Just DON'T do it!

There have been a few face-palm moments in the writer's world since I posted last Tuesday. The first moment came when a person posted that she was looking for pirate sites for free books. Ummm...what? More than one person rushed to this poster's defense, saying that they love to read but they don't want to pay for the books, and besides which, authors don't need the money.  Because, you know, I guess every author is independently wealthy. Ummmm...WHAT??? And then, the original poster blocked the author, any subsequent attempts to defend authors and their intellectual property and she and her friends ridiculed those authors. The kicker to all of this is the original poster is a professional photographer. Ummmmm...WAIT! WHAT?????? The backlash was so intense against this poster that she pulled everything off her professional page and deleted a lot of what was on her personal page.

Then there was the book reviewer/blogger who decided to defend this woman and all those who steal books, by saying that "Hell, yeah, if I'm offered a free book, I'm going to take it." When another author tried to point out to this stealing and how wrong it is for a book blogger to do that, the blogger turned on that author and threatened her by inferring she could destroy said author's sales/livelihood through her blog. The blogger's FB cover photo was a picture of her flipping a double bird to the world. Yeah...classy doesn't seem to be in that blogger's vocabulary.

Lastly, in an author's only group I belong to, there was a discussion about a supposed Christian historical romance, which was termed "safe and sweet" about a woman who was raped, because her life was ruined went through a mail-order bride service to find a spouse and ended up marrying her rapist. In the 65 or so pages of this complete novella, not only does she immediately forgive him, but they end up happily ever after. ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME????? Needless to say, the comments in that author's only group were all negative to that author and her choice of "romance material."

In light of the incredibly light sentence that one Brock Turner received for raping a young woman (and his defense was his victim consented before she passed out), the above mentioned "romance" was made all the more sickening. I for one am very tired of what appears to be a disgusting standard when prosecuting a rape--it seems that the victim always has a past, which is forever in play for the defense, and the perpetrator/abuser has always made a simple mistake and he has a promising future. STOP ATTACKING THE VICTIM! She was raped. She was raped while unconscious. She was raped, and then further victimized by the defense's attempt to make her past relative to her rapist's defense. JUST STOP!

And, that book reviewer--I can just about bet she lost a lot of followers. (Or, I would hope she did.)

To the person who was looking for pirate sites to download stolen books from--I'd wish the fleas of a thousand camels would infest your arm pits--but that's too gentle. I hope you find those pirate sites. I hope every computer virus known to mankind infests your computer. I hope one of those viruses is ransom ware. I hope every single photo you've ever taken ends up stolen by that ransom ware and I pray you can't raise the funds to free YOUR intellectual property.