Lubrican: Blog

I like to write coming of age stories. It's just what I like. I have lamented the fact that freedom of speech in the literary world has been hijacked by those who live in a fantasy world in which nobody has sex until they are adults. Publishers should be able to publish unvarnished coming of age stories without fear of legal harassment via tort, but that's just not the way things are.

So what is an author to do? Well, he can censor the original story by making all characters at least 18 years old. That makes the story read "stupid". I recently got a comment on a story that said if I wasn't going to put any effort into censoring a story (beyond changing ages to 18), so it made sense, then I should just remove the story.

That means I have to remove all my stories. There is no way to "rewrite" a junior in high school into a believable 18-year-old. I can say this person is so stupid they've been held back three or four times, but we all know that doesn't happen in today's educational system. And even if I did rewrite it that way, how is it that this idiot seems to be perfectly normal?

No. There are two reasons I post these fucked up, censored stories.

1. I know there are lots of you who like the coming of age concept, too, and who have good imaginations. Those people can overlook the "age" of the character and use the context of the scene to substitute a different age in their imagination.

2. I'm retired and I supplement my income with sales of my books. The books themselves have to be censored, too, but if a person sends me proof of purchase I'll happily send them, at no additional expense, the uncensored, original version of the book, which reads well and makes sense because the ages are "real".

Now I understand there are a lot of folks out there who don't want to pay for books of this sort. For years and years, if it wasn't free, I didn't read it. But I used my imagination to make reading whatever I found as much fun as possible. And I'm aware that lots of people live on fixed incomes, as I would be doing if it wasn't for book sales, and that they can't afford to buy books. I refer those people to number one, above. I generally don't put the free, posted version of the story behind the pay wall. I used to, but that was before every thing had to be censored. I'd let everybody read it as it was posted and then leave it up for a few weeks, so that people who can't afford a premium membership or to buy books, can still read it for free.

I also price my books very low, by comparison with other authors who write this kind of thing.

So I'm trying to do my part to make this work as well as the religious fanatics will let it work. That's all I can do, other than just stop writing.

And I'm not ready to just stop writing.

Bob

I am sorry I was unable to finish posting the story on time. An emergency pertaining to a friend required me to be away from my computer until today (5 Nov). I submitted the last chapter a few minutes ago (0155 hrs)and it should be available later today.
Thank you for your patience. I see six messages that I haven't read yet and I bet I know what most of them are about.
Bob

With the posting of my recent offering (Uncle's Beach House) the foreword has generated a lot of interest in getting an uncensored copy of the book. Usually, my forward reads, simply: This book was edited to comply with publisher standards. All persons and characters in this book are at least 18 years of age or older"
Then, at the end of the book, I put an afterword that reads something like this:
"If you enjoyed the book and would like to have a copy of the original, uncensored version, send a screen shot of your zbookstore library page to [email protected] and I'll send you the original version at no additional expense."

What this does is supply proof of purchase, which is all I want. If you buy the censored version, the least I can do is send you the uncensored version, too. I'm not a publisher, so the squeaky wheel can't hassle me. What you and I do when we exchange emails is private business. And, to ensure that nobody can accuse me of sending kiddy porn based on the cover, I make sure the cover of the uncensored one displays no sexual scenes.

That works for any of my books that you bought anywhere. Just give me some kind of proof of purchase and we're good to go. And, if the screen shot you send me has other censored books on it, I'll send you those, too.

So, that's how it works. I hope this clears up any confusion.

Bob

Hello, boys and girls. This is your good, old, Uncle Bob, come to visit again.

I have been on a secret mission that took me far away, but that mission is over, now, and I can come back and (hopefully) titillate you again. I'm catching my breath, so the first offerings will be short. The one I started uploading today is five chapters and I'll post a chapter a day. Or, for you impatient ones, you can hop over to zbookstore and find the whole thing.

It's good to be back. I didn't want to be gone this long, but when secret missions call, one must answer, lest the world sink into disrepair.

Thanks for being patient, boys and girls. I hope the wait will have been worth it.

Bob

Apparently things are moving so fast or so violently that Laz has been unable to send out information to the SOL family.

I do not know how much of what I now know is classified and needs to be on the down low, so to speak, but I've been told that a new hosting service has allowed SOL to continue as it was.

I also found a very nice site that sells books called zbookstore.com

Those of you who aren't happy with bookapy.com any longer might enjoy that site.

Happy reading,
Bob