Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
She Called Me Nigger and Everything Changed
Her name was Tanya and her best friend Dora always brushed her strawberry blonde curls while they sat on the stoop. We lived in the same apartment building on Decatur Avenue in the boogey down Bronx. We were both around the same age: pre-teen. She lived on the second floor. I had to walk-up to the fourth. Those were the things that differentiated her in my mind. Nothing else.
Oh and this stuff too. We weren't allowed to go outside while my parents worked. We didn't have a baby sitter and my assignment was to watch the three younguns during the day. Her mom, well seems like all the other moms, stayed home. Their dads worked. Tanya and her friends hung out in front of the building from mid-morning until dinner time.
I spent the majority of the day hanging my head out of the window, wishing. My wish was always the same: to float down to the sidewalk or climb down the fire escape, either would work. To be part of their crew. To draw chalk outlines for hopscotch and jump double-dutch or walk to the corner bodega and buy some sugar daddies or a lemon Italian ice.
It happened a few days before the blackout that summer of 1977. The dust covered blades of the fan propping up the window and circulating hot air sputtered to a halt. I stuck my head over the window's guardrail hoping for a breeze to cool off. When I looked down, Tanya spat up. At me.
"Nigger!"
I didn't hear the car horn warning her brother running into the street after the pink ball that bounced off the wall to interrupt their handball game. Gloria Gaynor's latest song blasting from Ray's beatbox on the other side of the street got sucked into a vortex along with every other sound cluttering that moment. Everything except her venom.
It wasn't so much what she said that slowed my perception of time. I'm not sure that I even appreciated her insult. No, what I remember is that word defining a different unconsidered reality.
You see, in my birth country most people are the same color. Even when we aren't we claim the same heritage. Where I come from, the blond-haired blue-eyed, the Indians with straight jet black hair and brown skin, the Chinese with their sleeked angular features, we are all considered the same. "Out of Many One People" is a motto we Jamaicans believe in and are proud of.
It never crossed my mind that I was black. Before that day, color and race had no connection to who I saw in the mirror or my surroundings. Those two words were not part of my vocabulary when describing other human beings. They just weren't.
It never crossed my mind that I was black. Before that day, color and race had no connection to who I saw in the mirror or my surroundings. Those two words were not part of my vocabulary when describing other human beings. They just weren't.
Because of Tanya I associated the word "nigger" with not only a derogatory, less-than, unworthy, invisible, name-less, alienated, nobody, but even more unfathomable, the actual color of my skin. That awareness of not being judged by the content of my incredible, intelligent, sassy, outspoken, one-of-a-kind, character had awakened. And my insides shriveled.
Fearlessness castrated with fear. Ebony beauty contorted into ugliness. Confidence mutated to doubt. Acceptance distorted with confusion. She snuffed out some of the spark that fueled my soul. Two days later New York surrendered to total darkness.
She called me nigger and everything changed.
She called me nigger and everything changed.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Monday, June 22, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
We Are A Nation of Cowards
We are a nation of cowards
Cowards who rape, attack and kill the innocent
Cowards who criticize, divide and terrorize with digitized communication
Cowards afraid to stand and fight for justice
Friday, June 19, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015
Guest Author - Rachel Stapleton and "FREE GIVEAWAY"
Former librarian Sophia Marcil is well read when it comes to topics like supernatural spells, magic, and ancient curses. Not only has she studied them, she actually inherited one in the form of a jewelry set and was transported back to a past life. Now she’s back in the present day keeping a low profile in the emerald Isle with her strapping Irish love, but she knows the maniac obsessed with her cursed gemstone is also out there somewhere. She soon realizes he may be closer than she thinks when Cullen proposes with the very sapphire that’s cursed her. As soon as it touches her skin, she feels herself being wrenched back in time.
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire will be free for Kindle from Monday June 15th to Friday June 19th.
GET YOUR FREE COPY HERE
GET YOUR FREE COPY HERE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About the Author: Rachel Stapleton lives in a Second Empire Victorian with her husband and two children in Ontario, Canada and enjoys writing in the comforts of aged wood and arched dormers. She is the author of The Temple of Indra’s Jewel, Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire and is currently working on the third and most likely final book in the Temple of Indra series.
