My Guest ~ R.A. Padmos

Unspoken

Release Date: 29th March
Publisher: Pride Publishing

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Give Away

Anyone giving a reaction to this post has a chance of winning one of my books—a choice of an ebook under all my names.Winners choice. I do need an e-mail address for obvious reasons.  

I also write as: 

S.Dora for my M/M erotica 

& 

Ella Laurance for my M/F erotica. 

Blurb

Sometimes a man has to choose between two very different kinds of love. But what if there is no real choice?

When Stefan meets Adri, it is love at first sight. It does, however, take some time before he recognizes his own feelings. He’s a married man—a family man—with a strong sense of responsibility. In Dutch society of 1935, sex between men over the age of twenty-one might be legal, but acceptance is still a long way off.

As a working-class man without a steady job, he doesn’t have the means to ignore society’s rules and create his own little paradise in which both he and his lover can be together, without his family having to suffer poverty and shame. Despite all this, the lovers find a way to carve out moments of intimacy and happiness.

Then the Germans march into Holland and nothing will ever be the same again. The occupation, which will last five long years, offers both danger and chances, but choices have to be made—choices of the head and choices of the heart.

Readers might be interested to know that Stefan, Adri and others also play a role in The Bookshop, the story of bookseller Jakoba. 

Hidden in plain sight

My novel Unspoken is about a man, Stefan, who discovers his romantic and sexual attraction to another man out of the blue. He honestly had no idea it was even possible. He’s married to a total darling of a woman and they have three children, with a fourth one on its way.

And no, it’s not a friendship slowly growing into something more, a development not unusual in so-called gay for you stories. I don’t even consider Stefan as bisexual, though I can understand the confusion. But Unspoken isn’t about that.

Stefan’s body reacts with almost brutal honesty when he meets Adri for the very first time. It is as if it recognises the truth of its owner much sooner while the mind takes a lot longer to recognise what is going on.

If this would be a temporarily story, it wouldn’t work to have a gay man this naïve. But what if the story takes place in 1935, in a Dutch town? What if homosexuality is legal, but that’s practically the only positive thing that those that are “that way” can hope for? What if Stefan looks and behaves just like any working class man in a time when homosexual men are considered not quite masculine by much of the medical establishment? What if he’s able to perform his marital duties? (I know this doesn’t sound like a man having fun in bed, and that’s exactly what I mean to say)

Perhaps knowing all that, it’s no longer so hard to imagine why a man who falls so hard and so deep for another man, has been able to not even notice his own feelings until they hit him so hard he has no other choice then to deal with them. 

Excerpt

A small taste?

Even after a year, Stefan could hardly believe he was able to make another human being this happy simply by existing. The calm contentment of a marriage between two gentle souls who mean nothing but good things to each other, but without unrealistic dreams, the gratitude for healthy children, it had honestly meant something to him.

But then this had happened. Someone had come into his life, someone with lights in his eyes, who touched whatever he was curious about or greedy for, with a body that demanded to be touched back, and suddenly being content to get old and die knowing a good life had been lived was no longer enough.

About R.A.

In no particular order: woman, writer, in a relationship with my wife since 1981 (though we had to wait until 2001 until we could actually get married), mother of two grown sons, owner of cats (I can pretend, can’t I?), reader and a lot more.

I write in different genres under different names. I’m also S.Dora for my M/M erotica and Ella Laurance for my M/F erotica.

Find R.A. Here

Blog ~ Facebook

Goodreads ~ Twitter

Stressful Times ~ Take Two

Have you ever had a period in your life, where you wish you could rewind and start over?

This is what I have been going through for the past couple of months, and the reason why I have been off and on/in and out of the social media scene.

Have you ever had someone disappoint you so severely, that it effects the way you look at the world. I'm not depressed, I think I'm more saddened that the last couple of years my life has been so emotionally draining for not only me but my family as well.

I'm not going to get into the details as that will only bring everybody down, and none of us need that... Let's just say, that as of recently, my situation has changed, and things are looking up.

I'm hoping that from here on out I'll be more in contact with my readers... keep both my blogs  updated more. I want to be able to put the past behind me and move on into a future where everything is clear.  

Most importantly I want to be able to write again.

Proofreading Edits

Done and sent back

Intended Mates 1

Lay Your Body Down

Finally...

I finally signed a contract on

WARDENS OF THE GUILD 1

The Real You

Stressful Times

I'm not going to go into the woes that is currently my life... A) because I don't really want to talk about it... and B) You don't really want to hear about it. So instead I thought I would talk about my writing and what the hell I'm going to do to catch up on everything that needs doing for the rest of 2016...

Right now I'm working on these two and hoping to have them mostly finished by the end of March.

Moon Runners 2: I Won't Let You Go

&

Lancaster's Way 3: Pre- Loved

I will do as many of the Penny Brandon Writing Challenge books... they will all or mostly be written and subbed, but may be in waiting lists to be released. I've change it up some so that I'm only working on already contracted series

Just Subbed & What's Next

It's done & dusted

The End

THE CONNELLY CHRONICLES 2

Beautiful Goodbyes

This story completed and subbed it came in at 

92K but with editing it will probably grow. I have enjoyed writing this chapter of Ray and Viv's lives and can't wait to begin the next story Because Of You on 1 June 2016...

Now I'm off to finish writing MOON RUNNERS 2: I Won't Let You Go for Fireborn Publishing... Last night I reread what I had and then went back and reread the first book and have decided I'm scrapping the 19K already written and starting over. I will use some of the points of view, but I need the story to go in a different direction. Hoping to have completed by the end of March.

