Kayelle Allen and How Clothes Make Her Character

I'm very happy to have Kayelle Allen on my blog today. She's talking about her character Pietas and how what he wears, or doesn't wear, shows his character. Welcome Kayelle! 

Clothes Make the Character 

I'm Kayelle Allen, and I'm excited that Jana invited me to share a bit about my Bringer of Chaos series with you. I write SciFi Romance, SciFi, and Space Opera. My books feature misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. I live in a huge, rambling stone castle guarded by dragons. Okay, the castle part is fiction. So are the dragons. Unless you think the dragons in my books as real, in which case, then—yeah. The dragon part is totally true.

I have a new book coming out September 22, 2023, set in the same overall universe as my Bringer of Chaos books. The Thieves' Guild Academy series is currently three books, and the new one is a bundle of the three plus a copy of the Thieves' Guild Handbook. You can pick it up online via this Universal Buy Link - https://books2read.com/tga-bundle1

What do the clothes tell us about the character?

In the Bringer of Chaos series, when the immortal king, Pietas, prepares for battle, he performs the Ritual of Strength. In 2018, I was fortunate enough to work with the cosplayer, Nik Nitsvetov, to create scenes of the ritual. The resulting photo shoot provided some of the most-used images on my site and in my marketing. A subsequent shoot provided a set with armor, and the third gave me a performance with a handmade halberd (a pike fitted with an ax head).

Nik's natural hair color is quite dark, but when he dons a platinum wig, he's a dead ringer for my immortal king. I have a set of wallpaper images of him as Pietas and change them depending on what I need for inspiration at the moment. The one I'm using now has a rather cryptic expression. It's hard to tell if he's about to smile, or going to tell me to stop looking at him and go write more of his story.

Since Jana asked me to talk about a character's clothes, I thought I'd start with what's different or special about them.

They say clothes make the man. Sometimes, it's what you aren't wearing that tells the story.

In Origin of Pietas, Pietas wears only a pair of loose white pants and a mask to reveal his power. How can a mask reveal anything? You'll see in the excerpt below.

Excerpt from Origin of Pietas:

After exiting the bathing pool, Pietas brushed off the water and wrung out his hair. From a tray holding half a dozen clasps, he chose a silver dragon studded with six turquoise stones, twisted his wet hair and fastened it up, out of the way.

He dried his face, gathered a brush and black face paint. Leaning in close to a freestanding mirror, he outlined a bandit's mask from beneath his eyes to over his dark eyebrows and filled it with black.

He'd worn the mask in battle ever since defeating the First Division, a human special-ops group formed to fight Ultras. It came about because Pietas had slain an enemy and blood had splashed across his eyes. Thinking the blood belonged to Pietas, the Ultra troops had rallied to him and slaughtered the humans. The blood dried almost black.

Stories of how their "bandit king" had conquered the First Division filled the night. The name stuck. To his troops, he was First Conqueror, War Leader of the Ultras.

Pietas turned his head side to side, surveying the effect.

His body would reject foreign matter on his skin. The Ultra metabolism protected from every perceived attack, even harmless face paint. He closed his eyes and sprayed sealant over the mask to delay its disappearance by a few hours.

Satisfied with his looks, Pietas pulled on a pair of loose white lounging pants. With a deep, cleansing breath, he opened the door. Damp, shirtless, barefoot, he padded into the adjacent room.

Watch the Ritual of Strength

Treat yourself to a live performance by Nik Nitsvetov. Be sure to listen with the sound on. The words are on the screen, but the unique music and voice add a wonderful layer of richness to each scene. Voiceover actor Zack Black.

https://youtu.be/GLoKzpp8_mY

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos

Exiled on a planet with no one but Six, the human who guarded him, the immortal king Pietas faces the ordeal of survival. Imprisonment transformed him from superman to a man who cannot even feed himself. He must surrender his pride and accept help.

If the human deserts him, Pietas will die, permanently. This human is the perfect foil for Pietas, who's a seething mess of ego, angst, and self-loathing, angry at the universe in general and humans in particular.

Pietas might need Six, but that doesn't mean he'll humiliate himself by admitting weakness.

