The Awakening
Authors: Shakir Rashaan
Dear Reader:
Wow!
All I can say is get ready for a wild ride as Shakir Rashaan takes you into the BDSM lifestyle. His narrative is so real that it's obvious he's a true practitioner and has been for fifteen years in Atlanta's African-American Fetish community.
His erotica is off the chain, one of the reasons I selected his story for
Zane Presents Z-Rated: Chocolate Flava 3.
The talented writer brings it raw.
In
The Awakening,
Book One of
Chronicles of the Nubian Underworld,
Shakir introduces us to Ramesses and his wife, Neferterri, and their submissives. Discover what goes on at The Palace led by Amenhotep, Ramesses' mentor, stays there, and what goes on is some of the freakiest erotica on the planet. Book One centers around Amenhotep's welcoming his newest slave.
The tale highlights the acts in this spicy world as readers venture to the “dark side” with twists to keep you eager to complete the journey.
The story is written in true style with the dominants referred to in uppercase and the submissives in lowercase.
Be sure to check out Shakir's next titles in the series,
Legacy
and
Tempest
.
As always, thanks for supporting myself and the Strebor Books family. We strive to bring you the most cutting-edge, out-of-the-box material on the market. You can find out about our other authors on
www.zanestore.com
and you can find me on Facebook
@AuthorZane
and on Twitter
@planetzane
. Or you can email me at [email protected].
Blessings,
Publisher
Strebor Books
To my Beloved,
Through the storms
Through the fire
It has only made our bond stronger
I love you
“It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful.”
âAdrienne Rich
Okay, first things first, before you read this particular book. This is (somewhat) a work of fiction. That means that some of this stuff was made up, and some of it includes players whose names have been changed to protect the (not so) innocent.
I wanted to bring things along at a slow burn, so to speak, when I first envisioned the
Nubian Underworld
series, to kind of give folks a way to slowly take a peek and see if they liked how things developed. It is my sincerest hope that I accomplished what I set out to do, and that you're willing to delve deeper into the Underworld with me.
Before you even dig into this first installment, I'm already finished with the next
Nubian Underworld
installment,
Legacy
. I'm putting something a little outside-the-box out there, sort of a pipe dream that I would implement if I ever won the lottery. Not just a couple million though, I mean BIG money. I'm really excited to see how that idea might play out. I'm also thinking that a few people, possibly even a couple of submissives, might get a voice that didn't get one in the first book. You never know, you know?
I know there might be some folks that will read this book and might think, “That type of stuff doesn't happen. Black folks don't do stuff like that.” Guess what? Truth can be stranger than fiction sometimesâ¦and I'm gonna leave it at that for now.
Some things in the book actually happened, and some stuff was
made up. Wait, I think I said that somewhere in this part already. Oh well, it's up to you as to what's real and what's been made up.
Yeahâ¦like I'm really gonna tell which is which. SMH.
I'm really starting to dig this whole “literary universe” thing. I think I'll call mine the “NEBU Universe,” just because I want to have a flair for the dramatic. LOL. Hopefully, if enough of an audience is established, I'll be able to branch out a bit and do some other stuff. Perhaps even do some vanilla books? Nah, that's too predictable.
I want to first thank the Almighty for allowing me the ability to put this novel together.
Don't you just love it when people do that?
Seriously, I do understand why, because it takes a lot of work, time, sacrifice and a little luck to be able to have everything come together as well as you can put it together.
I've probably thanked damn near everyone that could be in the last couple of years, but it bears repeating sometimes because without their love and support, I wouldn't be able to do what I do.
To my mom: thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the love and support, not only of my lifestyle choices, but actually taking the leap of faith and realizing that it wasn't as bad as you thought it was. I am blessed to have you, and everything that I do, and have ever done or tried to do, has been to make you proud. I hope this novel continues to do just that.
To my sister: I know I could have told you sooner about a lot of things, but better late than never, right? LOL. Thank you for understanding the things that I've done and the connections that I have and the reasons for them. I know it's not exactly traditional, but it's stood the test of time, and God willing, it will continue to do so. I'm glad that I was able to inspire you to take the plunge with
me with this writing thing, and I'm excited as hell to see what you come up with next!
To my Beloved: there are never enough words to express the love that I have for you. You are without a doubt the best I will ever have, and to take this life's journey with you, I couldn't have asked for anyone else. As we've always said, “United in battle, until death do we part.”
To my father: a lot of what I am as a man, I took a part from you and made it my own, with my own swagger on top of that. We may not have seen eye to eye on a lot of things, but you have always allowed me to be my own man, and for that I will be forever grateful.
To my Nana and Granddaddy: even though you're no longer here, I take comfort in the fact that you're sitting pretty, together, watching your eldest grandchild do his thing on his terms.
To my son and daughter: I know you both were wondering what daddy was up to late at night, and I know I've told you both that you couldn't read what I was coming up with, but know that I wasn't saying things just to be saying them, and one day you'll understand why (like, when you turn twenty-one and I won't CARE what you're reading. LOL).
To our extended Leather Family (yes, I'm only using your scene names): Sir Deme and solamente; AMP Sir EZ; my mentor and big brother, Master Obsidian, and his wife, namaste; my Beloved's mentor, Master Black Zeus; finally, Lady D and Lady Velvet G. Thank you all for your support when I first started cranking up this book writing thing. We don't call a lot of people in the BDSM community as a whole “Family” often, but we consider you as such. Thank you for letting me pick your collective brains to bring all of these characters to life.
To our submissive girls, aneesa and ayanna, who influenced a
lot of the behavior of the submissives and slaves in this series, thank you both. You know I appreciated the answers to my maddening questions.
To my SoCal crew: Sir Strange, Orpheus Black and the rest of y'all, we're hoping to finally get out there and getting some fun and sun soon! To my DMV crew: Mythos3K, kore3K, Lady Z, amara and the rest of y'all up there, thanks for all of your support! MrCL and MsSquirt, destny and the rest of the folks in NYC, and last but not least, my crew here in the A: hypnotiq, Jupiter and Skyy, Trinity; man, it's so many of y'all down here, just know I'm including you, too
LOL!
I know I'm missing a whole gang of folks, so just do me a favor and insert your name in this next statement:
I'd like to thank __________________________ for the support and love. I hope to continue to put books out that you will want to tell your friends and family about.
Anyway, let me get back to trying to come up with some twisted stuff to put in print that people think POC (I'm sorry, that means people of color, or black people in particular, folks) can't get into⦠and don't forget to tell a friend or two, or a hundred; you never know who might get a kick out of reading this. A bruh would like to make a few bestseller lists. LOL.
Sincerely,
The grammatical errors that you might see within the dialog between the characters are not oversights. This is the type of speech and text that is used in some facets of the BDSM world. As one of my submissive friends put it, “The lowercase letters in a slave's or submissive's name are a demonstration of the hierarchical relationship. It is a reminder to the submissive that he or she is the bottom part of the hierarchy, meant to be led, and the Dominant's name is always capitalized, as He or She is the Top part, meant to lead.” In keeping with the essence of the series and the essence of the BDSM community, preserving the speech was paramount. It is my hope that you, the reader, will understand and appreciate the symbolism.
Welcome to the Chronicles of the Nubian Underworld: a view into our world of the alternative, and the circle of friends within this realm that my Beloved and I associate with. We hope you enjoy the journey with us as you come to meet up with some of the friends and associates, as well as some new faces, which will come about through this first of a hopefully long series of “Chronicles” yet to come.