A writer whose stories include graphic depictions of the sexual abuse and murder of children is being charged with violating obscenity statutes, even though she only posted text and not pictures to her website.

Federal obscenity case singles out Internet writer
PITTSBURGH – Sometime early next year, Karen Fletcher, a 56-year-old recluse living on disability payments, will go on trial in federal court here on obscenity charges for writings distributed on the Internet to about two dozen subscribers.

In an era when pornography has exploded on the Web almost beyond measure, Fletcher is one of only a handful of people to have been singled out for prosecution on obscenity charges by the Bush administration. She faces six felony counts for operating a Web site called Red Rose, which featured detailed fictional accounts of the molesting, torture and sometimes gruesome murders of children under the age of 10, mostly girls.

How Fletcher came to be selected for federal prosecution among the countless pornography purveyors is a vivid illustration of the fractured and uncertain state of the enforcement of obscenity law in the nation.

Most prosecutors are generally reluctant to bring obscenity cases, regarding them as both difficult and a diversion of resources better spent on other crimes. Moreover, the explosion of Internet pornography from sources around the world has convinced many law enforcement officials that it’s all but impossible to have a significant impact on the issue.

[snip]

What has attracted the attention of First Amendment scholars and lawyers is that Red Rose – which Fletcher says is an effort to help her deal with her own pain from child sexual abuse – was composed entirely of text without any images.

Considering that child molesters are considered wholly, uncomplicatedly evil in this country, it makes sense to me they would appear as villains in lots of fiction. Are we now to start censoring how well - how realistic, how explicit, how detailed - writers show the minds and actions of their characters? Are we to ban any portrayal of child molesters as “main characters” or even - gasp - partially sympathetic characters? Should I revise my fictional villains to be, oh, I don’t know, fighting dog trainers or something?

Note that I am not one of the 29 people who visited Red Rose and saw Fletcher’s stories so I can’t say anything for sure about her work. Am merely speculating as a writer who understands the process of writing and storytelling — and who knows that Fletcher’s explanation that her stories are cathartic and helped her deal with her own childhood abuse is very likely true.

When I was growing up, my parents never forced me to stick with any one thing. When I got bored, I could quit. And then try something else.

So while my peers had all the love of music pounded out of them by being forced to “stick to” piano lessons, I took about six months of lessons a few years after we got our piano, didn’t like it, quit, and have played piano almost every day — loving it, and not caring that I’ll never perform for an audience again (like I did at 17, eek) — for the past 24 years.

I tried pottery, swim team, horseback riding lessons, painting, soccer, gymnastics, dance and a bunch of other things. I learned I like doing things but not competing — ie, swim practice and riding lessons, but not swim meets or horse shows. I learned that it’s fun and engaging to try new things; I (eventually) learned I didn’t have to be good at something right away (or ever); I learned that stepping out of my comfort zone improves my understanding, compassion and ability in other areas of my life as well.

Very likely, those are the core skills that make me a successful freelancer — juggling different clients, projects, goals, deliverables, deadlines, coworkers, team leads, able and happy to jump into a fire (believe me, they don’t call contractors in when the workload is sane, the employees have plenty of recovery time and the atmosphere is relaxed).

Anyway. Some researchers got together and studied the effects on stress, health and happiness for people who stick with something just for the sake of sticking with it and for people willing to jump ship and try something else. The article focuses mainly on “impossible goals” (like if I tried to be an Olympic track star) but mentions the broader picture as well.

Psychology: Why Quitting is Good for You - Newsweek Mind Matters - MSNBC.com
Who Says Quitters Never Win?
New research finds that people who give up on unattainable goals are physically and mentally healthier than ‘bulldogs’ who persevere against all odds. The importance of knowing when to throw in the towel.

I like what Cory Silverberg said yesterday:

Am I Normal?
n the years that I’ve made talking about sex my job, I’ve been asked this question in a hundred thousand variations. Working at a sex store, a common opening line from customers would be “you must see a lot of weirdos working in a place like this” (read: do you think I’m a weirdo for being here?). In social settings, when people find out what I do for a living they’re always eager to hear about the sexual oddities and strangeness they assume I encounter on a daily basis (read: tell me about the real freaks, so I can feel normal with my mild fetish for macaroni).

