Free story & New Release: Barbara Sheridan

WhooWhoo! Barbara Sheridan has a new release out today with Decadent Publishing. Go Barbara, Go Barbara!

Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Genre: contemporary, paranormal (reincarnation), erotic
Length: Short Story Part of the 1 Night Stand series

On Sale Now

For many women, having a handsome, pleasant boss is a plus; having two is twice as good. But for Kim Ryan, two gorgeous bosses is double the distraction in her job as an architect at D & K Associates. 

When Kim comes across the 1 Night Stand service she hopes indulging in the fantasy that haunts her—making love to men who resemble both her bosses—will quell her improper dreams. 

Best friends and business partners Jack DeWitt and David Imahara never could understand the sexual attraction to one another that hit them out of left field. But they enjoyed the best of both worlds as they studied then worked toward opening their own architectural firm.

Neither expected the decision to add a residential design department to their successful business would bring Kim Ryan into their offices and dredge up odd dreams of another time and place—a place in feudal Japan where they shared a passion that consumed them whenever she was around.

And if that's not cool enough right there, she's given me the prequel Personal Business as a  freebie to giveaway to wet your appetites. That.ROCKS.

Want it? You know you do. Just leave me a comment and I'll send it off to you. 

How much does Barb rock? MuchMuch. :D

Congrats on your new release Barb!

A TSO Weekend Away

After too many suck days of late, I'm very much looking forward to some days away. Daughter and I are heading out on our yearly trip to our show and I'm pretty darn excited. A couple of days away, maybe some shopping in the big city and some oh so yummy food at our favorite spots. CanNOT wait.

Last year I took my first ever concert photos at the show, we go every year, I think this will be our 8th or maybe 9th time, I posted these over at the Place, but I thought I'd share the pics over on mah Zoo blog too.

Over the mountain and thru the snow, to TSO we go.

That's my boy Andrew singing the opening number.  Mmmm.  I love him.  

That's my man Al, just a jammin away.

Oh yeah Al baby.  Just into it!  Go Al!

That's... um...violin chick.  I have no idea what her name is.  But that chick... can play!

Mmmmm, my other boy, Angus.  Angus...ROCKS!

That would be Angus, and Al's wife.  Forget her name too.  But she is friggin' awesome at the keys!  Amazing that one is.

Darling daughter will kick my butt, but yeah, don't remember his name either.  But dude can belt one out!

That's tommy.  I love Tommy.  Dude has the deepest voice.  Love him.

Damn she's good.  Never heard anyone play like her.  They have keyboard wars with Liszt... amazing!

And...Tommy again.

Tommy and Al.  

Um... yeah, forget her name.  Awesome voice thou.  Friggin' incredible.

and so she continues

Tommy and Al.  They've been playing together for like 31yrs or something crazy.  My boys from the Bronx.  Love LOVE!

Angus... friggin jammin'!!!

Complete with fire and explosions.

Go Angus Go!  They just light that place UP!!!!

You've just never heard a jammin' violin like this!

Oh yeah, go girl.

Al...with FIRE!!!!

The end!

In case you have never heard these bad boys... a vid. Because you simply must see, MUST hear. Must.

Off to get ready. 

Later taters. 

*smooch*

Happy Thanksgiving

This day we are supposed to be thankful, and... eat a lot. The eat a lot part comes later in the day for me, but right now... I am thankful for something.

I'm thankful for wonderful friends.

Friends o'mine, you rock.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Much love,
Amara

Do Over Post: Stillness

Cuz I can.

I don't like the post I just made, I don't want my Holly out here.

So I removed it, and now I call do over, I tend to do that sometimes.

I don't really kow what to post, my brain isn't working right today. I do know I don't want to be where I am right now, so I'll post where I'd rather be...

The beach.

It's called Stillness.

I wish I had that.

Don't mind me. No idea what I'm blogging about.

And don't really care.

For Kris

I made it myself. It's name is sunshine.

Just a little something, from me to you.

The thought behind it: Smile. And fuck the fuckwits and their fuckwitery. ;)

Amara's Place Word of the Day: Fuck, and all conjugations there of.

Free Hugs

What to blog, what to blog.

I've been thinking on several things, my head is still spinning, my emotions are still raw, I'm still riding an emotional roller coaster I don't know how to get off of.

And then, I saw a friend tweet this video. This. This is what I need to blog.





*hugs*

That is all.

'i see myself': embrace the rainbow

In the past few days, we have been privileged to witness an increasing awareness and understanding within the m/m romance community about the complex issues of gender/s and sexuality/ies.

This has been a significant and positive step forward in healing a rift caused primarily by ignorance and bringing hope where there was once anger, turmoil and devastation.

This is by no means an end, however.

For if there is one thing we have all learnt is that a rainbow cannot easily be grasped or defined. 

