The free promotion of my story, Samantha on Amazon ends at approximately 12 pm on Tuesday 11 June. To download Samantha free of charge please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samantha-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI.
My book, Samantha is currently available free from Amazon. A reviewer of Samantha writes on amazon.co.uk as follows:
“This is an exciting story, well written with some good Liverpool background. The main characters are well brought to life. Samantha, the student from a
good background, drugged and date-raped by a pimp, seems credible.
Some of the strands haven’t been tied up at the end and maybe that’s just what the author intended.
The book is quite short and you can read it in one sitting. Because it is so readable you may want to do just that.
I recommend it.”
PS One or two pages seem to have got out of order but I’ve had this trouble before with Kindle”.
To see the review and download Samantha free from amazon.co.uk please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samantha-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI.
On checking Samantha’s page today I came across the following review of my story on amazon.com:
“This is a well-written, enjoyable short story, with an ending that leaves something to the
imagination. Suspenseful, realistic and fairly easy to believe. The course of true love
certainly does not run straight….”.
To see the review on amazon.com or to download Samantha please visit http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00BL3CNHI/ref=cm_cr_dp_syn_footer?k=Samantha&showViewpoints=1.
In February 2013 I published my book, Samantha which tells the story of a young girl forced into sex slavery in the English city of Liverpool. Can this educated young girl, from a well-to-do background escape from her brutal pimp, Barry or will she end her days in the murky waters of Liverpool’s Albert Docks?
Samantha will be available in the Amazon Kindle store free from 7-11 June (the story usually retails for £2.03). For Samantha by K Morris please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samantha-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI.
My book, Samantha which tells the story of a young girl forced into prostitution in the city of Liverpool will be available, free in the Kindle Store from 7 June to 11 June. For further information on Samantha by K Morris together with a 4 star review, please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samantha-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI.
I hope to be in a position to give away my story, Samantha free for 5 days. I published Samantha using Kindle Select which allows titles registered with the programme to be provided, free of charge for a period of 5 days every 90 days. I originally provided Samantha free in early March so, by my reckoning I should be able to do likewise in June. Please watch this space.
Samantha tells the story of a young girl forced into prostitution in the English city of Liverpool. Can Sam escape her life of sex slavery or will she end her days in the murky waters of Liverpool’s Albert Docks.
On 19 May I published a poem entitled “Her Mother’s Daughter” (see http://newauthoronline.com/2013/05/19/her-mothers-daughter/). In the poem I address how a mother oblivious to the fact that her young daughter is engaged in sex work would react if she discovered her involvement in prostitution. My poem provoked the following response from a lady engaged in sex work
“This is fucking horrible. This entire project is vile. What the fuck are you even doing creating a whole project about sex workers as a non-sex worker based on shitty stereotypes, asinine paternalistic bullshit and inane drivel? As a sex worker myself, this is gross. For the sake of humanity, please stop. You are propagating stereotypes and lies about us and this causes us DIRECT HARM. STOP STEREOTYPING SEX WORKERS. Stop speaking for us. We can speak for ourselves.”
It goes without saying that sex workers can (and do) speak for themselves and that they have every right to do so. However I am extremely concerned regarding the implied view that anyone who is not a sex worker does not have the right to express a view on the issues pertaining to prostitution. If we follow this reasoning to it’s logical conclusion then only black people should speak about matters pertainig to blacks, only white people on issues relating to whites etc. This way of proceeding would stifle literary and, indeed artistic expression and would lead to a debased cultural landscape in which writers and society more generally is frightened of expressing an opinion as it might, just possibly offend some one or other. As someone who is blind I dislike the stereotypes which some misguided individuals hold concerning visually impaired people. However I have no wish to prevent the expression of opinion. If I disagree with views being voiced I can (and will) challenge those views, not by calling for their suppression but by arguing against them as any believer in freedom should do.
As regards the substance of the above quoted criticisms, the commentor makes no attempt to express a contrary perspective. Rather she indulges in that age old trick of shooting the messenger rather than attempting to engage him in debate.
In point of fact I accept the right of sex workers to sell sex and the right of clients to purchase services provided that both parties are of legal age and coercion in the form of threat or violence is absent from the exchange. However that is not at all the same thing as accepting that prostitution has no harmful effects on those engaged in it. Ultimately in a free society individuals have the right to make choices which may harm them (that is an important right which should be respected), however that is not the same thing as saying that one has no right to express concerns regarding said choices. In a democracy free and open debate is essential.
Your mother’s daughter, she is proud of you, but does not see what you do. She does not see her daughter sweet stripped, stark naked from head to feet. She does not see the massage oil, her little girl bringing a naked man to the boil. She does not see him pawing you, the disgust on your face, but what can you do? For, after all he is paying you. She can not look inside your head, see what thoughts trouble you as you lie in your own bed. Could she see inside your brain, the world would reel, her heart fill with pain. Your mother knows not what you do, perhaps that is best for both her and you.
A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Kindle store when I came across Iceberg Slim’s biography, Pimp: The Story of My Life (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pimp-The-Story-Life-ebook/dp/B005GK7LPG) which tells the story of how the author became one of America’s most notorious pimps. Slim ppulls no punches. The book is a no holes barred account of how Iceberg entered pimping, the people he met and of how he controlled his girls. I flinched as I read how Slim punished his first working girl, Joyce by whipping her with a wire coat hanger. The whipping had (from Slim’s perspective) the desired result as Joyce returned to the streets to sell her body.
