Censorship – credit card companies are burning our books

I received an email from Smashwords this week, because I publish erotica with them and they have received instructions from PayPal that they can no longer publish content with rape, bestiality and incest (including pseudo incest). Now, those of us who don't write those particular sub types of erotica may think, oh well, doesn't apply to me, so, ho hum, let's just ignore it. However, this is the thin end of the wedge! (BTW, I will add here, that it is not PayPal who came up with these new rules, it was credit card companies, banks and credit unions)

Where the hell did financial institutions get the idea they could introduce their own brand of censorship?! They don't make laws, they make money and last time I checked, writing about rape, bestiality or incest is not illegal (I won't cast my own moral judgement on it, because I haven't read every single book with it in, so I don't think I would make a fair judgement). These companies have no legal leg to stand on when trying to control the output of authors, so why should they get away with suddenly strong arming content providers like this? What next? Amex telling Marks and Spencers they can't sell skimpy lingerie because it may cause a gentleman to have improper thoughts?! 

What these companies are doing is censorship, pure and simple.

Smashwords is not to blame in this, they are being threatened with removal of their payment system if they don't comply: blackmail in any other terms. They are doing their best to negotiate the least restrictive outcome. Still, all this makes me angry, very angry, as you may have gathered from my tone above. When we allow a group of businessmen to go above the law and impose their own set of arbitrary restrictions, we are allowing some unknown puppet master behind these decisions to dictate what only elected governments should be able to control, freedom of speech.

Australia has laws about the age of participating individuals in erotica, over 18: being British, I may think they're draconian, but they are laws and I will respect them. These credit card companies have only profit driving them. These people didn't even try the SOPA route of getting their whims into law, they went the backdoor. Personally, I don't think this is right. They are using their position of relative monopoly in their industries to push a censorship agenda that it is not their place to be pushing. Given their current targets, we should be burning the Greek/Roman Myths along with the indie erotica, since dear old Zeus raped his way through his conquests and was known to take the form of an animal while doing it.

Anyway, whatever we think about the current censorship targets for these companies, censorship is still censorship, they're effectively burning books, just because they're made of virtual words does not make it any less barbaric than if they'd made a pyre outside the local library. We have to let these companies know we do not approve. We need to contact our credit card companies and our politicians and let them know we don't think financial institutions should not be in the censorship business.  We need spread the word far and wide that we, as readers and writers, do not want finance controlling our imaginations.

Tweet it, blog it, tell the media – we don't want business censoring legal works of fiction!


Edit - found a good post by Huffington Post about this. Plus a petition.

My GoodReads Review of BloodSucker Bay by Rachel M D'aigle - I wanted more plot

Bloodsucker Bay by Rachel M. D'aigle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I like the idea of this book more than the execution. I like the characters, I like the story, but it needs some editing and more writing to make me love it.

This feels more like the start of a story, rather than giving me a satisfying conclusion. I understand it is part of a series, but this just doesn't feel like a whole story to be published alone, but the first section in a longer work. And, even then, I think it needs some rewriting to expand the characters, take out the overwritten explanations and provide more show don't tell.

I think the author had certain scenes clearly in mind, but not all of the ideas get onto the page, which means the pace is far too quick for my taste. Any suspense is left between stories, not in this actual story, which, since it is being presented as a standalone work, left me dissatisfied. Everything is in question-answer pairs and the only answer to be given in this story comes far too quickly, even episodes of TV shows usually take longer to get to the point.

So, I gave this book a three star review for the ideas, but I'd have liked more plot.

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Hammer's The Woman In Black - wow, just wow!

The Woman In Black - don't look behind you Arthur!

Just to set the scene: I've been waiting with bated breath for this movie to come out since I first heard Hammer were making their own adaptation of The Woman In Black. I have read the book, seen the stage play and I own the TV adaptation on DVD - this is one of my favourite all time ghost stories, so the film did not have much to live up to! I say now, I was NOT disappointed.

