In the last few weeks, PayPal has asked several ebook vendors including Smashwords and Bookstrand, to remove their erotica titles in order to continue service sparking a number of articles from sites like Huffington Post and TechCrunch. See “The PayPal Fiction Crackdown Roundup” at Dear Author for a background overview. Several bloggers and commenters have brought up morality and censorship, some asking how a payment transaction service can decide what vendors may sell. It’s not about morality or corporations trying to control others.

It’s about money and the law.

Some have brought up censorship and morality enforcement including the TechCrunch post which says, “it’s clear that PayPal thinks it can police the Internet.” The “morality police” claims (one comment and another,) seem to come from PayPal trying to categorize books with defined subject matter as noted by Mark Coker of Smashwords in an email to authors posted here that, “Their hot buttons are bestiality, rape-for-titillation, incest and underage erotica.” This would appear to include some mainstream and historical books, but likely this is an attempt by PayPal’s acquiring banks to differentiate obscene erotica from romance and other literature.

PayPal is trying to implement the requirements of credit card companies, banks and credit unions. This is where it’s all originating. These same requirements will eventually rain down upon every other payment processor.

This has already been going on in other industries doing business on the web including porn, gambling, dieting and tobacco. These are considered by banks as high risk (see list on merchant-accounts-services.org) due to higher than normal fraud, chargebacks, or questionably legal sales. Any vendor may be considered a high risk if their chargebacks are greater than one percent, but the banks and processors categorize certain businesses as high risk from chargeback statistics or industries that may have a history of illegal activities. It’s also to a money processor’s advantage to categorize sales of questionably obscene materials or services as high risk to charge more fees.

Vendors selling merchandise or services in these high-risk areas pay extra fees as outlined by instabill.com on their Adult Merchant Account used by some porn sites. However, porn sites still have to be careful about what is depicted due to laws about distributing obscene materials.

The US law forbids distribution of obscene materials—which are not protected by the First Amendment. The Miller Test from US Supreme Court in 1973 defines obscene material as satisfying three conditions (source):

• the average person would find that the work, taken as a whole and applying contemporary community standards, appeals to the prurient interest;
• the work depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, when applying contemporary community standards; and
• the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Selena Kitt, an ebook publisher of Excessica and erotica author, makes the point on her blog that PayPal would rather not pay for high-risk accounts, and so must comply. In her search for an alternative, Selena Kitt found out that Amazon Payments have a similar rule against the sale of “‘sexually explicit materials.’” In a comment of the TechCrunch post, she continues saying that she has tried many other merchant accounts for credit card processing, including those specializing in porn sites, and turned down for “‘illegal activity.’”

Why now? PayPal has been processing transactions from these vendors for years, likely under the assumption that none of the ebooks being sold were obscene and the vendors doing their due diligence to remove obscene ebooks. Now they know, or they believe there is a risk. There is no attempt at policing the internet here. PayPal is following terms of service with banks to reduce risk.

The rising success of erotica authors has captured the attention of credit card companies that don’t want to risk becoming involved in accepting payments for (questionably) illegal sales. Ebooks containing rape, incest, or bestiality is not a problem as long as the work as a whole is considered artistic, scientific, or has literary value. Vendors like Smashwords and Excessica need to fight showing that they take care in removing purely obscene materials, and even then they may still find themselves in a high-risk category without PayPal services due to varying views on what is considered to have no literary or artistic merit. The banks and credit cards still want their fees. If there is enough profit in erotica literature, then someone will find a way to continue selling likely to come with higher fees. After all, it’s about money.

Note: I don’t read erotica, I have no knowledge if any of these vendors have ever sold obscene ebooks, and I’m not a legal expert. I think it’s fair to say there is a perceived risk of distributing obscene materials—no different than any other adult entertainment—whether that perception is based on law or monetary gain.

Not your everyday vampire tale, this time-twisted journey explores an intimate connection between a killer with a thirst for blood and her prey with a taste for memories.