Often when people are in front of me, asking if they are normal, they’re in very real pain. And while my short answer is always, yes, you’re normal, everything is normal and nothing is normal, I know this doesn’t satisfy them the way I want to.

I’ve always wanted to make love in a huge tub of warm macaroni and cheese, too.

Brian Shuster over at Red Light Center proudly showed me this chart today, noting that traffic at RLC (an adults-only virtual world) has surpassed traffic at Second Life (I’m unclear if this includes both adult and teen grids, or just adults) for the time being:

Alexa Ranking

That’s a link to the dynamic chart, so by the time you read this, who knows what’s going to be at the top?

Interesting though - supports my assertion that people go into virtual worlds for the relationships (it’s teh sex!) and that the Virtual Worlds Conference next month (yay!) should not be so hesitant to include a panel about romance (or even teh sex!) and how to build tools that facilitate (teh sex!) such activities. It makes business sense, because that’s a major reason people come in and stick around. And it’s not pornography, and it doesn’t make virtual worlds developers pornographers, if that’s the fear — it’s sex.

I just FTPed the entire manuscript of my book to my editor. The “writing” stage is done. Now we enter the “editing” stage — which, from the author’s perspective, looks a lot like “more writing.”

But meanwhile … I sent an excerpt from an erotic novella I’m writing to an erotica podcaster and he chose to record and publish it! Wow! It’s a work in progress so still rather rough, but it’s so encouraging to hear the positive response. When This Book Is Done ™, I’m going to get back to it.

It’s so interesting, to publish something for the first time as audio. Only two or three people besides me have seen the text, but now everyone on the internet (heheh) can hear it.

I admit that I’m both shy, shuffling my feet and blushing and saying “aw, shucks,” and flattered and excited to share this piece.

Nobilis Erotica: Regina Lynn’s “Excerpt”

And now I’m off to see a girl about a horse! Er, literally! Lifelong dream here I come! And another exclamation point just because I feel like it!

I haven’t decided how to pose yet this year. It’ll be bare, of course; I want you making those donations (not that you’d just be there to see moi, of course). The Boobie-Thon is taking photo submissions now for the fundraising event, which runs the first week of October.

For more info:

2007 Blogger Boobie-Thon
The sixth annual blogger “Boobie-Thon” launches on Monday, October 1, 2007. It will run through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 8, 2007. This yearly event showcases female and male bloggers showing their (covered and uncovered) breasts in order to raise money for charity during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please check back in the upcoming days for more information and news about this years event. You can also start submitting photos early, we actually encourage you to do so!

[snip]

We’re are totally keeping things the same around here just like the original Boobie-thon, we request that the first $359 donated this year go toward the ”bloggers helping bloggers” portion of the Boobie-Thon. This year we have not yet chosen a charity and we are asking for your help in deciding which charity to choose.

The remainder of the proceeds raised will go directly to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, for the sixth straight year in a row. To date we have raised more than $35,000 for Komen alone since starting the Boobie-Thon in 2002.

Your donations to both charities are tax deductible, and this year the Boobie-Thon will be once again operating in a pledge capacity rather than taking your donations directly. Please check back on October 1st for information on submitting your pledges to us, and your donations directly to our selected charities.

I’ve never met him — yet — but this comic strip author won my heart long ago.

Here’s another episode that made me laugh and added to my conviction that Randall is one of my soulmates. Unfortunately, if his wikipedia page is correct, he’s two years too young for me based on the Standard Creepiness Rule.

I imagine that if you’re reading my blog you probably already know the wondrousness that is xkcd. But if you don’t … what joy awaits you in the archives! This is some of the most romantic content I have ever encountered. Look at 150, 162, and 289, and then you too can join me in the “I heart Randall” club.

This week’s column:

Don’t Dismiss Online Relationships as Fantasy
Last month, three unrelated stories challenged the idea that internet relationships are just fantasy and therefore less important, less powerful and less real than offline relationships.

They aren’t.