But saving his people means depending upon the one thing Pietas swears does not exist—the honor of a human...

Universal Buy Link https://books2read.com/origin-pietas

Meet Kayelle Allen

From her comfy, ergonomic office chair Kayelle Allen forges the very fabric of the Ever-Expanding Empire using only the tips of her fingers and her powerful imagination. Her passion is to create both commissioned and original art, employ extensive worldbuilding with inventive behind-the-scenes peeks, and write tightly woven tales with unstoppable, unshakeable, unforgettable characters so real you'll swear you've met them.

Enter the Empire at ReamStories.com/KayelleAllen, claim your immortality, and discover a whole new universe of stories. Visit the Homeworld KayelleAllen.com/Immortality

When clothes do more than make the man by Kayelle Allen @kayelleallen #SciFi #SpaceOpera

When clothes do more than make the man by Kayelle Allen

Jana, thank you for inviting me to share my new book with your readers. Lights Out is space opera - a short story in a huge and sweeping universe. I wrote the story because I wanted to explore the character Six in my Bringer of Chaos series. In Lights Out, Six is known by his call sign, Tornahdo. He's human, the antagonist is an immortal Ultra, and their two races are at war.

To fight an enemy who can't be killed, humans capture Ultras alive and use their blood to resurrect slain human soldiers. It works well -- the Ghost Corps is turning the tide of war. For the first time, humans are winning. The Ultras have agreed to peace talks and it's the duty of Ghost Corps to police the event.

What the ghosts don't know is that their own uniforms are part of a brainwashing program. The symbols sewn onto their clothing trigger hatred, resentment, and a compulsion to kill Ultras. Every time the ghosts dress themselves, they renew their resolve to destroy the enemy.

You've heard the expression "clothes make the man" -- in this case, they control the man.

To reveal the concept, I showed Tornahdo reacting to the symbol in different situations. When he takes a long look at the corps logo, he's surprised to see a hidden symbol. The fact that he is surprised to see the symbol the next time he notices it should clue the reader in that something is amiss.

Showing how Tornahdo handles the symbols throughout the story reveals much about his character -- and the Ghost Corps. At one point, he reacts to the formal uniform worn by the leader of the Ultras. Here's a snippet from the scene:

---

There wasn't a human alive who wouldn't recognize Pietas. Seven feet tall. Slim. White hair. White uniform.

Seriously. Like he was the good guy.

Painted on bandit's mask.

Because yeah, the mask went so well with the good guy look.

---

In Lights Out, the clothing worn by the main character reflects much more than his rank. It reflects his alliance, his world's values, his people's belief system, and his willingness to submit to all of them.

The Ghost Corps leaders manipulate those who owe them allegiance and over whom they hold power. Lights Out is as much about blind obedience as it is about hatred of the enemy. Does one arise from the other? I think they do, but I'll let you be the judge. What do you believe?

Lights Out by Kayelle Allen

He can save mankind. After he does one important thing. Die. Join the Ghost Corps, they said. You'll live forever, they said. You'll save mankind, they said. They didn't say that to do it, first he had to die. When Tornahdo signs on the dotted line, he puts his life into the steady hands of the mighty Ghost Corps. Three grisly deaths and three agonizing resurrections later, he's assigned duty on the space station Enderium Six. He's facing his most dangerous mission yet, the very reason the corps exists. Do they expect him to win? Fat chance. Tornahdo and his team are already dead and this mission is codenamed "Lights Out." No, there's more to this than he can see. To discover the truth, he must face an unbeatable, unkillable enemy, and this time--somehow--find a way to keep himself alive... Lights Out is featured in The Expanding Universe Vol 4, edited by Craig Martelle. https://kayelleallen.com/lights-out-save-mankind/

The Expanding Universe releases Sept 17, 2018. You can do one of the following. 1) Join one of Kayelle's Reader Groups You'll download four free books and get news about books coming soon. You can unsubscribe at any time. 2) Follow Kayelle's Amazon Author Page and get one alert from Amazon when a new story is available. 3) Sign up for AuthorAlarms and the app will send you one email when she releases a new story. You can add and remove authors as you please.

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of seven books, three novellas, and multiple short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

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