Permanent Ink by Jaime Samms
Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: AngstyG
Available for Purchase at
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host author Jaime Samms here today. Welcome, Jaime.
~
Everyone has moments in their lives when their eyes are opened to something they never realized about themselves. Eric and Angel have been best friends since middle school. Eric is wealthy and white. Angel is neither of those things. They shouldn’t be friends but the basketball court brought them together, and kept them together for years and years.
The last thing Eric ever thought about himself was that he would stereo type someone who’s skin was a different colour than his own. 
We’re built to make snap decisions about what we see. It’s a hardwired reaction built into our psyche for survival. But it doesn’t really apply to our current lives. It’s a hard thing to overcome, and I find myself having to check my own attitude constantly. It’s hard sometimes, to remember everyone doesn’t look at the world through the same lens.
Its the lesson Eric had to learn before he could let a real love into his life.
Both Angel’s brows went up. He pursed his lips and shrugged. “He’s a pain in the ass, I know. But he’s my cousin. I ain’t kicking him out or sending him off even for you. Might do you some good to get to know him.”
“Don’t need to know him.”
“You think you know so much. What do you have against him?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit.”
“I don’t know him, okay?” Eric scrambled. “How can I—”
“You don’t know him. You’re assuming things, and it’s bullshit, because he is a better guy than you or me.”
“Who just happens to freeload on a guy who relies on scholarships to get by. Who sleeps with anything that wags a tail at him. Who—”
“You. Don’t. Know him.” Angel stabbed a finger into Eric’s chest.
“Back off.” Eric brushed Angel’s hand away and turned back to his locker, twisted the lock, and popped it open. He snatched his towel off his waist and began rubbing it over his torso. “We both know guys like him, Angel. We went to school with them. We partied with them, remember? Remember when those parties were busted? When my brother had to sneak us out to avoid the cops? You remember the guys who named names and tried to pin all that shit on us?”
“Sure, and none of it ever stuck to you because Daddy—”
“Hey.” Eric snapped his attention back to Angel. “My daddy protected us both. And Marianne, so do not go there.”
“None of it would have stuck to you anyway,” Angel muttered.
“Because I didn’t do anything. Neither did you.”
“You think that would have mattered?”
“Of course—”
“Because guys like your dad would never have lumped me in with the other delinquents.”
“Angel—”
“I lived next door to those guys, Eric. I grew up in the same neighborhood. I ran the same streets.” He grabbed Eric’s hand and held it up, splaying his own next to it. Dark skin contrasted with Eric’s pale, lightly freckled arm. “I’m the same color as them. Not you.”
“That has nothing to do with—”
“With why you can’t stand Dwayne?”
Eric’s gut twisted. “No. Angel, of course not!”
“Yet you compare him to the thugs you used to slum with and not the best friend you practically grew up with.”
“I—”
“He isn’t like those guys. But you can’t see past the color or the clothes.”
Eric clamped his jaw. It wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like that. Was he?
Buy Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/permanent-ink-by-jaime-samms-8045-b
Blurb:
2nd Edition
Beauty is only skin deep, but some marks—and what they represent—are impossible to escape.
Eric resents his comfortable college life and the restrictions his family’s expectations put on him. Dwayne, his best friend Angel’s cousin, is a pierced and tattooed ex-con trying to rebuild his life. Eric sees only the tattoos and the way Dwayne’s upbringing have dictated his future. It takes a surprising revelation from Angel to force Eric to see past Dwayne’s defenses to the generous heart beneath and to realize it’s time for him to break free of his own instilled beliefs. The men can’t keep apart, and they gradually learn that everything they thought they knew about each other might be wrong.
Opposites attract as two men from very different backgrounds move from enemies to lovers in a story of understanding, compassion, and redemption.
First Edition published by Pink Petal Books, 2011.
About Jaime:
Jaime has been writing for various publishers since the fall of 2008, although she’s been writing for herself far longer. Often asked why men—what’s so fascinating about writing stories about men falling in love—she’s never come up with a clear answer. Just that these are the stories that she loves to read, so it seemed to make sense if she was going to write, they would also be the stories she wrote.
These days, you can find plenty of free reading on her website. She also writes for Various Publishers.
Spare time, when it can be found rolled into a ball at the back of the dryer or cavorting with the dust bunnies in the corners, is spent crocheting, drawing, gardening (weather permitting, of course, since she is Canadian!), or watching movies. She has a day job, as well, which she loves, and two kids, but thankfully, also a wonderful husband who shoulders more than his fair share of household and child-care responsibilities.
She graduated some time ago from college with a fine arts diploma, and a major in textile arts, which basically qualifies her to draw pictures and create things with string and fabric. One always needs an official slip of paper to fall back on after all . . .
Website: http://jaime-samms.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000982219151&ref=tn_tnmn
Livejournal:http://dontkickmycane.livejournal.com/
Deviantart: http://dontkickmycane.deviantart.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/JaimeSamms
Amazon Author page: amazon.com/author/jaimesamms
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 