First, I read the Wired magazine piece about Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two in New York state. Montgomery invented two alternate identities and got both of them involved online with the 17-year-old girl persona of Mary, a forty-something married woman in West Virginia, whom he met at the games site, Pogo.com. He then became so jealous that she was also seeing his co-worker online, that he shot the guy dead in the parking lot after work.

In real life. Where you can’t just get a snack, go pee and log back in.

Continued at Wired.com

From the UK:

Study: Women and elderly lead internet charge
This year’s edition of the regulator’s annual UK Communications Market survey shows that, in the age group between 25-49, the internet is used more by women than men. Fifty-five percent of total internet use in the 25-34 age range is female, while among 35-49-year-olds, the figure is 51 percent.

The over-50s — who make up 41 percent of the UK population — now account for 30 percent of total internet use. Interestingly, so-called “silver surfers” over the age of 64 spend more time online than any other age group, averaging 41.6 hours per month. However, among over-64s, internet usage is 79 percent male.

Makes sense to me that people over 64 spend more time online than younger folk. If they’re in the first year or two of having internet at home — and high speed at that — they’re still in that shiny new phase. And if they’re retired, they have more time for leisure and play surfing, versus sneaking personal online time at work. That they’re mostly male makes me think their wives are busy doing other things and the husbands are using the internet instead of or in addition to watching TV and keeping out of the way. Heheh.

From this month’s issue of Dr. Marty Klein’s excellent newsletter, Sexual Intelligence:

Bathroom Blowjob Bust

So they caught Idaho Senator Larry Craig supposedly offering some vague sex act to someone in the men’s room.

The police report–all over the internet–is a primer on how guys apparently do this: you put your left foot in, you put your left foot out…

It’s easy to take shots at Craig, who has made a living demanding that the law curtail same-gender activity-and is caught inviting the same thing. In fact, Craig has a history of surreptitious male-male sex. And a history of wanting his disgust for gay people enshrined in American law. He recently urged a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying it is “important for us to stand up now and protect traditional marriage, which is under attack by a few unelected judges and litigious activists.”

Craig joins an enormous list of people who behave like hypocrites–ranting on about “morality” when his own behavior and impulses fall outside his own definition of morality.

Clearly, the guy is tormented. Apparently, a lot of people demanding that everyone conform to their narrow “morality” are conflicted. This is old news. In fact, reasonable people are asking, “is anyone who rants on about morality NOT afraid of their own impulses?”

But what we should be asking is, why is it against the law to offer a quickie to a stranger? What kind of sick country criminalizes an adult’s non-coercive, non-commercial offer to another adult–just because it’s about sex? Everyone who plays tennis has gone to a public court, walked up to a stranger, and asked, “want to play?” Everyone with a telephone is periodically asked, without invitation or warning, if they want to buy something, or listen to something, or reveal stuff about themselves.

The proper response to a single, non-coercive invitation to do something–anything–is “no thank you.” Not “you’re busted.”

There’s the lewd, obscene, disgusting behavior: busting someone for an invitation. Our nation has again exposed its horrendous ambivalence about its own erotic impulses. In doing so, it has shamed itself, and explained its obsessive concern with enforcing “morality”–i.e., limiting sexual fantasy and behavior.

Yes, Senator Craig should be thrown into the Potomac–not for expressing his sexuality, but for preventing the rest of us from doing so.

Reprinted from Sexual Intelligence, © Marty Klein, Ph.D. (www.SexualIntelligence.org).

Exactly. I talk about that larger issue too, in this column — about how this culture is vocal about one set of sexual rules even as technology exposes that we don’t actually follow those rules. And that we need to stop talkin’ one way when we all know we’re never going to live that way (thank goodness), so it’s high time we shifted to a healthier attitude about it all.

I mean, the hokey pokey is a matter of consenting adults, not a crime.

On the twelfth day of book deadline, my editor gave to me
A cover for all to see

And now I need your input! What do YOU do with sex-tech in your relationships? Do you flirt by text? Have sex in Second Life? Blog together?

I’m adding pullquotes and examples to the manuscript now and I want to include your voice, your tips, your suggestions, your discoveries. You can be entirely anonymous or identified by first name — just let me know in your email what you prefer.

ginalynn@ gmail.com