Good morning and thanks for
joining me today. As you probably know, I’m the third in the Triad of muses,
Rawiya. The one who writes sweet and sensual, real erotica for real people is
my tagline. That still holds true but you might’ve noticed that I only write IR
romances, interracial, multicultural, black/white male couplings at the moment
and my first MMF is two white men with a black female. Why you ask? Two
reasons: I love it and the world is full of people from different walks of life
and of different race. Why shouldn’t there be more books about people from
different backgrounds getting together?
Love
is truly LOVE!
I recall when I first
started reading m/m in particular and didn’t see a whole lot out there. I did a
blog on it at Its
Raining Men some time ago and received many responses. Some recommending
reads and others from authors telling me they weren’t comfortable doing them
for fear of getting it wrong. My response was, people are people and
unfortunately, some have stereotypical views of how they think certain people
should act. No such thing as getting it wrong unless you write historicals but
when you do a contemporary, you’re still penning everyday characters.
Regardless of their color, focus on them as a person and not how the so called
mainstream views them.
Now that I’ve put a couple
out there on my own, I’ve read a ton more of interracial manlove romances and
have thoroughly enjoyed what I found. In most of them, they didn’t focus on the
stereotypes rather, on the personalities of the characters themselves. That’s
what I try to do as well and let me add, I love bringing out the cultural points
from ones background. Whether it be the music, the food they eat, their
language even if it’s slang, it might be a part of them. To me, that’s part of
the world I create around them and brings the two of them together. It makes it
real.
So again, why do I love
writing IR romances? I enjoy bringing together two people from two different
backgrounds and focusing on the positives in their relationship. Oh and did I
mention it’s hotter? *laughs*
To me it just is.
IR is my niche and I intend
to do it for the rest of my writing career. I hope that lasts for quite a while
and hope you’ll check me out along the way. Thank to 50 Shades of Gay for
having me!
Naughty Nights Press is proud to announce that Smooth
Like Latte, an interracial gay male romance, is
available to purchase from All Romance Amazon and Smashwords
SMOOTH LIKE LATTE by Rawiya.
Synopsis:
Brendan Walsh is an uptight business executive working for
his father and missing out on real life due to his relentless drive for
success. Fearing his homophobic father’s wrath - and the potential to destroy
his financial future - Brendan hides is true orientation and lives a life of
boring celibacy.
Upon meeting Davori Jenkins when the hunky barista serves
him a latte just the way he likes it, Brendan takes a chance, leaving his
number with the tip in the hopes of changing his future love life.
Will Brendan be able to come clean with his father - risking
his fortune - or will he take a chance at losing a man who he wants as his future?
Warning: This is an m/m interracial romance. Real romance.
Some sappiness is ahead with two very good looking men who are searching for
that happy ever after ending.
Excerpt:
“Brendan, you must uphold the family name.
Nothing is more important than the Walsh name! Nothing!”
The words of
Brendan Walsh’s father, Alexander, rang true, like a menacing alarm in his head
every single day. Why did he have to
be the son Alexander depended upon most? Could it be because the other Walsh
brother was completely useless?
In his father’s
eyes, Brendan’s older sibling Brian was a disappointment, all because he didn’t
want any part of the Walsh family business. Instead of living off his trust
fund and becoming the successive CEO to the Walsh Financial Corporation, he’d
opted to follow his dream and become a rock musician. That made Alexander
extremely unhappy and because of this, the elder Walsh made changes to his will
which took away his portion of the family fortune. Brian didn’t care, though;
he said no amount of money could bring him true happiness.
Brendan, on the
other hand, did like money and security, but the constant meetings, the
traveling, and all the responsibilities of being the boss had started to wear
thin. He attended college and went straight to graduate school afterward. Then
he became top partner at Walsh. It was a lot of responsibility, but Brendan had
been well groomed by his dad, who was adamant about not wanting his younger son
to become a “useless fuckup.”
“Ugh…” Brendan
restlessly turned over. Opening one eye, he glanced at the clock. Six a.m. Time
to get up and head in to the office to make more money for the Walsh Empire.
