A rant on morality of content in erotica (Becca's Birthday Wish)

Well that's been annoying. My latest book's published fine just about everywhere, no problem, no ADULT filtering. All's well and good... UNLESS! For once, Smashwords has been the more restrictive of places and I think just a little over-sensitive. They seem to think implication that someone under 18 could but didn't have sex, in their words "exploring such things" is unacceptable. 

Now I don't want to give them too much crap about it since I can understand where they're coming from and they are keeping open review dialogue with suggestions to add clarification that all characters are over 18. If it was Amazon I'd probably just get some rejected marker and have to ask some obscure email address why and they'd just go "Because it's unsuitable. We are able to offer free shrugs". I do like that Smashwords cares, but maybe a little too much this time. 

But maybe it just got a bit risque and scary, all these age numbers flying, it could get pretty crazy and try to fly something under the radar, right? Sure, but not here. Underage sex isn't publishable and I'm never going to try to, between people of the same age range or whatever. The point was to acknowledge that it does happen, and can be a very serious thing to young adults, but that peer pressure to participate in any sort of sexual culture isn't necessary to be seen as attractive or whatever. You'll find someone you love and want to have sex with at whatever age and they'll be worth the wait, but perception of time and age is different when you're younger and "everyone's doing it". 

The moral was very anti-underage sex exploration.

That's where things start falling apart here though, and what's bothered me enough to go on a rant about it. Ideally the fixes I've done are enough since I'll admit there was a couple other button presses that needed fixed too, and I don't know how I missed those, but all in all could have made it look a bit suspect. So far, I've just removed the age number from the synopsis and made a patronisingly obvious content warning that there isn't any sexual content involving minors (and won't ever be), just reinforcement of proper morality. 

Otherwise, I know it might not be the best avenue to make a moral out of it but it was a simple plot device rather than some grand crusade I was looking to devote a message to. And no, I'm not really writing to 'educate' and change the world but when you're open to writing sexual lifestyles and morals, you kind of expect to have the freedom to write "it's okay to not be pressured into having sex early" and not get it brought to questioned for being unacceptable. You expect it to make people smile and appreciate the modesty of the advice. The key point is not everything in (my) erotica is written for sole purpose of sexual gratification just because it's erotica. There's purpose, plot and feelings behind actions and plot drives that people think should be censored for sanctity through silence, as if "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" really means no evil will occur.

This really isn't a world of rainbows and wish fulfillment where cute buzzwords that people "need" will herald enlightenment and world peace. I might be being slightly hyperbolic about it all but really, I'd have expected other places to shoot it down faster if it was actually an issue of suspect content. Blargh ranting, I should be writing 17th century sisterly incest instead.

Bonus moral: Teach and practice sanity and equality free of any form of impersonal discrimination at your discretion. Don't expect something else to do it for you.

Becca's Birthday Wish (May/December Daddy Daughter Incest Erotica)

Promises and birthdays are two important things in life. Some birthdays are to be celebrated more liberally than others, too. A year after the man who became Rebecca's Daddy since she was little misses her eighteenth and the promise she made with him, she still hasn't given up on loving him. 

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You have no idea how annoying the ribbon on the cover was to set. Pretty simple cover for a change too, but still took some time to set up. I like it, anyhow. While I like everything I do, since otherwise it isn't fit for publishing yet, I'm quite happy with how this story has developed. It's also been a little longer than I'd like since my last release but like I mentioned last time, I've been involved with a great interview and enjoying E3, the electronic entertainment expo. Things have been all over the place.

Becca's Birthday Wish is something I've wanted to write for some time - something a little fundamentally different. Initially, as I make a point of in the back-of-book author note, it was initially very different to how it's turned out, now. Initially, Rebecca was much more sinister, dominating and in charge. Basically the theme I was going for was that she was really the upper hand power player, and had the man in her attention literally by the balls. It would involve carefully shaving around his crotch to intimidate and using an aphrodisiac poison to keep him hard so that she could have sex whether he wanted to or not. 

I actually read a while back while this story was in the back of my head that the venom from Brazilian wandering spiders can cause erection for hours. Not as fun as it sounds past four hours, but still, the suspension of disbelief that a man can be forced to erection for a woman's interests and effectively raped is there. As I said, this started off a lot darker than it ended up, so bear with me if that doesn't sound like your thing. I'll admit it's something I play with in the back of my mind though, as much for the interesting reversal, subversion of common themes and writing femdom as because people are often adamant it's not possible, but it's not really present in this book.

So anyway. Things always change as you write and develop a story, that seems to be a pretty insistent fact of inspiration and development, and that's fine. I still have a good time and place for the things in mind, perhaps better than here, and so instead, Becca's Birthday Wish unwinds at a more natural and gentle pace. Her Daddy isn't completely against the idea of having sex with her, but he knows he's really disappointed and upset her the past couple of years, so - aside from being strapped down to a chair - he doesn't really try to get at her, or get out. If this is what his little girl wants, he'll let the birthday girl have her way.

There's more open dialogue this way, and it lets Becca open up to him about how the whole thing makes her feel. It's her first time having sex, so it's a very special occasion she's saved herself for since she was sixteen when she got cold feet over a boy wanting to go too far. Her Daddy calmed her down, and the young girl realised she loved her Daddy in a way that never faded. Confronting him now, she's still very much that little girl, but she has an edge of maturity and upset about her that lets her be the one straddling his lap and the one in charge, but still very much the inexperienced little girl wondering how she's going to make herself appealing to this older man who's slept with her Mother and whoever else.

I think she does a good job of it, and the more she gets into the pleasure of sex after the initial pain, the warmer she becomes with her Daddy while still being the one that calls the shots and set up the whole scene. Becca might only be a sweet little nineteen year old girl, but it's her birthday so she's the boss.

Excerpt follows the pagebreak: