Mariner Software has released Persona 1.0 for Mac OS X (10.7 and higher). It's their latest app for writers, dedicated to developing the characters of a story.

Built around the psychological profile of 32 archetypes, Persona reveals a character's behavior, motivation, and potential dialogue. The software is designed to assist the writer who wants to purposely develop compelling, believable, and empathic characters for a story.

"We're always searching for opportunities to expand what we offer to writers of all types and genres," says Michael Wray, president of Mariner. "Persona is a definite asset to a writer's toolbox because it focuses exclusively on the development of the characters in a story. We're excited about adding this new app to our product line, which is going to be a great complement to all our other writing products."

Other features of Persona 1.0 enables the writer to:

° Explore relationships and interactions between characters;

° Create Smart Groups of characters based on attributes like tags, type, sex, or any word or phrase;

° Construct ad hoc groups of characters without a defined relationship, in order to explore interactions;

° Add a character and shape the details, from eye color to hobbies or occupations;

° Use the Names database, containing over 16,000 names, which features a name's origin and meaning

Persona 1.0 is available for sale and for trial as a download, only from the Mariner Software website (www.marinersoftware.com/), and will sell for US$49.95. A boxed copy, a Mac App Store version, and a Windows app, will be available in the near future. Persona 1.0 requires Mac OS 10.7 or higher. This initial version of Persona is in English only; other languages will be added at a later date.