Rainbows are constantly changing.  Rainbows are not fixed.  Even when an artist tries to portray them in a photograph or piece of work it is only one moment in time they are capturing, not the full journey of a rainbow.

It is this fluidity we need to embrace and encourage others to do so as well.

To this end, we are sending out a challenge.

A challenge to help us increase awareness, acceptance and support for the trans*, intersex, intergender and questioning people in the m/m romance community and broader community by adding this to your site:

Kindle Vixen for 'embrace the rainbow'.

We believe this will stand hard as a sign post symbolising hope as well as a safe space for GLBTQQ people to freely be themselves.  Whoever 'they' might be at that particular moment and whoever 'they' might be in different moments in the future.

We do this on the day which marks the 13th International Transgender Day of Remembrance; a day for remembering those trans* who have been the victims of hate crimes.

We also do this in association with the Safe Reading Zone campaign; a promise to those GLBTQQ people among us that we will support them.

So, will you accept our challenge?

Perhaps this excerpt from an interview in September 2011 between genderfluid Andrej Pejic and ABC’s Nightline Juju Chang will help you make a descision:

Chang:  When you see yourself in the mirror, do you think of yourself more as a man or as a woman?
Pejic:  I like to keep my options open.
Chang:  What does that mean?
Pejic:  I see myself.

‘I see myself.’

That, friends, says it all.

Please help us spread this message.

With hope and love, Aleksandr Voinov, Amara Devonte and Kris for 'embrace the rainbow'.

The World Thru My Eyes

I need something else to think about. Something else to focus on. I look around and with where my mind has been, with how my heart feels, I need to remember... I'm surrounded by beautiful things.

I don't write books, I paint with light. A while back lost every photo I ever made, a gnar storm hit and blew up my hard drives. Recently, I found them again. Looking at them again, going thru them, makes me smile. Most I need to reprocess, but a few of the old print ready ones actually survived. Yay for that. :)

Thought I'd post some on my blog, redirect my own thoughts a bit.

The World... thru my eyes...

The end.

Opinionated

Daughter sent this to me...

It made me think...

true that.

Amara's Place Song of the Day...

King of Anything by Sara Bareilles

I hate to break it to you babe

But I'm not drowning

There's no one here to save

Who cares if you disagree

You are not me

Who made you king of anything

So you dare tell me who to be

Who died

And made you king of anything

You sound so innocent

All full of good intent

You swear you know best

But you expect me to

Jump up on board with you

Ride off into your dellusional sunset

I'm not the one who's lost

With no direction oh

But you won't ever see

You're so busy makin' maps

With my name on them in all caps

You got the talkin' down just not the listening

All my life

I've tried

To make everybody happy while I

Just hurt

And hide

Waitin' for someone to tell me it's my turn

To decide

And who cares if you disagree

You are not me

Who made you king of anything

So you dare tell me who to be

Who died

And made you king of anything

Let me hold your crown, babe

Oh oh

Ah

Healing the Rift

I have spent the last couple/few weeks being an emotional wreck. I've not slept in I don't know how long. I've been trying to fight a battle I didn't know how to fight. Quite frankly, I'm still an emotional wreck, and I'm completely exhausted.

I look back over the last weeks, and I feel a bit like I failed. What I was trying to accomplish, what I was trying to prevent, I was unable to. I feel like that's because I didn't know the right words to get people to see what I was trying to say; that "outing" our authors could have, would have, far reaching consequences. I didn't have enough knowledge to make an intelligent argument. All I knew how to do was try to stand up, try to plead, "Please! Please stop!" I tried as hard as I could, the only way I knew how, to get people to see the hurt and the pain my friends were going thru, the hurt and the pain I knew others I don't even know were going thru. I was trying so hard to protect them from people that I couldn't get thru to.

I watched on Monday, as one of my dearest friends laid himself bare for all to see. I watched him put himself out there for public scrutiny in the midst of that whole uproar. I know what that meant for him to do that. That was the very thing I was trying to prevent. I didn't want ANYONE to feel they needed to do such a thing.

I have mixed feelings on what he did. I am so damn fucking proud of him. For the stand he took, for his courage, his bravery. Aleksandr Voinov is a man I look up to, a man I have such great respect for, he is the very image of the person I want to be when I grow up. If I could be even 1/2 as awesome as he is...

Shit, I'm going to cry again, I'll stop there and just say I am in total awe of my friend.

The flip side is I am still so very angry. I'm still so very upset. I'm upset that he felt he needed to do that. I understand why he did it, but I don't like that he felt he had to. I don't like the circumstances surrounding it all.

I don't want ANYONE to have to do that again. Not one more of my friends, not one more author, not one more single person anywhere.

Not. Anyone.

I've seen some hopeful things come out of this whole thing. I've talked to many people behind the scenes, I've watched light bulbs come on with an awareness of what happened, of what went wrong, of what caused so much pain. With each one I see, with each person I've talked to, I get a little more hopeful still.