Life is a memory, and Steve Reynolds starts his life caught in the middle of a political issue involving a rare venom used as a drug. Kandy, a professional killer, helps him find his way through the time-shifting shadows of his life and into hers. Haunted by wraiths from his past, Steve puts his past together discovering not all of his memories belong to him.

Kandy Fangs ebook novella is available for free.

Where to Find

Download in your preferred format from Smashwords.

Novella vs Serial

At about 43,000 words, the novella is slightly longer than the serialized version found at www.KandyFangs.com. Besides polishing, the novella includes a few longer scenes with more details. I edited the two versions separately since the serial requires different breaks. The novella has 14 chapters compared to 27 episodes in the serial.

Bicycle parts break. It happens. Most vulnerable are the moving parts. On my ride home this week, a part broke that I never expected. The crank arm. Snapped clean off at the middle. I one-leg pedaled the rest of the way home.

The arm snapped off during a power stroke and sent me wobbling. At first I thought it was the pedal. When I spotted the broken crank arm on the pavement, I paused a moment to stare at it making sure it was real. I couldn’t believe the arm snapped in half.

The bike has never taken damage from a crash. I have a bad habit of accelerating hard, and maybe it doesn’t help that I live on a steep hill. It’s good exercise. Two years ago, I snapped a chain on the hill. Since then I only use the same high quality chains I use on my mountain bike. The crank lasted five years and about 30,000 miles. The sad thing is I just replaced the chain rings (teeth.) I’m replacing the crank with a stronger model from a different brand.

I have broken spokes, wheels, chains (one on my hill,) a brake, and a frame (crash.) Now a crank arm while pedaling. Crazy.

Leg power? Maybe it’s just Bike-Breaker Hill.

A few months ago someone asked me why her mobile device could automatically open an email attachment, but her desktop computer could not. Her desktop operating system (OS) told her the file type could not be recognized. The attachment is a document for a popular office suite created by the same company as her OS. Not only did the OS not understand the common document, it failed to point her to an available solution (a reader made by the same company.) This is not just a failing of the OS or software company, this is an embarrassment to the entire software world.

History

Long ago (4+ decades) smart people thought about how best to interface with computers. Resources were limited, but imaginations came in great supply. The GUI (Graphic User Interface) concept (see “History of the GUI” at Ars Technica) appeared in the 1960s. Other ideas were about software design (flexibility, maintainability, and extensibility) including other programming concepts. Key results included that users should not need understand computer technology.

Software should simplify tasks and deliver a positive user experience. Bring the user closer to their data. IBM lists seventeen design goals and David Hooker lists seven, but I focus on four. The rest fall in line.

• Keep it simple, stupid (KISS.)
• High visual communication; no clutter.
• Maintain common actions; don’t surprise the user.
• Stay focused on the goal. Some problems are moving targets.

Adhering to these goals allows the consumer to reach their goal by using the best tool for the job. Consumers sometimes end up using software differently than intended, because the designer didn’t completely understand the problem or the problem changes over time. These four primary goals live on after the product is finished.

In the beginning (1980s,) personal computers achieved these goals, more or less. Technology was limited for better and worse. Computers limited in abilities made some tasks difficult, but tiny resources (memory and CPU) also kept software design in check. This forced programmers to focus on simple tasks. My favorite word processor born in the 1980s died in the early 1990s, even though new versions continue on like scary ghosts haunting the computer world. Today’s version has many more features, but doesn’t process words any better. And does it much slower on faster machines.

The thunderous beat, stomping feet, wiggle the wood floor rattling lights. The blue-haired vocalist screams about love and pain while the band thrashes about working their instruments into furious fits. Before the stage, the human sea writhes into a torrent, arms waving glowing bracelets, bodies splashing together, bounding and swaying in currents. Piercing through the heavy fog, red spotlights splash the crowd like blood raining inside Club Necropolis.

On the pedestal beside the band stage, Kandy grooves to the music. She snuggles close to the backside of the lovely Zypher. Arms in the air, hips swirling, they move as one. The waving currents flow around their feet, a cloud of orange-red body heat, except for a nearby bouncer dressed black, a dim red simmer, the only other Itoril in the club. Seeing all the pairs of beady orbs, it seems nearly half the guests wear special lenses glowing in the black light. The wannabes gather around the pedestal, and Kandy snarls showing them true fangs.