This is a creepy, suspenseful, truly scary film. The cinematography captures the atmosphere of the book perfectly, but the adaptations made for the big screen make the film much, much more immediate than the book. I was hiding behind my hands, peaking at the screen for a good 50% of the time and that was down to the fabulous pacing and brilliant effects. They weren't overdone, no massive, obvious CGI, instead horror artistry at its best. I usually find myself in movies catching any computer graphics, noticing the tricks, but not in this movie. I actually have no idea how much was computer enhanced and how much was just camera angle, but whatever it was, those angles and blended tricks were brilliant (just look closely at the picture at the top of this blog entry and you'll see what I mean).

The director has to be praised for the way this film is put together. From the very first moment that Arthur steps in Eel March House, this film had me looking over Arthur's shoulder in every shot. Each time there was a gloomy corner, I was looking into it, wondering, is she there? And sometimes, eek, she was! I am sure when I watch the movie again, I will see more ghosts.

Dan Radcliffe does a magnificent job as Arthur Kipps. He is a broken man when we meet him and his eyes tell all. Considering that much of this film is just Dan, the camera and the ghosts in the background, Daniel had a lot to carry on his shoulders and he does it very, very well. You see his grief, you feel his fear, you stand with him when he resolves to beat that terror and yet, none of it was overdone. His is a subtle performance, believable and sits perfectly in the atmosphere of the whole film.

Hammer have made some significant changes to the plot, but then every adaptation I have seen has as well. The changes in this case were, I think, the best changes to I have seen to this story, As I mentioned above, the book is not as immediate as the film, it can afford more introspection, as writing often can. The changes to Arthur's circumstances, to the location, Crythin Gifford and to the story of Jennet, the woman in black, are understandable and work within the film, providing atmosphere and background that allow the watcher to sink very quickly into the plot and also add to the scares.

I would heartily recommend this film to anyone who is either a ghost story lover, or a Daniel Radcliffe fan, because you get plenty of both. But a word of warning, the creepiness lingers :). It was midnight when I got home from the cinema, a dark and windy night. Let's just say I didn't stay outside in the dark for long and I may have ducked under the covers when I turned off the bedside light!

My GoodReads Review for The Haunting of Pico by Patrick Kampman - very, very readable

The Haunting of Pico by Patrick Kampman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good read. I liked the characters and the central character, Chris, is just a darling, and clueless about girls in an adorably bemused sort of way. SPOILER ALERT
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Chris stumbles through the plot (the book is told from his point of view, first person, so it is very intimate with him), from his first day in Pico, through making friends at High School, to the dramatic climax, and just occasionally I wanted to kick him up the bum, but then so did his friends for being a dufus, but, most of the time, it wasn't his fault. :)

I picked up this book in the morning and didn't put it down until I'd finished it at lunch time, it was that engaging.

The only reason I gave it 4 not 5 stars is that, given the pace of the rest of the book, which is steady and slightly longer than other YA books I've read, I was disappointed that the two plots that were running side by side were both dealt with in very short measure at the end of the book. I wanted more on both, not really much more plot, but more depth to the climaxes of both the plots. I also thought that Tim's fate was gratuitous to the point of being callous (which was fine, Rose was a callous bitch in the end, but there should have been some reaction from Chris, but it is rattled off in the epilogue without much depth) and I would have thought that killing someone and dealing with their dead body, even a vampire, and dumping it in your hidden basement would have had its effect on the teenagers, but no, apparently Strip Karts is much more distracting than the dead person in the basement.

Apart from that, great book :)

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My GoodReads Review of Ghost a la Mode by Sue Ann Jaffarian - an excellent book!

Ghost a la Mode by Sue Ann Jaffarian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I adored this book, it is witty, touching and just a damn good adventure mystery in the end.

I like ghosts and murder mysteries, so this book had two pluses for when I read the blurb. Add to that the style and engaging characters and I was in love. I was thinking this would take me four session on the exercise bike (my reading venue of a morning), but I was so into the book this morning, that I kept on reading until I had finished it!

A 40-something divorcee is not usually my idea of an engaging main character, but I liked Emma a lot, and the strong, somewhat bombastic Phil was a winner from the moment I met him in the pages of this book. Not to mention Granny Apples. The town of Julian is also described well, the author knows her location.

This is chick lit with a paranormal twist and I will be looking up more Granny Apples mysteries for sure.

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