsch’ and the definition as an appetizer:

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Filed Under: Fiction

Guest Post: Natural Born Killers

August 18, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

In celebration of her Best Seller for a Day for Terri Giuliano Long author of “In Leah’s Wake” today we will enjoy a short story from Terry, and tomorrow I will have my review of the book. In the mean time, sit, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Natural Born Killers

Terri Giuliano Long

Last year four young men, on a pre-dawn joyride, brutally murdered a young mother and seriously injured her eleven-year-old daughter. The boys—at the time 17, 18 and 19 years old—planned their crime, set out that night with the express purpose of killing innocent people. The driver carried a machete, another boy a four-inch foldable knife. When the teens broke into the house, selected at random, their victims lay asleep in their beds.

“It was just a game,” the ringleader, now on trial for first-degree murder, had told a friend afterward. “It was fun.”

“He joked how she woke up to being hacked to death by a machete,” one of the accomplices testified on the stand.

Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, is a quintessential New England town, a Rockwellian village of rolling hills and fields bounded by stone walls, a tiny community, two thousand strong, where neighbors know one another by name and look out for each other. Kimberly Cates’ ranch-style house, buffered by a stand of hemlocks and pines, sat at the end of a dirt driveway, separated from the town center by a five-minute walk through the woods.

According to her friends, Kim worried about the isolation; at night, the thick forest shrouded her home in darkness. The isolation that stoked fear in Kim’s heart whispered opportunity to her killers. Isolation, boredom, disconnection from the outside world—all this, various commentators have speculated, may have played to the killers’ dark side, ultimately pushing these boys over the deep end, as if life were a Stephen King novel, where isolation leads inevitably to unspeakable acts of violence and rage.

In photographs from the killers’ arraignment and trial, intensely angry eyes look defiantly out of haunting, expressionless faces.

My daughter and I scrutinize the photos. We need badly to make sense of this senseless tragedy. The narrative, like so many others—the Craig’s List Killer, the Yale lab technician, the Dartmouth murderers—drops us into one horrific moment, while providing no context, no definitive beginning, no tangible middle, only this terrifying, unimaginably horrific end.

Voyeurs, we stand outside, looking in. In our humanity, driven to make meaning, we wonder aloud.

Why? we ask—because only the answer, found in some dark pathology, confirmation of their otherness, separates us.

“Look at them,” my daughter says. “They’re skinheads. No wonder.”

The boys’ heads are, indeed, shaved; one news report alluded to swastikas.

Maybe deranged, neo-Nazi beliefs separated these kids from their peers. Maybe, isolated, bored, they whiled away hours playing violent video games. On his Facebook page, one of the boys wrote that, before heading out that night, they’d watched Dexter, a TV show featuring a sympathetic serial killer. Maybe a violent TV program or a movie, an addiction to TV or video games or YouTube or the Net severed their ties with reality, broke the necessary connection between the fantasy world and real life, where real people suffer and bleed. Maybe Neo-Nazi prejudices fueled their rage; maybe hatred drove them to kill.

Or maybe the shaved heads meant something else; maybe, in some twisted version of reality, their buzzed hair symbolized not their isolation at all. Maybe for these deluded young men, their buzz-cut hair, perhaps even their monstrously violent acts, identified them as a part of a group, their shaved heads a symbol of belonging, offering them a sense of connection—a feeling, however horrifying or psychotic, of hope.

My daughter is frightened. The boys remind her of kids she’d known in high school, bad-ass boys she or her sisters might have dated, hoping to nurture and change.

The pictures scare me, too. The young men look far too familiar.

They look too much like us.

Short Bio

Terri Giuliano Long grew up in the company of stories both of her own making and as written by others. Books offer her a zest for life’s highs and comfort in its lows better than anything else can. She’s all-too-happy to share this love with others as a novelist and as a writing instructor at Boston College. She blogs about writing and the writing life at www.tglong.com/blog Or connect on Twitter: @tglong

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Filed Under: Guest Post

Bestseller For A Day August 17th – In Leah’s Wake (You can Win a Kindle, and a great reads)

August 17, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

Today, August 17th, is Terri Giuliano Long’s big day! Her award-winning novel “In Leah’s Wake” is getting best seller of the day status. Best Seller of the Day is a program by Indie Book Collective and you can learn more here.

Continue reading and you have the opportunity to get not only a great read, but the chance to win a Kindle!

Let me tell you how this work:

It’s easy AND fun! Today through midnight:

1. Go to Amazon.com and purchase Terri’s eBook In LEAH’S WAKE for only 99 cents! You can also get some of the four fantastic bonus books, on sale this week ONLY for just 99¢ each: BELLA, THE TRUST, SOPHIE & CARTER, and CHASING AMANDA

2. Every purchase improves Terri’s ranking on the overall Amazon chart. Our goal is to get her eBook, out of the millions of eBooks, onto the Kindle Top 100!