As for me, I've learned a great deal. I've learned that I have a lot to learn. I've every intention of learning all that I can. I want to do all that I possibly can, I WILL do all that I possibly can, to support my friends, to support TG/Q authors, the community as a whole, to help bring awareness, to help...

Just to help. What ever that means. What ever way I can.

Since I'm still not sure how to do that yet, I figure I'll start by just pointing out that over in the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads, they started a thread called "Healing the Rift". Aleksandr Voinov, Serena Yates, and several other people are over there answering questions, helping people to understand what happened, why this all hurt so bad, bringing awareness and getting things out in the open. What they are doing over there I think we should all see. So many of us need to know, to understand, to learn. And it's a great start, it's an awesome thing they are doing.

To all my friends: to Aleks and the rest I won't name, (hopefully you know who you are)... I love you the world. You inspire me with your courage and your bravery every day. You all rock my fucking socks so hard.

To the rest of the authors and readers affected by all of this, I end with this...

*big tight squeezes and a smooch too*

I'm getting all gushy and my eyes starting to leak again, so... I'm off.

Later taters.

Dear Authors: I just wanted you to know, I heart you.

What a weekend of wow. I’ve stayed mostly on the sidelines, with the exception of here on my own blog as I see no real point in attempting discussion that seems unwelcome so I can continue to be told I don’t understand the issue. I’ve had a weekend where I wish I were just a reader again. I miss the days when I just read a book that an author wrote, based on the blurb on the back and/or reviews written about the books.

Monday morning arrives, and I am completely disillusioned at what I’ve seen. I go back and forth between angry, sad, disgusted, disappointed, disheartened, and disillusioned. I read a blog post yesterday that broke my heart. I was informed that my favorite author will be leaving the genre. It was a sad day for me. I will miss him. I can’t blame him a single bit, but I will miss him vera vera much. I know that others are thinking of leaving as well, I will miss them too. Vera vera vera much.

I’ve been told enough times that I don’t understand the issues, and quite frankly, I don’t care. I’m tired of saying that there were going to be other issues as a result of the controversy. I’m pretty much tired of the whole thing.

I’m not making this post to rehash everything; I’m not making this post to say anything other than…

Dear Authors,

I love you. I appreciate you. I respect you and what you do. I am only one reader, one little voice in a sea of many that are louder than me, but I want you to know that as long as you write good books for me, I will continue to read them.

I will never ask you to reveal your private lives to me. You will never have to reveal to me which gender you are or where in the rainbow you fit. I will never try to stuff you in some preconceived little box so I can put a label on you. I will never label you in any other way than author/writer and I will call you by what ever name you wish me to use.

I will continue to buy your books, based on the blurb on the back, or an excerpt I read, or maybe even a review. And that is all.

I am just one small voice. I am just one reader. But I wanted you to know, if you continue to make good book for me, I will judge you only by the words you put in them. I also wanted you to know… I think you rock.

All my love,

Amara Devonte

A letter to the entire M/M Community; This must stop.

Dear readers, writers, bloggers and the like,

I write this with a heavy heart. I’ve been watching this latest controversy unfold, I’ve stayed on the sidelines through most of it, expressing my concern at what I see going on only in a few instances off blog. My concern not for any single author, but for the community as a whole, for what I think the backlash of this is going to do  is doing.

I see so many people asking for, calling for, even demanding that authors prevent this feeling of betrayal that so many have by revealing truths to the public, by changing their bios, by not “misrepresenting” themselves.  I don’t think you know or understand what you ask. You don’t fully understand the impact this firestorm is having. With voices raised high you’ve gone after the author at the center of this, but there are other authors as well, authors on the side lines watching as this all unfolds and the cry goes from one author, or authors in general.

I wrote a post last week, an outburst at what I called the panty policing gender patrol. I didn’t write that in regard to any one person, I didn’t write that in regard to any one author. I wrote that in an emotional outburst, because I’m deeply troubled at the impact this firestorm will have in the broader scheme of things, in the genre as a whole. Days later, after watching more of this unfold, I stick to my opinion. Stronger than ever. We can NOT police the gender of our authors. We can NOT require them to reveal gender and/or sexual orientation if they choose not to.  

Who are we to ask them to? Who are we to decide what is truth and what is misrepresentation when it comes to gender identification and/or sexual orientation of the person behind the pseudo? How can we do that when we do not understand the fluidity of gender in the first place?

Our authors have a right to their privacy. Our authors have a right to identify however they choose. Or authors have a right to the protections of their pseudo. Our authors owe us nothing more than the satisfaction of a good book, our monies worth for what we are buying. We are not buying them. We are not buying their lives. We are not buying the right to know the person behind the pseudo.