RELEASING ~ Zephania's Chance

THE FREEDOMERS
Zephania's Chance

Publisher: Fireborn
Release: Date: March 16

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BLURB

Chance Hastings is alone. The person he was closest to was ripped away from him and sent to the world below the high city. Chance is determined to find his sister, no matter what it takes.

Zephania Aroson is being hunted by his own race for believing their leaders were wrong. The more he saw of the people of Earth, the more he realised they needed to be afforded the opportunity to live. He wasn't willing to stand by and watch the extinction of an entire race because his leaders commanded him to do so.

By saving the life of the human, Zephania finds his mate in Chance Hastings. Together they learn of a legend surrounding Chance and his siblings. With the help of a group of freedomers, Zephania and Chance begin the search for them. Along the way, they save Zephania's own family, and a new legend is uncovered.

EXCERPT

  July 18, 5023 AD had changed Chance Hastings' life forever. His view of the world had been irrevocably altered, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. It had been a bloody rude shock to the system when he'd found out humans weren't the only intelligent race inhabiting the universe. He hadn't even been sure it had been aliens, as by all rights and reasoning they hadn't existed—or so he'd been taught throughout his life. Hell, who had he been kidding? The strangers flooding into cities all over the world were real honest-to-God aliens and not little green men, either. These were more humanoid looking. Word quickly passed from human to human that the aliens had come to take over the world and turn the human populace into mindless slaves. Others were saying the aliens had come to wipe everyone off of the face of the earth so they could claim it for themselves.

  Chance was in the group who believed the latter explanation. So far, from what he'd seen, the newfound alien race was the "shoot first and ask questions never" kind of people. Chance sat against the side wall of Guardian Lowell's residence and took in the destruction around him, trying to come to grips with what he'd found. Inside the mansion, the whole Lowell family had been slaughtered, and by the state of the decomposition, they'd been murdered a good couple of weeks ago—if not longer. Deep down, Chance knew that if his first guardian had still been alive, the family would have helped Chance if they could. Guardian Lowell had been one of the few guardians who'd actually liked Chance and his siblings. The whole Lowell family had treated them as their own, rather than the wards they truly were. Instead, their lives had been forever changed the night they were taken from the Lowell's home to live with a new guardian family.

  Chance's mind wandered over the distant past as he thought about how much their world—the world of the human race—had changed with each passing century. Once, there had only been Earth. Now there were interconnecting cities above the earth's surface—great cities, each joined to the other via endless corridors of housing. The wealthy thrived in the cities, and the areas joining each city were where the poorer citizens resided. Those people were known as bridgers. Chance had preferred his quadrant of the world rather than being one of the city dwellers. The one strange thing he'd seen was that there were no imperfect people in the upper world. It had taken a long time for him to understand why. Then it was only through overhearing one of his guardians talking that he realised anyone born less than perfect wasn't tolerated. Imperfect people were taken to the lower world then left to defend themselves as best they could. Chance didn't know how long the two worlds had been separated—or even why.

  All he knew for sure was that it had been done a long time before he'd been born. He'd learnt since the day he'd eavesdropped on the conversation, how those in charge at the time the worlds separated had chosen who went up and who stayed behind, and the decisions hadn't been done fairly. The rich had been given preference. All criminals, the disabled, and the dirt-poor people had been left behind to fend for themselves. Families had been torn apart. People hadn't even been given the choice of remaining with their kin on the surface. They had been just rounded up and taken up to the shining new city to live, and basically told that if they didn't like it to get over it and start living their happily ever after.

  Sometime Chance had to wonder why he, Faith, and Maven had been up in the city and not on the surface. They were orphans—or so they'd been told over the years by their guardians. It was odd for the three siblings to be allowed to stay together. Usually orphan siblings were separated and doled out to deserving families to use as they wanted. Faith had believed there was something special about the three of them, mostly because they weren't always treated poorly. At one time, people had actually given them respect. That was, until seven years ago when they had been transferred to their latest guardians. Something had changed, and in the middle of the night, they'd been woken and shipped out of the inner cities to live among the upper-class of the poorer citizens, although going from the life of luxury to being a bridger had been a blessing in some ways. Chance no longer had to pretend to be someone he wasn't. Luckily, Faith had been like-minded. A week after they had joined Guardian Kremmer's family, he and Faith woke up to find Maven missing, and the Kremmers weren't answering any of their questions about where their brother was. Seven years had passed since then, and the reality was that it didn't even matter anymore. Right now it looked like they wouldn't survive until the end of the week, let alone long enough to find Maven. Chance knew that if he were going to die, he was going to go out fighting.

  Chance stilled as a small craft flew by overhead. If he didn't move, maybe they would assume he was dead. At least, he hoped they would. From the pattern of their flight, he surmised they were looking for something—or maybe someone. He hoped they found whoever it was before they found out that he was still alive and roaming free.

  Well, they aren't going to get me. Not today... Not ever, if I can help it.

  For the past three months Chance had been in hiding. It was more like he'd been on the run with Faith for the first two months, then in jail for the last month, and since getting out, he'd been on the run again for the last week. At least he thought it had only been a week. The day he'd been thrown in jail, the enforcers had carted Faith off, which scared the crap out of him for two reasons.

  The first reason was because once the enforcers assessed Faith, they would send her down to the surface. His sister would now be classed as imperfect, seeing as she was currently deaf. She'd lost her hearing three months ago when Guardian Kremmer had come home after having had too much to drink and had beat her across the back of the head with the object he'd had in his hand, which, at the time, happened to be a hot frying pan—all because he hadn't liked what she'd prepared for supper.