Blog: http://RachaelStapleton.blogspot.ca/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Rachael-Stapleton/137831156290570
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaquelleJaxson
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7271862.Rachael_Stapleton
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Stapleton/e/B00IE9W804
Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RachaelStapleton/posts
Buy Links:
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire Paperback
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire Kindle
The Temple of Indra’s Jewel Paperback
The Temple of Indra’s Jewel Kindle
Friday, June 12, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
Guest Author - Robert A. Webster
Tales from the Old Country
Imagine if your grandfather suddenly became the nation's hottest rock heartthrob....imagine no longer.
When Charles Clark’s wife passed away, he thought life without his beloved Mary would be unbearable. Charles knew that his middle-aged children, who had families of their own, didn’t want him burdening them, which is why they dumped him into Fossdyke Old Folks’ Home. However, unbeknownst to Charles, this is not the end of his life story, but rather the beginning of a new chapter.
What started out as fun for the four elderly musicians of a band called Fossils, has now, thanks to Kipper, spiraled out of control. Record companies, fans, and the nation’s media scour the country in search of the elusive, young, vibrant, four-piece band, unaware they have a combined age of 280 years.
The old rockers, fearing their families would be ridiculed when the truth comes out, need to find a way to avoid attention in the UK until things can be resolved.
Fortunately, Steve has a plan...
Meet the Fossils:
Charles Clark (Nobby) – Keyboard and lead vocals – Prone to nodding off...often.
Steve Baker (Strat) – Lead guitar and vocals – Extremely irritable bowels...and I do mean extremely.
Wayne Logan (Sticks) – Percussion and songwriter – Selectively deaf, randy old sod.
Elvin Stanley (Chippers) – Bass – Digitally challenged, also a randy old sod.
Kevin Nutley (Kipper) – Local DJ and manager – As smart as a bag of rocks.
Dave Corrigan (Cosmo) – Pub landlord and manager – Claims to be an honest businessman who, according to him, had nothing to do with the dodgy iPads circulated around town...honest.
GET YOUR COPY OF FOSSILS HERE
GET YOUR COPY OF FOSSILS HERE
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
My Soul Is Weeping
My heart is crying
Pearls of innocence stolen
Chastity violated and broken
Nightmares stifled to protect the guilty
Shame hidden and plenty
Pain slamming against death's door
Dulled though the memory grows more
Hunted at eight
Ashamed to participate
Victimized yet flattered
Childhood stunted and shattered
My soul is weeping
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Monday, June 1, 2015
Guest Author - Bernard Foong (alias Young), International Best Selling Author on Amazon
1. What's your name?
Answer: Bernard Foong (a.k.a. Young)
2. Do you have a nickname? If yes, what is it and how did you come to have it?
Answer: My classmates in my UK boarding school couldn’t pronounce my Chinese name Yoong, so I became Young.
3. What species are you (Human, werewolf, etc? Or are you an alien?) I know you have some special gifts that aren’t entirely human?
Answer: Human
4. Where/when were you born?
Answer: I was born in 1953 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Malaya at the time of my birth. Now it is Malaysia after it obtained its independence from the British Empire.
5. Okay, now...do you believe that you are good or bad or are those terms not definable?
Answer: Not definable.
6. How would you describe your personality?
Answer: Inquisitive, smart, intelligent, creative and full of vigor/vitality.
7. Would you say you're someone who can handle pressure?
Answer: Yes.
8. What’s a good example?
Answer: When I was being summoned into the headmaster’s office to be told that I’m one of 5 boys (from a school of approximately 200) that had been specially selected to enter a sexual secret society – The Enlightened Royal Oracle Society (E.R.O.S.) to be further educated in a more exclusive boarding school in the United Arab Emirates to be groomed to enter several Arab Household harems.
9. Who are your main enemies, people you would like to see stopped from whatever they are doing?
Answer: None. Since I’m writing about my (true-story) unique harem experiences of my adolescent life. I don’t have any enemies.
