The first day of the Summer Solstice 2013 began June 21st, and the sweltering sun and heat came in with a roar. At least here in the U.S., the Dog Days of Summer have hit us. And hard. We’ve had a few named hurricanes, and more are predicted. The crazy weather started with the devastating storms raving parts of Oklahoma. We’ve only just begun. Wasn’t that a name of a song by The Carpenters? Good grief, I’m dating myself.
In a couple of days, for those who do recognize and celebrate
the day, is the Fourth of July—Independence Day—and here in Central Florida, we’ll
be hot, humid and more possible thunder bumpers. Not sure how that will play
out for the fireworks events happening around the area, but hopefully everyone,
everywhere will be able to enjoy them. Exercising our patriotic spirit once a
year is good, not to get political here, but with what I’ve seen the last year
is frightening. I don’t know if I would have noticed what was happening with
our rights as U.S. citizens if not for the interaction I’ve been involved with
since starting my writing career. Trademark infringement issues, something all
of here on this blog are quite familiar with, was an issue last year. Amazon
doing wonky things with their new algorithms making it difficult to search for
erotic/a romance as a category, and most recently in the past few weeks
Facebook has decided to take down pages where there is questionable degradation
toward women.
In theory, the action sounds like a good thing, but they are
targeting many and one which is BDSM groups and even author pages. Whether you
like the sub-genre or not this isn’t that different from the PayPal fiasco last
year. We, as authors, have enough to deal with on a daily basis and to
continually be bombarded with one more avenue by which we try and connect with
readers, we have to make sure we’re not offending women? We are women, at least
the majority who visit this blog, and I’m frustrated yet again. These things
side-track me. All I want and love to do is just create sexy stories. I swear,
I’m about to say forget all the social networking, keep my nose glued to my
laptop and forget about everything else around me. I may not make any money,
but I won’t be stressed anymore about the BS going on.
Oh, and Blogger has also changed their terms of service as of
June 30.
Please be advised that on June 30th
2013, we will be updating our Content Policy to strictly prohibit the
monetization of Adult content on Blogger. After June 30th 2013, we will be
enforcing this policy and will remove blogs which are adult in nature and are
displaying advertisements to adult websites.
If your adult blog currently has
advertisements which are adult in nature, you should remove them as soon as
possible as to avoid any potential Terms of Service violation and/or content
removals.
I’m don’t have links on my blog to adult sites (I read the
notice like Adult Toy Shops, Porn, etc.), but what if this eventually is
interpreted as even the books we write and the on-line retailers one can
purchase our books?
This is getting to be scary stuff.
What are your thoughts? Am I being paranoid? Are you
concerned too? Should we just ignore what’s happening? Is this 1984 but coming a little later than George
Orwell wrote about?
Okay, my monthly rant is over. If you want to find me on social places other than my personal blog, here are the links (if I haven't been banned or I gave up and took the pages down).
Website: http://cynthiaarsuaga.weebly.com
Publisher Page: http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&filter_author=1&zenid=7ea916acb5075615d6f30b6f25e77c3e
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaArsuaga?ref=tn_tnmn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#%21/CynthiaArsuaga
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4715026-cynthia-arsuaga
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cynthiaarsuaga/
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cynthia-arsuaga/30/101/49b
Vampire Book Realm: http://www.vampirebookrealm.com/cynthia-arsuaga.html
Amazon Author Central: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
Publisher Page: http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&filter_author=1&zenid=7ea916acb5075615d6f30b6f25e77c3e
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaArsuaga?ref=tn_tnmn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#%21/CynthiaArsuaga
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4715026-cynthia-arsuaga
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cynthiaarsuaga/
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cynthia-arsuaga/30/101/49b
Vampire Book Realm: http://www.vampirebookrealm.com/cynthia-arsuaga.html
Amazon Author Central: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
Go out and enjoy the
fireworks!!!
Cynthia Arsuaga
Erotic Romance Author
6 comments:
I saw that notice from Blogger. I don't have any 'adult' ads on my site, so right now I'm not worried. Actually, I don't have any ads for my books either - just the covers. So hopefully I'm safe if they start becoming the reading police.
I didn't have any adult ads on my site either but I took off the adult content warning because honestly I felt that was what they targeted, rather than any actual content. I'm sure there is a program that searches for things like that.
I'm scared too because while we want equal rights, there has to be an equality about them. One person or entity can't have them all. That's what 1984 is all about, and also many other books by Atwood and others.
Like you, I want to do what makes me and others happy.
You make some very valid points and yes, I'm more than a little worried about the new rules that target our profession that seem to be springing up. Tina and Melissa have some excellent points about the reading police and adult content warnings. I'm sure there are programs doing this and much like the Adele snafu a while back, they will just be targeting words.
I didn't mention the NSA and IRS incidents, but this is becoming a scary thing. Our personal freedoms are slowly being taken away. Cameras on corner streets watching us, our identities being hacked and stolen, our personal medical information linked with others, where will this end? Hmmm, I think I have the makings of a story in there somewhere. :)
When they started doing away with smoking in public places it was the beginning of taking away our rights. I'm not a smoker, but I even knew there would be more to come. We are going to have to stand up and fight some day, Cynthia.
I'm very worried about what Amazon and Blogger are doing. That smacks of censorship. And who's behind it? And why didn't the Fifty Shades trilogy get the same scrutiny? Did you hear about the Kraft Zesty commercial where the hunky guy removes his shirt. A group of women affiliated with a religious group wants it taken off the air. They said it's the most disgusting thing they've ever seen. My thought was that these women need to get out more. I don't approve of censorship in anything.
I don't mind the security cameras and I'm very happy about the smoking bans. What a relief to go into a bar or restaurant and not cough my way through dinner and not come home smelling like a smokestack.
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