Before I’m again accused of refusing to admit the culpability of the author at the center of this, I will say, again, I refuse only to engage in the firestorm as it relates directly to that single author. I understand that people feel betrayed. I understand that people don’t want to feel that way again. But I also understand that the solution is not found in betraying the rest of the authors in the community by demanding that they owe us the person behind the pseudo; the pseudo they have chosen as is their right to do.

I’m told this isn’t about gender. I’m told this isn’t about sexual orientation. I say yes. Yes it is. It is in that the preconceived notions about gender and the lack of understanding of its fluidity are at the heart of wanting to know, is the person behind the male or the female pseudo a woman or a man? And is that man or woman L.G.B.T.orQ… which label can we put on them? And is it accurate?  I’m told, we as a community don’t care which category authors fall into. Male, Female, L.G.B.T.Q.Straight. But don’t you see? It’s in the trying to label that is the problem.

I will tell you who the person behind the pseudo is. The person is neither. The person is both. The person is…  a human being. They are a human being with the right to identify and present as they, and they alone, chose to. That is all.  

With a heavy heart, I say to you all. If this doesn’t stop, you run the risk of losing fabulous authors.

My heart is sad, because you don’t even realize it.

With love to all,

Amara Devonte

My blogs are not a place to...

Note to the blogoshpere:

My blogs are not a place to come question and speculate on the gender and/or sexual orientation of ANY author.

My blogs are not a place to begin listing which trans* authors are considered to be ok and/or which may not be.

My blogs are not a place to come call authors lying little shitheads and/or fuckheads.

My blogs are not an open forum to come label, or name call ANY author.

Comments of this nature will be deleted.

I am all for discussion. People need not agree with me, but this is MY blog. If you feel the need to do these things, I suppose you have the right, I at least can't stop you, but... do it elsewhere. It won't be done here.

Note:  This list is subject to grow at any time.

End the panty police on gender patrol

I’m disturbed, no… I’m appalled… at what I see happening all over the internet in the M/M community. Reader groups, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, authors and readers alike.

What are you doing?

This latest firestorm regarding gender in the genre is unbelievable to me. I know that this is nothing new, but it’s the first I’ve actually witnessed first hand and I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Is he a she? Is she a he? I have a better question. Why does it matter? Why is it anyone’s right, author or reader, to know the answer to the question?

Are we really doing panty checks before buying books? Am I really supposed to give a flying fuck if AJ Llewellyn sits to pee? Or if Josh Lanyon stands? Who has a penis, who doesn't? And who flippin cares? Are they writing books with it? If they are, I might care because that would be damn impressive.

This is utterly riduclous. Not to mention shameful.

What about the female authors? How do I know they are really female? Shouldn’t we be checking their panties as well? *gasp* What if they really have a penis hiding in there? What about the trans writers? What are you going to classify them as? And who decides the validity of their claim?

What a bunch of bullshit this all is.

Why is this even an issue? I don’t understand. I’ve seen the words deception and exploitation thrown around. How about the word hypocrite? Every author out there is using a pseudo. If they aren't, they should be. There’s a lot of whack jobs out there, authors, readers alike, hell, the general public as a whole is packed plumb full of nutjobs. A pseudo should be used. As far as pseudo matching gender, I have a hard time understanding… if you use a female pen name and you’re a woman, or male pen name and are a man, you are more righteous …why? You’re still hiding behind a false name. Who you show me online is NOT all of the "real" you. And what about pictures? A lot of authors don’t use faces, a lot use book covers for profile pics…hmm… I don’t think they really look like that. Let’s lynch ‘em!

Hypocrites.

I don’t get it. When I buy a book, I am owed only one thing by that author. A good book. I want my monies worth for the book I bought. I’m not owed answers on their gender. I’m not owed details on their sexual orientation. I’m not owed a head shot, info on who their sleeping with, details of their real lives, where they work, grew up, kids names, nothing. I am owed $10 bucks worth of good fucking book. That is all.

I’m seeing witch hunts all over. I’m seeing authors defend themselves by trying to “prove” they aren’t “misleading” anyone. It makes me sad and it pisses me off. Here’s an idea. Instead of being the panty police on gender patrol, why doesn’t the M/M community come together to further itself instead of trying to bully each other, name call and “out” authors. Why don’t authors just write their books, and readers just read them, come together and make the community flourish and grow.

/rant

Dear authors, male, female, gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, trans*, or visitors from fucking mars, please just continue to write me the books you write. Please don't let the fuckwits get you down. Hold your heads up high, all of you... and make good book.
All my love,
Amara

Dear those who want to have a panty policing gender patrol party, an author's name, life, gender, sexual orientation and all the rest is... nunya.
Nunya fukkin' business.
Sincerely,
Amara

Fuckwittery running amuck. Enough already.
The end.

Related posts...
My blogs are not a place to...

A letter to the entire M/M community: This must stop