Censorship is alive and well in Easton, PA.
I have a good friend who’s also a great writer, Kathy Kulig. Kathy happens to write “hot” – hot stories in the hot genre of the time, erotica. In fact I’ve lost count of the number of books Kathy’s written for Ellora’s Cave, one of the top eBook and print publishers of romantica (Ellora’s Cave term for romance and erotica).
Kathy happens to live in an older neighborhood of Easton, the West Ward. She and her husband, Joe, have spent years fixing up one of the neighborhood’s older homes, trying to make the area more beautiful.
Easton recently allocated money to the West Ward to develop, print and distribute its own community newspaper. Note that the area already has one of those in The Easton Irregular which has been in production for years but this paper was to be dedicated to the people of this one neighborhood.
A West Ward reporter interviewed Kathy and the article was printed several months ago. There were no “bad” words and no sensual scenes from one of her books–just a story about a fairly successful author who lived in this lovely Easton neighborhood.
Well, now it seems that Easton’s mayor, Sal Panto, wants to withdraw the paper’s funding, partly because of the article about Kathy. “Children could have seen it.” Well, Mr. Mayor children could have seen the articles in the Morning Call or the Express-Times about the pedophiles and murderers in their town. This was an article about a woman who was writing about love and sex.
Oh, wait! I GET it. Love, sex and a woman.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been horror (like I frequently write) or murder with blood and gore or if the writer had been MALE?
Mr. Mayor, sex is a part of life. Writers write about life; therefore, we write about sex.
No, Mr. Mayor, I guess it’s a lot better to show our children that if you pay to have a newspaper, then you can dictate what is written in that newspaper. I hear Fox News is on the line for you.
As for children seeing it: I had a child. I didn’t censor what she saw. If she had questions about something, I answered them. She turned out okay.
BTW: I had an erotic novella published a few years ago. I wasn’t nearly as brave as Kathy. I used a pen name.
Kathy Kulig: You rock the West Ward. You’re an inspiration for all of us “scribbling women”. You go, girl.
Mr. Mayor: Get a life and clean up the city instead of censoring a neighborhood paper.
BTW: You can get Kathy’s books at: http://www.amazon.com/Kathy-Kulig/e/B002PKEOSW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1362339970&sr=1-2-ent
Mitzi Flyte 
Mitzi, I don’t live in Easton, but I abhor those who try to censor what other folks say or do. Your mayor should familiarize himself with Voltaire, who said: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. That’s freedom of speech, Mr. mayor, and it is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
P.S. I have read Kathy Kulig’s books and she is an exceptionally gifted writer. I hope many many people show their support of her right to write by buying her books.
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Wow! Really? Kathy Kulig is a wonderful person and I have met her at Romanticon. Obviously he hasn’t read an erotica book! What else is he going to censor the internet? Children are exposed to enough in the world by many means and as a former second grade teacher none of my children ever confessed that reading an article about an author damaged them although I would question Grand Theft Auto or an app my nephew put on my phone called Running Fred which I thought was a guy running until I saw he ran through a maze of saws and was cut in half! It was promptly taken off my phone and there was a discussion as to why!
Mr. Mayor you must not have anything in your town to do then go after an upstanding citizen. Shame on you!
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Wake up Mr. Mayor! Women have the right to write what they want. We’re not back in the 17th century where women had no rights.
You should concentrate on the real things that need taken care of.
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That is ludicrous. The mayor should be focused on solving actual issues that face his community, instead of wrongly slinging mud at a contributing member of that city. Do your job, Mr. Mayor!
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I can personally tell you that Kathy Kulig and her husband Joe are amazing, wonderful people. I have known them for a handful of years and just to think of them makes me smile. With all the fanfare flying around about the 50 Shades books, why would this one article about a hometown woman be such a disturbing thing? Much love to the Kuligs and here’s to many more years of success for Kathy.
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Dear Mr. Mayor,
Censorship goes against the Constitution. Should you choose to stop funding for the West Ward paper, then your position as mayor should be limited to this one term. Is it your personal opinion that a ‘child’ could have seen the article, which didn’t use any ‘nasty sexual details’ in it, or is it the opinion of the ‘church goers’ backing you? If you really want to attack something filled with subjects a child should not see, then you need to turn your misguided attentions to the worlds greatest work of fiction ‘the Bible’. This book is filled with adultery, incest, murder, suicide, intentional drowning of an entire society with the exception of one man, his family and 2 creatures of every kind, brother killing brother, need I go on. It simply gets worse.
Where does the insanity end? This mayor should not have the power to end a local paper due to an article about an wonderful woman with a unique talent for writing a phenomenal love story. It may not be the conventional tale but it boils down to the one simple quest we all journey to find…True love.
Write on, Kathy Kulig. Write on!
Tara Nina
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I could just scream. How narrow-minded and just plain stupid of that mayor. Kathy’s in my local RWA chapter. She’s a doll.
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