It's not often that I speak out about things that may be considered controversial. As a writer, I would rather keep my audience entertained than annoy them. Not everyone shares opinions on everything, and I will respect anyone with an opposing opinion as long as they respect me.

That said, I saw posts on Facebook referring to a book that I had seen posted all over the place. "Her Master's Courtesan" is dark erotica. Dark erotica isn't really my thing, but who am I to judge anyone who reads it?

So, yesterday I read that Amazon have taken it down. They take down books all the time, I had all that trouble with the cover for The Sultan's Bride, but I knew going in that it may cause me issues and I was prepared. This was different.

At the time it was taken down it was sitting at #246 in the entire Kindle Store and had 82 five star reviews. It was selling and had an audience that loved it.

Lily just posted that Amazon had a problem with the content and the cover. The real problem here is that Amazon have practically non existent guidelines, so it is impossible to know what they will take offence to. Their guidelines amount to "You should know what we take offence to."

But no-one knows, and it changes on a regular basis. What one person finds offensive, the next takes joy in. So, how does that work? It doesn't. The issue for Amazon is that they sell so much erotica that bringing in real guidelines hurts them as much as it hurts the authors.

I am not a fan of censorship. Once it begins, it's hard to know where it's going to stop. At the moment on Amazon, it's an arbitrary decision made by people who have no guidelines to work with either.

This makes me mad, and I don't even know how to express it. So, I'll leave you with a couple of links.

Her Master's Courtesan is still up at B&N (and in the top 100 over there) http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-masters-courtesan-lily-white/1118716881?ean=2940148139157

Here's the petition for Amazon to put Her Master's Courtesan back up. Check out the cover for yourself and decide if there's anything offensive about it.

http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-put-her-master-s-courtesan-by-author-lily-white-back-on-amazon

I am no good at blogging. There are not enough hours in the day for everything I have to do at the moment, so things like this fall by the wayside.

BUT

I am also at 76000 words for Taking Chances tonight. There is still more story to come and I am working hard to get through it all.

Lauren and Ethan's story is beautiful, and it's sad. It's hard work because the situation they find themselves in means the dynamics switch in the relationship and they are both very different people to what I thought they were.

For Lauren, it's about learning that she has someone to lean on who isn't going anywhere. For Ethan, it's about learning when to take control of the situation, and the help Lauren needs to cope.

It's the love story of two people who are just meant to be. The getting there is the hard part.

They are taking me on their journey which has uncovered so much more about them than I ever knew, and I had a fairly solid vision in my head for them when I wrote Another Chance.

This is not Another Chance part two. This is so very different. So, I hope when the time comes that you like it!

I posted some of this on Facebook a while back, but here is an unedited excerpt. Some of you may recognise the timing for this. ;)

--

    “Hey, you two,” said Cassie brightly, getting up to bring more food to the table. “Good Morning,” Lauren said, looking around the room for someone to be surprised at Ethan’s presence. They all kept eating.
    She glanced at Ethan. From the expression on his face, he’d been expecting the same. Lauren followed Cassie to offer her help.
    “I’ve cooked bacon, eggs and toast. I’ll just put some more on for you two.”
    “You’re not surprised Ethan stayed with me.”
    Cassie turned to look at her, shaking her head. “I came in to see if you wanted breakfast this morning. You were otherwise engaged.”
    Lauren felt the blush creep up her face. “You saw us?”
    “I saw Ethan. Figured you were under him.”

Lauren slapped Cassie on the arm. “You never said anything.”

“What was I supposed to say? Please stop having sex for a moment so I can find out what you want for breakfast?”

If anyone has been paying attention to the in progress bar on the In Progress page, I'm about to hit 60,000 words on Taking Chances.

As it's evolved, it's taking on a slightly different shape than I had originally intended, and I had thought it would be about the same length as Another chance.

Now, I'm not so sure. I still have chapters to write and maybe it will come out about the same length, but I think it may be a bit shorter.

I am looking for another couple of Beta readers too, so if anyone is interested in helping me out, I'm open to offers. What I'm looking for at this stage is someone to tell me if I'm on the right track as far as the plot etc goes. I have a couple of people, but I'd like some more opinions!

This may feature the same people as Another Chance, but it is a very different book. A little dark, a little dirty, Lauren's life is light years from Cassie's. She's another amazing lady though!

In a week my baby turns three. It has been an awesome three years. I seem to be raising a strong, independent young lady. Sometimes it is a struggle at her age, but if she stays that way as she grows up, I will be so proud of her.

It was her birth that inspired me to write Charlotte's birth scene in Another Chance. I have told this story on the old blog before, but with my daughter's birthday coming up, it seemed a good idea to retell it.

I was hospitalised with high blood pressure, and they decided to monitor me overnight and go ahead with an induction in the morning. My husband went home for the night to get some sleep about ten o'clock and I tried to get some sleep.

I'd been getting the odd twinge during the evening, and it hadn't amounted to anything regular. About midnight, it started intensifying, but at about 12.20am I was in a lot of pain. When the midwife checked me, my baby was ready.

It was like one of those crazy scenes in the movies. I was in the assessment unit, but hospital policy was that you're supposed to be in a delivery room, so off I went.

The doors between the different areas were pushed open by the bed with a crash. It was like being in a TV show. Mostly what I remember is screaming at the midwife for them to call my husband. He never stood a chance of getting there in time.

After I moved from one bed to another (no mean feat when you're labouring and wanting desperately to push) I was given the go ahead to push.

Two pushes later, my daughter emerged. My memories of that are pretty fuzzy, but I do remember saying it was too fast and I as pretty sure I was in shock from the speed of it all.

We nicknamed her "pocket rocket" to start with. To this day she does everything with such insane energy, she just never stops.

I love her with all my heart, and I just want all her wishes to come true.

Happy Birthday, Megan. You are amazing. Love, Mummy.

Because Another Chance did so well on iBooks Australia, Taking Chances is now up for pre-order on Apple.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/taking-chances/id816226507?mt=11

I am very excited and will be working hard to meet the date. Lauren's story has come along really wella

I have been a little quiet again lately as I work on Taking Chances and sort out a few other projects that are coming up.

My day job is getting busy as well, so my head is full of all sorts of things right now. It's better than being bored, though!!

Today I sent off everything for Apple to setup a live pre-order for Taking Chances. They've got the tentative release date of March 30th which I'm still fairly confident of reaching, it does depend on how editing goes and I've added some more beta readers.

I've also got the most amazing prize to giveaway. Something that is related to the book. I did plan to give away a Kindle, but this is so much more exciting!! Yes, I'm a tease. :P

In other news, Lauren is doing well. She just met Ethan's mother. Must be serious. ;)