10. What is one thing that you would like to see happen in the immediate future?
Answer: That A harem Boy’s Saga; a memoir by Young series will shed a positive and an enlightening light on main-stream society (worldwide).
Hypothetically...
1. Suppose that you could become any creature you know of. What would you pick, and why?
Answer: I wouldn’t want to be any creature but myself because I had such a positive experience during my young years in harem services.
2. One of your enemies just complimented you. What is your response?
Answer: Love him/her unconditionally.
3. One of your friends just insulted you. What is your response?
Answer: At our unique education, we are specially selected by the secret society because of our positive and loving traits. Therefore, students and “big-brothers/Valets would treat insults with a grain of salt and us our positivity to dissipate the negativity.
4. If you could change anything about yourself...
Answer: I love and embrace who I am. I’m a perfect me. I don’t need to change and be somebody I’m not.
5. Tell me about where you grew up…
Answer: My childhood until 13 years of age was spend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From late 13 to 26 I was educated in the United Kingdom. From 14 years on, I’ve been travelling, studying, teaching all over Europe and Asia.
Now We Get Personal
1. What are your parents like?
Answer: Love my nurturing mother. Did not get along with my tyrannical dad. They are both deceased.
2. Do you have any siblings?
Answer: I have 2 blood brothers, one half-brother and a half-sister.
4. What's your occupation?
Answer: I’m a semi-retired fashion designer. I’m also an established artist. Now, I’m writing my 7 books memoirs. Do you like it? I love everything I do.
5. Are you seeing/dating anyone?
Answer: I’m in a long-term relation. My life-partner and I have been together for 19 years.
6. If not, did you ever think about getting engaged or married and to whom?
Answer: In my memoirs, I’ve recently reconnected with my ex-big-brother/Valet/lover. If and when we do meet up and if the circumstances and situations permit, we (my life-partner, Walter, Andy – my ex-lover “big-brother”/Valet and I may decide to have a triplet relationship.
7. Tell us your biggest secret.
Answer: I had kept my E.R.O.S. and harem experiences a secret close to 40 odd years. Now, I’m ready to tell my story. Therefore my biggest secret (that is no longer a secret anymore). I’ve included a synopsis below of what my secret was.
A Harem Boy’s Saga - I – Initiation; a memoir by Young.
This provocative story is about a young man who was initiated into a clandestine sexual society. He was spirited to the Middle East, from his UK boarding school. He attended the Bahriji School (Oasis,) in The United Arab Emirates in preparation for serving in Harems for the wealthy and elite.
It is also a love story between the young man and his ‘Valet’ who served as his chaperone and mentor during the boy’s Harem service.
Author’s note:
I had a privileged and unique upbringing in Malaysia. Following in my brothers' footsteps, I was sent to an exclusive boarding school in England. It is there that I was inducted into a clandestine organization, E.R.O.S. The Enlightened Royal Oracle Society. For four years, unbeknown to my family, I was willingly and happily part of a Harem.
My story has been kept under wraps for close to 45 years. The correct moment has arrived for me to make known my unique education.
1. Your worst fear?
Answer: One of the reason I’ve changed the actual names of people and places in my memoirs is to protect their identities so I will not be sued or have a ‘Fahwah’ put on my life because of my controversial experiences. This is not so much fear but a precaution I took to protect all the people and institutions involved. You don't have to answer this one if you don't want to.
2. Tell us one thing you're the most proud of and why?
Answer: To be given this enlightened educational opportunity within such an opulently, wealthy and unique setting, to grow into a responsible citizen of the world. This, I’m grateful and truly proud of.
Social Media and Contact Links
Website: http://aharemboysaga.com/wp/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bfoong1
Twitter: @aharemboysaga
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/haremboysaga/a-harem-boys-saga/ (contains adult contents)
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/trisf2013 (contents adult contents)
Amazon Author's Page: http://www.amazon.com/A-Memoir-by-Young/e/B00CENKJKM
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2992700.
Video trailer for all the 3 books in A Harem Boy's Saga series (conservative version): http://youtu.be/F0Lv80yhhq0
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