Someone watches her. Glancing over, she spots a pale form slinking into the dark sea. Turning with her partner, Kandy loses sight of him behind a fan of blonde hair. Cold rushes down her backside. She steps into shadowy folds of time.

Music fades into the background. The fan of hair slows into wispy haze, nearly transparent. The crowd dissolves, apparitions dancing in slow motion within the silence.

Stepping around a nearly frozen Zypher, Kandy gazes over the sea of ghosts. The pull of time draws her back, and the world becomes more tangible. Searching the still faces caught within the constant beat, she finds nothing unusual. Facing her partner, she falls back into the dance of life. Sounds explode, stomping feet, music, working into the pedestal, into her legs.

Eyes popping wide, Zypher stumbles and regains her groove again moving closer, arms wrapping around. “Stop showing off. They’re watching us.”

Kandy dances into a storm, and Zypher presses in tight, their black lace waving about them. They move together, wriggling like dark fire. Slipping from hard cries into angelic hymn, the vocalist tells her tale about dancing with the dead.

Falling into a gentle swirl, she latches onto Zypher, cheeks pressed together. “I’ll go easy on you, sweetie. I promise.” Hands sliding down over her partner’s hips, she grasps the bottom of the skirt and lifts. Hearing the roar of delight from the men gathered around the pedestal, she laughs.

She slithers down into a squat grasping Zypher’s warm thighs. She spots the nude-colored tape hiding the blood pack. Baring her teeth for the audience, she glances around finding ecstatic faces. Cold sparks rush up her spine. Something is out there. Not human. Not Itoril. Something cold watches her. She dives in biting the pack squirting red syrup running in rivers down creamy legs.

Zypher shrieks for the performance.

Unsatisfied, Kandy lifts the blonde up and slams her down onto the pedestal. Crouched over, she bites into thigh, tasting blood slithering about her tongue. The scream is a treat to her ears. Peering up over the trembling leg, she spots a familiar buzz of hair and chiseled chin, a face from the dead.

Dressed in a light-colored shirt, the man glows like a beacon in the dark sea. Reaching out, he claws at the pedestal, pulling himself to shore. Leaking from his cruel eyes, violet smoking wisps curl up over his buzzed hair.

Waves of cold splash inside, and she shudders. A single thought rises from the abyss: run.

Lunging into the folds of time, Kandy leaps over the nearly frozen apparition of Zypher and onto the dance floor. Hands latch onto hers, pulling her into a spin, twirling through insubstantial dancers, warm waves splashing against her. Never having gone this far, she cringes at each ghost passing through her leaving a wake of hot prickles on her flesh.

Spinning and gliding through the hazy cloud of ghosts, they dance to the frozen silence. Gazing at the cold expressionless face, the violet smoke pouring from dark eye sockets, is like looking at Death. As he turns, he leaves a trail of smoking bits. He tugs her deeper into the fold, and time pulls at her sending them into a lumbering dance.

Watching creeping shadows eat at the floor, she claws at the arms holding her trying to break free. As the abyss closes in, she reverses her fight.

Meeting the rhythm, Kandy dances with the dead. Turning with her lead, she adds her own groove complimenting his steps. Time rips at her, but she dances through the shadows between worlds beneath a storm of lavender and azure clouds. As her insides begin to tear apart, she breaks the beat rushing into time.

Music slams into her, perspiration and leather attack her nose, and a person knocks her spinning sideways. Pushing against bodies, she stumbles through the crowd. She punches a man square in the face and escapes the dance floor. Spinning around, back against stone wall, she scans the club.

Glowing bracelets wave above the waving currents of the human sea, but nothing unusual stirs within. She imagines the wraith lurks deep within the folds of time or somewhere between this world and another.

Finding the rhythm, Kandy walks to the beat of life, up the steel stairs and out the door into the crisp night air leaving Club Necropolis behind.