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Marketing for Romance Writers is a peer mentoring group for authors. It was founded in 2006 by Kayelle Allen.

I prevail over the breath of my enemies - quote from Pietas, Bringer of Chaos

"I prevail over the breath of my enemies" - quote from Pietas, Bringer of Chaos

Prevail (definition):...

To be valid, applicable, true, superior, or to persuade successfully.

Said of Pietas.

During the first few months of exile, every day, Pietas worked on his compulsion ability. He had no one to target but Six, a human.

Prior to imprisonment, for practice, Pietas would ask for some item he needed, such as a stylus. He wouldn't say which one or what type, but instead, as whoever was near reached for one, Pietas extended a wave of compulsion to choose the desired item. It never failed. Each person always picked the one he wanted. People who entered his presence would turn around and leave without Pietas saying a word. Practicing with small things made the big things second nature.

He had once turned a whole division and made them attack their comrades. But coerce Six? Might as well ask the sun for ice. Was it because he was reanimiated? A ghost? Or was it inherent in his nature?

Pietas sent Six a strong wave of compulsion to come to him, but the ghost continued filleting a fish without the least pause.

Casting himself back onto the grass in a fit of pique, Pietas stared up at the sky. He'd had more control as a child! Would he have to start over and relearn everything? Was the gift lost? He'd honed it for centuries. Surely, it was not lost. Please, let it not be lost...

No matter how hard or how long it took, he would reclaim every power, every gift, and every ability. He would own everything he'd lost. No one robbed Pietas ap Lorectic, First Conqueror, War Leader of the Ultras and got away with it. Humanity had tried to rob him of his birthright, but they would not prevail.

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog.
It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors.
Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Bringing Pietas to Life #Voiceover @voicesbyzack #Cosplayer @nitsvetov #PietasFans #SciFi #MFRWhooks #MFRWorg

Discovering Pietas through a voice actor and a cosplayer

Bringing Pietas to Life

Watching Nik Nitsvetov perform as Pietas during the Ritual of Strength cosplay, I understood my character and saw nuances I'd never caught when I wrote the character. I'll share those insights in a later post. Because I had hundreds of images to choose from, I saw things in the background that readers never see. It opened my eyes to my character in ways I never expected.

Here's a quick video to introduce Pietas.

An interview with Pietas, the immortal king during his initial period of exile on Sempervia, from the Bringer of Chaos science fiction series.
Pietas voice actor - Zack Black
Pietas model - Nik Nitsvetov

What's your experience?

Have you ever worked with a voice actor? How did it go? Where did you find them? I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Please leave a note in the comments.

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


Book Hooks - a blog hop sponsored by Marketing for Romance Writers

JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS

Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors.

Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Ready: Fight! Choreographing a fight scene #SciFi #MFRWhooks #PietasFans

Choreographing a fight scene is a challenge for any writer. Rewriting it in another story from a different character's point of view is a special kind of madness.

Ready: Fight!

Having written Origin of Pietas first, when I wrote Lights Out, a prequel introducing Six, I had to retell some of the story the way Six saw it. Note: Six was using the name Tornahdo then, a special ops moniker for the way he fought.

What did I do to ensure I got all the hits and bumps right? You can read about it in this post. In Lights Out, Tornahdo (as Six was known then) was one of eight special ops soldiers. They had all been in fights with immortals before this, but none of them had faced Pietas, the immortal king. Here's the scene from Lights Out, Tornahdo's POV.

Tornahdo has entered a closed section of a space station. It's been several minutes since all the air has been removed. Pietas is on the ground, but he's where cameras can't get a good look at him. While Tornahdo and the soldiers can hold their breaths a long time, no one is sure just how long the king can accomplish this feat. Immortals can manipulate human emotions, so to protect the ghosts, they've been fitted with a chip to suppress emotion.


Ready: Fight! Choreographing a fight scene #SciFi #MFRWhooks #PietasFansInside, as instructed, Tornahdo stayed near the back. Two of the eight ghosts closed in on the pod.

Pietas lay on the floor behind it. His body showed, not his face.

Tornahdo tingled with a fighter's high. The mix of anxiety and excitement kept his instincts on maximum alert.

Beside Pietas, a ghost stooped. The change in lighting angle showed the Ultra, limp on the floor. When turned, the body flopped. The ghost pressed two fingers against the throat.

With a jerk, Pietas yanked the man down while thrusting a hand up.

A pierce of mindless fear stabbed Tornahdo. He'd faced that snap of terror before. It meant two things. First, the Ultra was controlling their emotions. Second, the chip was worthless.

Pietas tripped the next ghost, jabbed an elbow into his neck.

Another spurt of fear and confusion.

All that training. Days of suffering, learning control. For nothing.

Pietas flashed into speed mode.

Tornahdo's world moved in slow motion.

A blur showed where the Ultra had been. Pietas halted, braced both hands on a pod and kicked a pair of ghosts behind him.

They flew backward. Slow.

Momentum carried the Ultra straight toward Tornahdo.