3. Once you purchase her book, head over to the Bestseller For A Day site and enter to win a brand new KINDLE – Terri’s way of showing appreciation for your effort and support!

4. Wait! There’s more! How about this? 4 MORE AMAZING reads – only 99¢ each! BELLA, by D.C. journalist Steve Piacente, a hotbed of danger and intrigue in the U.S. Military. THE TRUST by Sean Keefer, an award-winning, knock-your-socks-off legal thriller. CHASING AMANDA, a luminous, must-read thriller by award winner Melissa Foster. And, last but definitely not least, SOPHIE & CARTER, a rocking YA romance by Wonder Woman Chelsea Fine, one of Amazon’s hottest new authors!

5. If you’re still reading here and not sure you should part with that buck and maybe win a brand new KINDLE, you can go to Amazon and check the 45 reviews of this book that may change your mind. (Did I mention that they are 4 to 5 stars reviews)

If you don’t have a kindle, you can download the Kindle app on almost any device (or read in your browser with the new Kindle Cloud) what are you waiting for, this book will move your heart!…

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Filed Under: Writing

I am listening voices. I am a writer.

August 15, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

Creating stories can be incredible challenging or incredible rewarding and fun. The problem is that not all the time you can simply create, some time you hear voices, you listen to the voices you want or need, sometimes the voices you hear are telling you a story you don’t understand, and when you obsess on the story you want to hear, you get blocked. Writers called this Writers Block.

I have been working on a terror story for an Anthology for Halloween, and this weekend I was looking to finish my terror story, but the voices were fun, they were laughing, they were not in any way terrifying. So I ignore them. I could not write a word on the story.

Tonight, I stop trying to extract the story I want, stop trying to force the story out of the voices, and be more of a listener. I stop, I did not try to listen to write the story I want it to tell, but to listen to the story they were telling me, and there it was, in the laughs, were the cry, the tears, the fear, the angst that I have been looking the whole weekend, but the one I could not find while trying to write the story.

I am a writer, but I am also a stubborn person, a really stubborn one that insist on ignore all the things that he had learned over the years, that ignore all the time that the voices he hear are not going to tell him what he want to hear, but what they need to tell.

When I am writing short stories or long fiction, every time I insist in listen to the story I think I want to hear, I get blocked, I can’t write, I simply get stuck into this place where the voices only repeat what I am trying to ignore, what they are trying to tell me, and it’s not until I stop ignoring them that the story comes out.

Finally, after two days stuck, I did what I should have done long ago, decided to get quiet, and listen, instead of wait for the story I want it to hear, I sit and wait for the story the voices were looking to tell me. A soon as I stop expecting what the voices should tell me and begin listening to what they want to tell me, the story begin to flow, and the voices began to share with me again.

I have been listening to voices ever since I learn that I could write, as a writer I mean, and they had been quiet every time I had decided that I am not a writer, or that I should quit writing, or when I ignore what they are telling me because I want to hear something else. For some reason I only listen to these voices while the hat of the writer is on, and then quiet themselves when I am not willing to listen, those times they simply stop talking to me.

I am listening voices, my excuse is that I am a writer, what is yours?

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Filed Under: Writing

Book Mention: Much Ado About Marshals

July 21, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud 3 Comments

This is the first time I read a romance novel set in a western environment. I am around technology all day, and read this story remember me how easy (or much harder) certain things were.

Putting that aside, the story is compelling, I found myself laughing more that I expected, the main characters are funny, especially with Daisy one of the main characters, and even that many of the things kids this day will google and answer, it was really nice to see how the author work had on remind us of those simple times.

This is a fun story, and. Should read!

Much Ado About Marshals

Blurb:

FIVE STARS from Detra Fitch, owner of Huntress Reviews!

“A hilarious, yet romantic, comedy of errors… I grinned. I frowned. I worried. I sighed from tension relief. I snickered at Bosco’s romantic troubles with two widows. I often found myself laughing until I thought my side would split… this story grabbed me by the throat, kept me reading long past my bed time, and earned a place of honor upon my Keeper Shelf. Unforgettable! I cannot recommend this title highly enough.”

Publisher’s Description:

Daisy wants to be a detective just like dime novel heroine Honey Beaulieu. But her parents insist she marry. What better solution than to marry the new marshal!

Cole, mistaken for the new marshal, faces a dilemma few men have to face–tell the truth and get hanged, or live a lie and end up married. Either way could cost him his freedom.