Slim was brought up during the era of racial segregation which had a profound effect on his view of the world. As a young black man Slim saw pimping as being one of the few opportunities open to him to become rich. His mentor, Sweet Jones hates white people as a result of his father having been murdered by a white lynch mob and his mother having been raped by the same mob. Sweet tells Slim that black pimps where the early heroes who turned the tables on their former slave masters by becoming prosperous in pimping. It is ironic that Sweet and Slim fail to see that they themselves are slave owners of a kind and are perpetuating the practices of the former plantation owners (it is Sweet who recommends to Slim he keeps his girls in line by the use of practices including whipping with coat hangers). The slave holders of yester year would, no doubt have been proud of them!
As a child Slim’s mother has relationships with a number of unsuitable men including with Slim’s father who, at one point throws the child against the wall. The exception to this rule is the gentle Henry who dotes on both Slim and his mother. However Slim’s mother leaves Henry for another man, had she stayed with Henry who Slim clearly adores it is very possible that I wouldn’t have read Pimp as the author wouldn’t have entered the world of pimping.
On reading Pimp one wonders why the women Slim controlled put up with their treatment at the hands of Iceberg. Fear goes some way to explaining it, however this is not the only explanation. Working on the streets and frequently unobserved by Slim his ladies had many opportunities to escape. One or two of them did but many others did not. Ironically a number of the girls “loved” Slim and convinced themselves that their feelings where reciprocated which explains why they remained with him. In particular one girl sends Slim money while he is in prison (she could have stolen it but chose instead to sell his car, on Slim’s instructions and send the cash to him).
In the end it is the fear of dying in prison rather than any moral revulsion which leads Slim to exit pimping. There is, so far as I can see no wholehearted moral rejection of his former life but I haven’t read any of the interviews which he gave subsequently so perhaps I am wrong on that point.
If you want a comfortable bedtime read then Pimp by Iceberg Slim is not for you. However if you want to try and understand why a man might enter the world of pimping then this book makes a fascinating read.
The causes of human action are a source of endless fascination to me. There is a tendency inherent in much discourse to ascribe simple explanations to why humans act as they do. Marxists argue that it is the economic base (the wealth of individuals and their status in society) which largely determines why persons behave in specific ways, for example people living in poverty are more likely to turn to criminality while the rich are likely to vote for parties which will sustain the capitalist status-quo. Others argue that it is genetics which explains human motivation and that of other animals. Thus the individual possessing “good” genetic material is likely to do well academically, attain a well paying job and be less likely to turn to criminality than the individual who has “inferior” genetic material.
Both positions are reductionist in that they attempt to ascribe simple explanations to the behaviour of highly complex living organisms. While it is undoubtedly the case that many people filling our jails are from deprived backgrounds most of those from “the wrong side of the tracks” do not become criminals. Again individuals from apparently loving and well-to-do backgrounds do, on occasions turn to crime for reasons which are difficult to fathom.
All of the above brings me to the point of this post, why do educated middle class girls turn to the world’s oldest profession? The prostitute is often portrayed as a victim of circumstance by the media and in literature, a poor down trodden drug addicted person possessing little (if any) autonomy). There are of course women and men who fit into this stereotype, however many sex workers are not drug addicts and by no means all of them are ill educated. I will explore in a future story why a lady from an affluent background turns to sex work of her own volition. While I have ideas for my story they are far from being set in concrete. The longer I live the more I come to realise that reductionist approaches contain at best only partial explanations to complex issues. Yes social and economic forces do help to shape the lives of humanity but humans are not mere feathers blown hither and thither by them. The ideas emanating from human brains and the actions flowing from them also shape our lives and those of others for better or worse.
In February 2012 I published Samantha which tells the story of a young girl forced into prostitution in the English city of Liverpool by her brutal pimp Barry (see http://newauthoronline.com/my-books/). Samantha is subjected to horrific psychological and physical abuse. It is touch and go as to whether she will survive or end her days in the murky waters of Liverpool’s Albert Docks.
Given my writing of Samantha, I was interested to read that Rachel Moran, a former prostitute has written a book recounting her experiences as a prostitute (see http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Former-Irish-prostitute-calls-on-men-who-buy-sex-to-be-named-and-shamed-in-new-book-203827051.html?page=2). As a homeless 15-year-old living in Ireland Rachel entered prostitution seeing it as a means of survival. She exited sex work at the age of 22 and is full of anger regarding her experiences. The author calls for those who purchase sex to be named and shamed as happens under the Swedish Law on Prostitution.
Not everyone shares Moran’s view that criminalising the purchasers of sex is the answer. It has been argued by opponents of the Swedish model that criminalising sex buyers means that clients who come across a person who is underage or who has been trafficked will be less likely to report the matter to the authorities than is presently the case. (In the UK it is not currently illegal to pay for sex but anyone who purchases services from someone who has been compelled into prostitution is guilty of a crime irrespective of whether he new that the prostitute was being coerced). Were the law to be further tightened buyers would according to this perspective be less inclined than at present to report their suspicions owing to fears of arrest due to paying for sex, potentially leading to more (not less) exploitation.
Another argument advanced against criminalising people who buy sex is that not all sex workers are forced into prostitution. In my story, The First Time we meet Becky a young graduate who enters the world’s oldest profession in order to clear her credit card debts. She fears being made homeless as a consequence of not being able to meet her bills and turns to escorting as a means of making money easily and quickly. Becky feels compelled by circumstances to become a sex worker however there is no brutal pimp, as in Samantha coercing her into sex work. Would it be right to punish men (and women) who purchase sex from escorts like Becky who have entered prostitution voluntarily? In response to that question proponents of the Swedish approach will respond that no one truly chooses to enter prostitution, they feel compelled to do so by circumstances which are often beyond their control. It is in other words a choice in theory only. Others will reply that not all who face the financial difficulties of Becky in The First Time choose to go down the route of selling their body, consequently Becky does, in the final analysis make a decision of her own free will to enter sex work.
K Morris - Poet 