I usually do not read this forum but for some reason today I noticed it.
You should be aware of this article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It bears on what can be legally posted and what cannot. My stories are not posted on a server in the USA and yet, I would not touch the themes this woman used for fear that the location of the server does not protect me.
This is a cautionary tale to those who wish to post a story that goes beyond certain limits. I'm not saying don't post the story but don't get all discombobulated when your writing is rejected. In the past two years, I've accumulated about 75 rejections of reasonably good stories at various journals and magazines. Most writers I know have at least that many rejections. Not only that, a full blown novel might get 100 rejections all by itself before an editor even reads beyond the first page or first chapter. If you want to be a writer, get used to rejection.
As for bad writing, awful grammar and all those writing sins Paolo outlined. He's right.
Writer's 'monsters' lead to obscenity sentence
Friday, August 08, 2008
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For Karen Fletcher, the sentence imposed on her by a federal judge yesterday will not drastically alter her life.
Yes, she was sentenced to five years probation. And yes, the first six months of those, she will be forced to remain inside her Donora home with few exceptions.
But Ms. Fletcher, an agoraphobic, has already spent years inside that house -- afraid to leave. She has no family, and only one friend.
She spends the majority of her time alone, dealing with what she calls her "monsters."
Those monsters are what landed her before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti. Ms. Fletcher, 56, pleaded guilty to violating federal obscenity law based on a number of stories she wrote that depicted the rape, murder and torture of children.
Though she began writing the stories as a kind of self-imposed therapy, Ms. Fletcher published them on a Web site where she charged members a $10 per month subscription fee.
She had 29 members.
Nearly two years ago, the U.S. attorney's office filed six counts of transmission of obscene matters against Ms. Fletcher.
She originally planned to fight the charges -- and had a team of First Amendment lawyers on her side -- but as the time neared for a trial, her fear of possibly losing and being sentenced to prison was too much for her.
She faced a recommended guideline range of 27 to 33 months in prison. As part of her plea agreement, though, the government agreed incarceration was not appropriate.
That's not because prosecutors didn't believe it was a serious case, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman.
"The premise of this prosecution is that words have power," he said. "The images conjured by Ms. Fletcher's words are as horrifying or more horrifying than any photographs or videos of child pornography which can be seen on the Internet."
During the plea hearing, Prosecutor Michael I. Yoon summarized the "Red Rose Stories" Web site. It included various sections, including featured authors, audio stories and comments and suggestions.
Ms. Fletcher touted it as the "best exotic fantasy site in the world."
"The individuals willing to pay money to subscribe to this Web site clearly have a very strong sexual interest in children -- not just a sexual interest, but a violent sexual interest," Mr. Kaufman said.
To qualify as obscenity, the government must prove that the material is considered patently offensive under "contemporary community standards."
The test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 in Miller v. United States also requires that the material appeals only to "prurient interests," and that it has no serious artistic, literary, social or political value.
Ms. Fletcher made a brief statement to the court prior to sentencing, apologizing for what she'd done.
"I never meant for anything like this to happen," Ms. Fletcher said. "This was never my intention."
In an affidavit filed in the case in April 2007, Ms. Fletcher explained that she started writing the stories a long time ago as an outlet to help her cope with her own sexual abuse and what she described as her "monsters."
"In my stories, I have created new monsters. [They] rise above the horror of the real life monsters," she wrote. "Somehow, making these monsters so much worse makes me feel better, and makes my life seem more bearable.
"I may still be afraid of the monsters, but at least in the stories, they prey on someone else, not me."
Though the stories originally were just for her, she came across an online bulletin board and saw similar writing. Ms. Fletcher decided to post a few of her own stories.
"I recognized that I didn't have to be afraid of rejection because I was hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet," she wrote. "Instead of being rejected, the response was supportive, and some individuals even said that my stories helped them. I felt safer here than at any other time in my life."
Later, she decided to create the "Red Rose" Web site to have better control of what was posted.
Judge Conti told Ms. Fletcher that she would have seriously considered a sentence of incarceration had the government not recommended against it.
"If anyone would have read the story and acted upon it, a little child could have suffered devastation that you would have had to live with for the rest of your life," she said.
In addition to probation and house arrest, Ms. Fletcher must also pay a $1,000 fine.
Paula Reed Ward can be reached at
pward@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620.
First published on August 8, 2008 at 12:00 am
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08221/902713-52.stm