Stumbling out of the way, Tornahdo went down in a tumble, taking out the ghost beside him, who knocked down the last two.


From Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos

Pietas's point of view, same scene. No air means no sound.

Crowded as the space was between his life-pod and the wall, two ghosts crept into it. Six spots of light showed on the other side. Eight ghosts then. That would be a much better fight. One nudged him with a foot.

Suppressing a smile, Pietas continued to play dead.Ready: Fight! Choreographing a fight scene #SciFi #MFRWhooks #PietasFans

Ghost One bent down, turned him onto his back.

Pietas let his body flop.

The guy came in closer, checked for a pulse.

Pietas opened his eyes.

The ghost's alarm fed Pietas energy.

He yanked him down, hard, while jamming the heel of his hand up. The ghost's head snapped back, and Pietas felt his bones crack. He shoved him aside and went after Ghost Two.

Pietas gripped his leg and tripped him. He jammed an elbow down onto the man's neck. Bones broke. The ghost's stab of dying fear spiked the energy from the first, and Pietas mixed it with his gift of chaos. He flung the vortex of emotions outward, broadcasting confusion and terror.

He activated his ability called zip. The pseudo speed meant he could move at a regular pace, but humans perceived him as a blur. They could not focus on him long enough to get close. To him, everyone moved in slow motion.

He flipped onto his feet, braced both hands on his pod, and kicked Three and Four square in the chest.

He pushed off the pod, and the momentum carried him straight into the arms of Five and Six. They stumbled backward, tumbling Seven and Eight onto the floor.

Writing different points of view

As you can see, the two viewpoints tell the same story, but the emotions reveal levels of attachment that are quite different.

Tornahdo knows he's had.

Pietas has hope he can escape.

Each is facing a person who refuses to quit, no matter how hard the going gets. Which will prevail?

Read the full story in Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos, and follow through with Origin of Pietas and its sequel, Forged in Fire.

If you like Pietas, you're in luck. He's in most of the Antonello Brothers series set in the far future from the Bringer of Chaos series. When you're immortal, you come back over and over and over. But does that mean he wins the fight in this scene? What's the word for damned if you do and damned if you don't? Hmm, how about screwed...

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors. Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Normal? Maybe 50 cats ago #PietasFans #SciFi #MFRWhooks

I had a thought about Luc and Pietas arguing over whether Pietas was normal.

Yeah, that's weird. I know.

Hey, I'm a writer, it's my job to be weird.

Enjoy.

50 Cats Ago

 

As a reminder, Pietas has a spirit-bond with a panther named Tiklaus.

Pietas: I think I'm pretty normal, all things considered.

Luc: All things? What are all things?

Pietas: You know. Things. I'm twelve thousand years old. I've done a lot of things.

Luc: None of them normal.

Pietas: That's a generalization. You can't say all the things I've--

Luc (interrupting): Fine. It's you who's not normal.

Pietas: Yes, I am. I'm normal.

Luc: You? Maybe fifty cats ago.

Pietas: I don't have fifty cats.

Luc: You've rescued that many.

Pietas: More than that. Far more than that.

(pause)

Pietas: Wait. Who wouldn't rescue cats? You even adopted a cat as a son.

Luc: Senthys is a Kin. A feline humanoid. And only half Kin. Not a cat.

Pietas: But you rescued him. You're a cat rescuer. Like I am. Hah!

(pause)

Luc: You're still not normal.

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors. Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Are you going to @OutlantaCon? March 19-22 #ATL #SciFi #MFRWhooks

OutlantaCon is coming. Are you?

<--- Pietas Cosplay from 2018

Life-sized banners of Pietas.

He is 7' tall! (I'm 5'4")
Model is Nik Nitsvetov

Pietas Cosplay from 2019 --->

I'll have a booth in the Vendor's Room this year and will be showing off the gorgeous new banners of Pietas.

Come get your picture taken next to one of them! Where would you reach compared to me?

Your picture will help me as I write future stories. I'll be able to picture people of various heights next to the hero.

(Pictures taken at AnachroCon 2020 in Atlanta)

Are you going to @OutlantaCon? March 19-22 #ATL #SciFi #MFRWhooks

OutlantaCon

OutlantaCon is now an Atlanta tradition in the  Spring.

The Science Fiction convention will celebrate its 12th anniversary in 2020. For the last decade, the convention has been offering a fun welcoming place for queer geeks to gather in Atlanta, Georgia, where they can show their love for everything from anime to horror. At Outlantacon, geeks can take advantage of a range of great programming including: writers and comics track, fandom track, activism track, world wide short film festival, a constantly full game room, and live entertainment with game shows including the nation wide convention favorite: Project Cosplay.

The convention has grown over the years to create an inclusive and inviting environment for our LGBTQ+ folks and their allies to play and thrive.

Join us at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center. It's a 30k square foot conference space with innovative spaces and personalized service. Last day to book your relaxing hotel room at the group rate of $129 per night is 2/26/20. Convention cost for the weekend is $50 for the entire 4 days of OutlantaCon.

Hope to see you March 19-22, 2020.