Bio:

Jacquie Rogers is a former software designer, campaign manager, deli clerk, and cow milker. She writes romance in three sub-genres: western historical, fantasy, and contemporary western. She’s owner of the Romancing The West blog and co-founder of the popular 1st Turning Point, where authors teach, share, and learn about marketing and promotion. She wrote Nail It! The Secret to Building an Effective Fiction Writer’s Platform series with Ann Charles and they’re currently working on. Jacquie’s current release is Much Ado About Marshals, a humorous western historical romance.

Contact points:

Email: jacquierogers@gmail.com

Website: http://www.jacquierogers.com

Blog: http://romancingthewest.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacquierogers

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jacquierogers

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jacquierogers

Excerpt from Much Ado About Marshals
Copyright © 2011 Jacquie Rogers

1885: Oreana, Idaho

“Yes, he’s definitely the one.” Her sweet tone belied her accusation. Most robbery victims wouldn’t be so cheerful. Was he in jail? The aroma of sagebrush and alkali had been replaced by tincture of iodine, so he could be in the doctor’s office.

“Fits the description exactly.”

Cole’s hopes sank at the lady’s certainty. While he’d never had a doubt he and Bosco would be caught, he’d hoped to make it back to the ranch to set things right. And the lady didn’t have to sound so damned happy about it.

“You’re sure about that?” a man’s voice asked.

“Well, Doc, he’s tall, so he matches the six-foot-two height, he has dark brown hair, brown eyes, and he’s wounded on the right leg just like the wire said.”

Cole hoped that at least Bosco had made it to the ranch. He was goodhearted, a loyal friend, but not all that quick on the draw.

“Yes,” the lady continued, “he’s our new marshal, all right.”

New marshal? Hell, he was wanted for bank robbery! This didn’t seem exactly the right time to mention it, though.

“Good,” the man named Doc responded, “then I’ll bill the city for his care. The wife will be happy to hear I finally have a cash customer.”

“You don’t have a wife.”

The doctor chuckled. “No, Miss Daisy, but I’d sure like you to change that.” “Not a chance,” she teased.

They both laughed, but Cole knew how the doctor really felt. Some men were born to be alone.

A cool cloth smelling of borax mopped his forehead. He forced his eyes to open. He blinked a couple of times and focused on a beautiful woman, her brow wrinkled with concern. “Come here, Doc,” she said with quiet enthusiasm. “He’s awake.”

Cole heard water pouring as he stared at the lady who belonged to the sunny voice. Her green-eyed gaze bathed him with compassion and reminded him of sunset on Sinker Creek, where the rays glanced off the rapids, and the rippling of the water made a man’s heart feel pure.

He wondered what she’d look like if he loosened her auburn hair that was pulled tightly into a bun. She was a beauty, all right.

A slight man dressed appropriately for a doctor, or an undertaker, rubbed his brown handlebar mustache while he mulled over Cole’s condition. “His color’s much better, Daisy, don’t you think?”

“I’ll go tell Dad that he won’t have to rush over here for the marshal’s last prayers.” She pulled on her gloves and tossed a cloak over her shoulders.

Damn, a preacher’s daughter. What a waste of womanly flesh.

“Look for him at your Aunt Grace’s house,” the doctor advised. “When I picked up the wire telling us the new marshal was riding in, Rayburn told me that your sister had just come home. Seems like some yahoos tried to hold up her bank–put quite a scare into her, too.”

Daisy clapped her gloved hands to her cheeks. “Oh, no! Is Iris all right?”

“She’s fine,” replied the doctor, “but I hear one of the would-be robbers is somewhat worse for the wear. She claims she shot one.”

“Oh, my!” Daisy picked up her parasol and reticule. “I’ll get over there right away. She may need me!”

Cole’s throat tightened as Daisy hurried to the door. She’d put two and two together as soon as she talked to her sister.

“God works in wonderful ways,” she exclaimed triumphantly as she unlatched the door. “It’s a miracle that our new marshal showed up when he did.” She swept out of the room like a queen.

Stay calm and think. So Daisy’s sister was the woman who’d shot him. What lousy luck. He had to get the hell out of here.

Especially since Miss Daisy thought he was the town’s new marshal.

He didn’t even know what town.

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Filed Under: Book Mentions

Book Mention: Perfect Copy

July 20, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

Judith Gaines make you wonder on Perfect Copy if you will make it or not. You get into the shoes of Brina, a person that had recently loose husband and kid, and take Roman a especial 4 year old kid. The problem is that Roman is especial in a different sense, in ways that Brina couldn’t even imagine.

When I began reading the book something happened that didn’t fit, subtle, but it didn’t fit I was mad that I didn’t see more but happy that I noticed, since I am aware that for many people will be invisible.

