Virtual Blog Tour: Whips & Chains - Pleasure and Pain Blog Tour/Giveaway - Shakir Rashaan

I wanted to take the time to thank Orsayor and Book Referees for being a part of the Whips & Chains, Pleasure and Pain Blog Tour!

 

 

 

Thank you so much for letting me and Ramesses get in with you guys and hopefully give you a few insights into the Nubian Underworld series.

 

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Shakir: Thanks for sitting down with me, Sir, I know the schedule is hectic for you and for me this week, so we’ll do what we do like we normally do when we’re collaborating and let the interview take its course, cool?

Ramesses: You know I have no problems chatting with you, my friend. After all, this is a coming out party for me and you both, you know?

Shakir: Yeah, trust me…I’m definitely enjoying this ride, wherever it leads us. However, let’s get to it because we have an audience awaiting us. First question: where did the Palace come from?

Ramesses: Amenhotep has had the Palace for the better part of the last twenty years. He’s kept it renovated over the years to keep it up to date, but he always had the concept down from the beginning. Most are content with just a room, but his entire estate is set up for debauchery and indecent activities.

Shakir: You definitely have a point. I had fun going out there with you, so I could describe the place as best as I could. Do those things actually happen out there every weekend?

Ramesses: You saw how everything went down during safi’s collaring ceremony, right? You know how things go down the way they do at the Palace, otherwise you wouldn’t have written it the way you did.

Shakir: LOL fair enough, bro, but I’m trying to do this interview like I don’t know what’s going on, remember? Okay, let’s get into why the Nubian Underworld series was created. Do you think the reading public doesn’t believe that people of color (meaning mostly black people) don’t really believe that we engage in kink and BDSM?

Ramesses: Let’s be real, Shakir. We have a bit of an image problem, which was why we needed to sit down and tell this story. If I see another white billionaire wannabe Dominant, I think I’m going to vomit. Yeah, I know money and power are sexy. I get that, but at the risk of sounding arrogant (I am the Great One, after all), they couldn’t hold a candle to the things that I can do once you take away the money.

There are black male lifestyle dominant/Alpha Male characters that can be, and are, positive. My voice is rare out there, and I understand that, which is why I wanted to cut through the noise and let readers see what’s up. No disrespect to Mr. Grey, Mr. Stark and a couple of others, but I would be curious as to where they got their mentoring and training from.

Shakir: Wow, you threw some of the popular characters out there, bro. Do you think you’re ready to hang with them? I mean, the die-hard readers already swoon over you as it is, but you’re about to be exposed to a larger audience. There are bound to be some that will think you’re a bit more intense and dare I say, abusive than the aforementioned Alpha males.

Ramesses: Bring the noise. Being a Dominant means never having to apologize for what you are. You know that as much as I do.

Shakir: Yeah, yeah I know, but this is mainstream folks, you know, the “vanilla” folk we have to try to get to understand some of this stuff, right?

Ramesses: Fair enough, Shakir, let’s roll with the next question, shall we?

Shakir: Cool. Now, the next question readers always ask: what’s up with the capitalization of the Dominant’s and lack thereof with the submissives? I know a few readers had a bit of time figuring things out, can you shed some light on why that is done in some circles?

Ramesses: Let’s see, the whole capitalizing of pronouns and such that seems to drive the vanillas crazy is representative of the hierarchical culture within the BDSM realm. As our girl, shamise, loves to say, “Sometimes a submissive or slave needs the physical manifestation of the purposeful imbalance within a Dominant/submissive relationship.” I agree with that assessment wholeheartedly. The reverence is needed, but it must also be earned.

Shakir: I like that response. Now, last question before we wrap this thing up: are the views and thoughts that you and Neferterri express based on anything that I might have influenced you or my Beloved might have influenced upon Neferterri?

Ramesses: LOL! No, but here is the caveat to that answer. Because we think in similar veins, of course the reading public might think that you are me and I am you, much the same as they might think that your Beloved is Neferterri and vice versa. But here’s the real: people will obviously see what they want to see, and at the end of the day, if they think you’re trying to be slick, then that’s something they need to reconcile within themselves, it’s nothing you, or I would be able to control, and that’s saying a lot coming from a couple of control freaks like us!

Shakir: Yeah, I definitely know what you’re talking about. If the world really knew our respective spouses…well, I’m not about to get into that, that’s another conversation for another time. What is in store for the next book in the series, Legacy? I know you’ve been putting the Palace through a renovation since getting back from out of the country, what else is going on?

Ramesses: Well, let’s just say that there are some lessons that will need to be learned, there will be some even hotter scenes than what was read about in The Awakening, and there will be a twist that you will never see coming. Trust me, you’ll be back for more!

 

(Click on book cover to order)

 

Leave a comment for your chance to win an ebook version of this book from the Author.