Not wanting to move, he groaned, running his fingers through his short, wavy,
brown locks. He’d just gotten his hair cut, and it still felt funny. He’d
allowed it to grow past his shoulders, but that had only prompted Alexander’s
comment that he should “stop looking like a fag.”
“Damn.” If
Alexander only knew. Maybe that was just what the old man needed. To see his
son for exactly what he was – a man in the closet who desperately wanted to
come out.
Yeah, that’ll be the day.
Pulling up the
shades, he squinted his eyes into the daylight; the few stragglers out on the
street were probably either coming home from or on their way to work. Or were
they returning from Valentine’s Day parties in the city? A part of Brendan
wished he were doing just that, especially since he’d spent this particular V
Day in his Lake Shore Drive condo, reading and comparing sales figures from the
year before. That wasn’t his job: it was someone else’s, but he’d opted to do
it himself because that employee had someone to go home to and he didn’t.
Truthfully, numbers remained his first love, and he’d never known any other.
While he tried
to read over the latest figures the night prior, his father called to get him
out of his high-rise condo. “Brendan, I’m at the country club with a bunch of
friends. You should come by.”
The last thing
Brendan wanted was to be around his father on the most romantic day of the
year. “No thanks Dad, I’m real busy.”
“Oh c’mon, son,”
Alex slurred his words and cut him off. “There’s some pretty ladies here and
lots of Scotch. You could walk outta here with the next Misses Walsh. Besides,
you need to give me a grandchild.”
Completely
annoyed, Brendan rolled his eyes and sighed. “No thanks, Dad.” He promptly hung
up the phone.
Oh, he’ll get me for that later.
Too bad I can’t be that bold all the time.
“Pfft.”
Dejected, he shook his head and stretched his arms while he strolled slowly to
the bathroom. Flicking on the lights, he winced. The coffee-colored marble
floor was cold on his bare feet. He rubbed his eyes, thinking how nice it would
be to crawl back under the covers and blow off work, but he knew Alexander
would bitch if he didn’t show up.
A hot shower was
what he needed to warm him up and get him into his daily routine. Turning the
small silver knobs, he took off his boxers and stepped in, allowing the hot
water to cascade down his body. He ducked his head under the hot spray and
exhaled, feeling the warm drops hit his scalp. Several ran down his face, both
soothing him and waking him up, as he wanted. In minutes, the sound of whiny
saxophones and soft piano melodies filled the bathroom. Like an alarm, he’d set
smooth jazz music to play while he showered because he loved hearing it when he
woke up.
Brendan wished
there was someone to share these morning moments with him. “Maybe someday, I’ll
get up the nerve.” He rubbed his newly cut hair and leaned against the marble
wall. “When Brendan, fucking when?”
RAWIYA is the more sensual
erotica writer in the BLRawiya duo. Rawiya's first sole author book, Time to Make the
Donuts released in Feb and her first MMF Living in the Now released in April from NNP. The
third book, Smooth Like Latte is out now. She has several shorts in
anthologies, the latest, That Thing in the STARbooks collection, Tall Dark and Delicious. A lot of
her shorts are also on Every Night Erotica.
She blogs regularly at Wicked
Sexy Writers. For more please visit the Rawiyas blog on Wordpress.
Thank you for having me Sara! :D
ReplyDeleteYou make some very valid points about people and love. Society needs to lighten up and not be so uptight about other people's bedrooms - it doesn't change the bottom line, which is that love is love is love. My favorite line from the film Moulin Rouge belongs to Toulouse - "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."
ReplyDeleteOnce everyone realizes that to love someone is what's important, not who you love, the world will be a better place. That same idea holds true for everyone - m/m readers, don't go hating on the m/f; m/f readers, don't turn your noses up at the m/m. It's what's in the heart that counts.
Great blog, Rawiya! I wish you love and much success with Latte!
*hugs and smooches*
Julie
Thanks Julie! I really do love this book! It's my fave. Thank you for betaying for me too. :D
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