Visit the site to check out the cool cosplays and events from previous years.

OutlantaCon 2020

Two events not to miss: The Match Game. This hilarious take on the old favorite never fails to get laughs. // OutlantaCon Squares. Remember Hollywood Squares? This is our version and it's guaranteed to crack you up! I'm in one of the  boxes on this, so come see it!

I'll be teaching panels too.

From Book to Cosplay: Live Action Cosplay for your book.

In 2018 and 2019, I worked with Russian cosplayer Nik Nitsvetov to recreate pivotal scenes from my Bringer of Chaos science fiction series. I'll discuss planning and presentation, plus offers tips on how to record the action.

Save Your Own Cat - Plotting in Fiction

Save the Cat is a plotting concept used by Hollywood and writers everywhere. Some say it's the new Plotting Bible. But what is it and why should writers care?

Get Naked: Stripping Down Your Story

Witness a live critique group in action and discover the value of editing and beta readers. Members of my local critique group (Canton Writers Circle) will present with me. I have published five books during my time with CWC. I consider these fellow writers not only my posse but also my very closest friends. Come meet everyone!

Special Price

For the convention weekend only, I'll have a special sale going on. You can get print copies of my books, but spend $10 on a 16GB flashdrive and get every one of my books! The drive also has videos, downloadable and printable coloring books, and much more.

Plus I'll have giveaways to hand out, including the patch worn by the warrior Pietas. "We Are War"

I'll be easy to find. Come into the vendor room and look for Pietas!

See you March 19-22...


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors. Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

OutlantaCon

UPDATE (Mar 16, 2020)

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Atlanta mayor has banned all meetings with over 250 people. OutlantaCon has been canceled until 2021. The con will refund all attendees and provide everyone with a full ticket for next year, no matter if they bought a one-day pass or a full weekend.

Hope to see you next year!

 


OutlantaCon is now an Atlanta tradition in the Spring. Come meet me and hang out!

The Science Fiction convention will celebrate its 12th anniversary in 2020. For the last decade, the convention has been offering a fun welcoming place for queer geeks to gather in Atlanta, Georgia, where they can show their love for everything from anime to horror. At Outlantacon, geeks can take advantage of a range of great programming including: writers and comics track, fandom track, activism track, world wide short film festival, a constantly full game room, and live entertainment with game shows including the nation wide convention favorite: Project Cosplay.

The convention has grown over the years to create an inclusive and inviting environment for our LGBTQ+ folks and their allies to play and thrive.

Join us at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center. It's a 30k square foot conference space with innovative spaces and personalized service.  Book your hotel room . Convention cost for the weekend is $50 for the entire 4 days of OutlantaCon. You know you want to meet me and hang out!

Hope to see you March 19-22, 2020.

Visit the site to check out the cool cosplays and events from previous years.

OutlantaCon 2020

Two events not to miss: The Match Game. This hilarious take on the old favorite never fails to get laughs. // OutlantaCon Squares. Remember Hollywood Squares? This is our version and it's guaranteed to crack you up! I'm in one of the  boxes on this, so come see it!

I'll be teaching panels too. We can meet afterward and talk.

From Book to Cosplay: Live Action Cosplay for your book.

In 2018 and 2019, I worked with Russian cosplayer Nik Nitsvetov to recreate pivotal scenes from my Bringer of Chaos science fiction series. I'll discuss planning and presentation, plus offers tips on how to record the action.

Save Your Own Cat - Plotting in Fiction

Save the Cat is a plotting concept used by Hollywood and writers everywhere. Some say it's the new Plotting Bible. But what is it and why should writers care?

Get Naked: Stripping Down Your Story

Witness a live critique group in action and discover the value of editing and beta readers. Members of my local critique group (Canton Writers Circle) will present with me. I have published five books during my time with CWC. I consider these fellow writers not only my posse but also my very closest friends. Come meet everyone!

Special Price

For the convention weekend only, I'll have a special sale going on. You can get print copies of my books, but spend $10 on a 16GB flashdrive and get every one of my books! The drive also has videos, downloadable and printable coloring books, and much more.

Plus I'll have giveaways to hand out, including the patch worn by the warrior Pietas. "We Are War"

I'll be easy to find. Come into the vendor room and look for Pietas!

See you March 19-22...

Are you going to @OutlantaCon? March 19-22 #ATL #SciFi #MFRWhooks

OutlantaCon is coming. Are you?

<--- Pietas Cosplay from 2018

Life-sized banners of Pietas.

He is 7' tall! (I'm 5'4")
Model is Nik Nitsvetov

Pietas Cosplay from 2019 --->

I'll have a booth in the Vendor's Room this year and will be showing off the gorgeous new banners of Pietas.

Come get your picture taken next to one of them! Where would you reach compared to me?

Your picture will help me as I write future stories. I'll be able to picture people of various heights next to the hero.

(Pictures taken at AnachroCon 2020 in Atlanta)

Are you going to @OutlantaCon? March 19-22 #ATL #SciFi #MFRWhooks


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors. Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.