This is a nice read, I had fun, there was a lot of tension and it was fast paced. I am looking forward to read more works from Judith Gaynes in the future. In the mean time read here the blurb of the book, and stop in Amazon or SmashWords and grab your copy. The only thing I wish is that the book will be available in Paperback so I can send it as a present to a couple of people that doesn’t have readers. (I know, but there is people that had not yet discover the great thing on ebooks)

If you want to read the first chapter, you can get an excerpt from Amazon or Smashwords, or go to http://jpgwriter.com/

The General Information:

Blurb:
4 Year-old Roman is more than a copy of his genetic donor. He is better, enhanced and terrifyingly linked to a murderer. When is perfect too perfect? When it’s Mathew Roman.

Perfect Copy is a recent #2 Best Seller in Thriller-Suspense on smashwords.com.

CONTACT:
Website/Blog: www.jpgwriter.com
Twitter: @jpg_writer
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jpgwriter

BIO:
Judith Gaines wrote her first short story at age 10 and continued crafting words together ever since. After 9 years in broadcast news, she turned her storytelling skills to marketing and advertising. Today she is a successful Media Producer with screen credits as Producer for the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and the WUSA’s Carolina Courage Coach’s Shows. Her debut novel, Perfect Copy is available now at Amazon.com.

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Filed Under: Book Mentions

Pardon our dust, we are trying to improve here

July 19, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

I am aware that I have been missing in action, I am aware that my last post was long time ago. I am not apologizing. I like the next guy struggle sometimes, one of the reasons I read and write a lot about productivity is because I need it more that most of the people I know.

I am at this moment working on a revamp of my own workflow, to allow more time to this blog, while I keep all the things I am doing and the rest of the things I am doing that I don’t want to stop doing plus a couple of important projects in witch I have been bad about.

In other good things, my next book is out of my hands, and should be back at the end of the month to fix the editor comments. I also begin writing the next one, that will be a continuation of the second novel, and I hope to have it in Amazon, Kobo, Sony Store and Apple iBookstore by the end of the year, as well as in paperback.

After that, I am planning to begin working on the translation ofm the previously published novels, and a couple of non fiction books (2012 folks, I don’t do miracles, even when I try).

But regarding this blog, I am trying to figure it out what to put in here, what to accomplish in this place to make it better, so if you have any ideas let me know, any clue will be highly appreciated.

In the mean time, I am trying to move back into this place,and will be doing some adjustments, so if you like or dislike the changes please let me know…

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Filed Under: Opinion

Book Mentions: A Walk in the Snark

June 21, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

I grab this book after I read the review from Maxwell Cynn, the book was in my list, yes the I may never read all the books I wish list.

I have never met Rachel, but I know that she is part of the IBC that I am actively participating, and she was one of the people that was behind the incredible Blog for Troops that I participate in Memorial Weekend.

This book is a collection of articles/post she had on her blog (that I also discover recently), if you had never read it, stop reading here, go there. (I promise my blog will be here after you laugh a lot)

I pick this book and read it on one sit, I laughed mostly, she open my eyes on certain issues (chick stuff) but more than anything saw a human side for RachelontheOC. (Rachel Thomson)

Writers are human, we make mistakes, we said things we should not, and we think things that we will not admit to ourselves we did, those things will die with us (or be part of a really sick character on a book, maybe a funny one if we are lucky)

If you are looking for a good laugh, pick this book, you will laugh from beginning to end and may even get a couple of moments that you will stop reflect, and understand or discover something, (about her, but maybe about you) and then you will go back to laughing again.

This book was a nice treat, and I am glad it got to the top of the list.

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Filed Under: Book Mentions

Happy Fathers Day

June 20, 2011 By Augusto Pinaud Leave a Comment

I know that Father’s day was yesterday, but I don’t post on Sunday’s so, Here it is.

Happy Father’s Day!

I am a lucky guy, my father not only is alive, but I had the chance to appreciate how great he was when I was growing up, and even that there are many things I don’t understand, even today, I am sure of something: “He did the best he could with the tools he had” and honestly he did a great job, a job that I am grateful, a job that should make him proud.

So I want to take a moment to say: Thanks! I hope I can use the tools I had also the best I could, and that my kid(s) can grow and appreciate all the good things I am trying to do, and get to be kind with the mistakes I am sure I am going to make, but I learned from the best: Be sure, that I am doing the best I can with the tools I have!

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Filed Under: Opinion

Augusto Pinaud

Should you write more on the old character or create a new one?

The Hydra is just in your mind. Notes on the new Novel

Guest Post: Natural Born Killers

Natural Born Killers

Bestseller For A Day August 17th – In Leah’s Wake (You can Win a Kindle, and a great reads)

I am listening voices. I am a writer.

Book Mention: Much Ado About Marshals

Book Mention: Perfect Copy

Pardon our dust, we are trying to improve here

Book Mentions: A Walk in the Snark

Happy Fathers Day

My Books

Cool Links for Writers

Author and Book Mentions

Natural Born Killers

What People is reading:

My Books

Cool Links for Writers

Author and Book Mentions