Keir Book Release Tour - Why Keir is oh so blue!

The original image for Keir

The normal response to discovering my male MC has blue skin used to be “Oh, so like Avatar?” (grrr!) Okay, yes, I fully understand why that comparison leaps to mind. The sad fact is that Keir popped into my head all blue, tattooed and tortured five years before Avatar was even rumoured. How’s that for irony? And, of course, Avatar is hardly the first scifi to have blue aliens either, but that’s usually the one mentioned first.

Diva Plavalaguna - The Fifth Element

The Groske - Doctor Who/Sarah-Jane Adventures

So why blue? I mean apart from it being my favourite colour along with green. Aside from an obsession with a certain magician with woad tattoos (see Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle - Merlin) and a fascination with The Nightcrawler from X-Men.

Well, let’s take a few colours in order. Firstly red. Red is a good strong colour, but already synonymous with demonic kind - a bit of a cliché perhaps? Also the fact that blood doesn’t show up so well (yeah, I’m blood-thirsty - it needs to show up!), and it’s a very powerful, dominating colour - not really Keir’s personality. Orange? Hmmm, Quin’s hair could technically be described as orange (she’s a redhead and my female MC) and I wanted a strong contrast between their appearances, so that’s a no. Yellow - urgh, a touch bilious? I could have described him as golden, but again, that’s an almost angelic description and so going too far in the opposite direction. Green is definitely out - The Hulk, The Green Goblin, and the often used green ichor/blood for aliens/monsters. Indigo is nice, that mid-shade between blue and purple, but there’s not many other words you can use for it. Purple? Hmm. I’m not a fan of purple. The lighter shades I feel are a bit girly (well, my daughter likes them and my boys don’t, so it would be hard for me to visualise Keir in mauve!) and the darker ones - no.

Now blue. Blue is a good colour. Tranquil, which is certainly part of Keir’s personality. Goes with almost anything. And while the Avatar aliens are more sky blue, Keir’s skin is that dark, rich shade of the sky before true dark falls. The blue that’s almost a hint of indigo.

 

I know the image I first bought for Keir is probably more like the Avatar aliens, but at the time it was the only one I could find that came close, and the expression was perfect. Even though I now have cover art, that image has been with me for so long and has been such a favourite that I’ve kept it, even if it does scream ‘Avatar’!

So Keir is blue. End of. :)

To find out exactly how Keir came by his blue skin, I have a copy of the e-book up for grabs. To enter, tell me how you decide on skin colours and textures for your aliens. And how close to human are they if they’re part of a science fiction romance? Or you can tell me your favourite colour for an alien and why? (Please leave your contact details in the comments. All prizes will be drawn after midnight BST in the UK on the 14th May.) Also there’s a special prize up for grabs on my blog here to celebrate the official release on the 7th May. And if you can't wait to see if you've won a copy, all new titles are 30% off at Lyrical Press for the first week of release. It's also up on Amazon here. :)

 

The blurb - 

Outcast. Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?

For Keirlan de Corizi--the legendary 'Blue Demon' of Adalucien--death seems the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who can travel the stars with a wave of her hand. 

But Quin has secrets of her own. She's spent eternity searching through space and time with a strange band of companions at her back. Defying her friends' counsel, Quin risks her apparent immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life on her home world, Lyagnius. 

When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin's home world, will she risk everything to stand by him again? 

 Keir is now available from Lyrical Press Inc. and is currently just $2.50! You can also buy it from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Book Trailer:

About the Author - 

A stay-at-home mum of three who spent twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay bases her stories on a lifetime addiction to science-fiction books and films. Somewhere along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle street dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily settled in historical Colchester in the UK with her husband of 18 years, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

You can find her at http://pippajay.blogspot.com/ or on Facebook as Pippa Jay. You can also follow her on Twitter @pippajaygreen, join her on Goodreads and find her book page on Facebook as Keir - Beyond Redemption.