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Saturday, October 8, 2016

Outfitting a superhero

Capes and tights, boots and spangles - that's the old-school superhero uniform. Hot pants if the superhero is a girl. When I created my own superhero for DISRUPTOR, I wanted a more modern style. I wanted Dani to be able to take off her mask, shove it in a pocket, and blend into a crowd if necessary. At first she's just hiding her face with a hoodie, but by the end of the book, once she's accepted that she's actually going to do this crazy thing, her sidekick Kevin takes it upon himself to go shopping. This is one of those times when Dani realizes having a trust fund playboy for a sidekick is pretty sweet. He does not let her down. Well, mostly.

*

She rubbed sleep from her eyes and surveyed the clothes arrayed on the sofa.

“This stuff.” She picked up a pair of black straight fit jeans and checked out the pockets right above the knees. “There’s extra padding here.”

“The denim is also reinforced with Kevlar.”

“Kevlar?” She looked up at him, grinning.

“I don’t know that it’s enough to stop a bullet.” He gestured at the clothing. “This is all motorcycle gear. All reinforced with Kevlar. Padding at the knees and elbows. It’s not armor, but it will protect you better than regular clothing and you can still walk around in it and not be noticed.” He picked up a long sleeve black tee. “The guy at the store said you need to wear a regular cotton tee underneath this. Apparently Kevlar isn’t quite as bad as road rash but it’s still not fun in a crash.”

She nodded and moved on to another piece. It was a fitted denim jacket with an attached black hood made of soft sweatshirt material. After that was a long sleeve black leather shirt, then a black and white flannel plaid. More pants, both denim and leather. Two pairs of boots.

He picked up the pair with three buckles on the sides. “Nice functional heel and steel toes. Thought you’d like that.”

“Hell, yeah. This stuff is awesome.”

“There’s more.” Kevin retrieved a glossy black shopping bag from beside his desk. “A hood’s not really good enough and the ski mask can’t be the most comfortable thing to wear this time of year. So I got these for you to try.” He took two black leather masks from the bag and held them out for her inspection. One was a simple domino mask. The other had more to it and would cover the top half of her face. It also had –

“Cat ears?” Dani gave him a death glare.

He coughed. “There wasn’t a lot to choose from.”

“You were doing so good with all the reinforced with Kevlar and the functional heels. But cat ears? Dude.”

“I restrained myself from buying you a cape. And I never seriously considered the skin tight leather body suit and stilettos. Don’t I at least get credit for that?” Another death glare. Okay, so no credit for that.

*

Take a look at some of the pieces of Dani's superhero wardrobe at the book's Pinterest storyboard.




Runaway. Experiment. Superhero?

The streets were the safest place for Dani, until the night she was caught by traffickers who sold her to a laboratory. She survived five years of experiments: biotech implants, gene therapy, and other things she could barely comprehend. The pain, though, that she understood. The lab pushed her body past its limits, drove her mind to its darkest corners, but somehow her spirit remained unbroken. She escaped, and sought refuge on the streets once again. But this time she doesn’t run away from cries for help. Now, she runs toward them.

Playboy. Dilettante. Sidekick?

Kevin Moynihan is the youngest son of Point Sable’s most wealthy and storied family. A permanent fixture in the society pages, he’s known for his good looks, his charm, and his aversion to an honest day’s work. His life is a whirlwind of fast women, faster cars, all night parties and endless champagne – until his latest drunk and disorderly charge lands him a stint doing community service in the roughest part of town. The part of town where someone is always screaming for help.

A chance meeting will bring two unlikely people together – first as reluctant allies, then friends, and finally partners.

Read the first chapter here. Available for purchase at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords

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