Why I Wrote Abuse of Discretion
The title of my most recent book is Abuse of Discretion and here’s what I want readers to know when they reach “The End.”
Most of my books—which are legal thrillers—deal with social issues. For example, I’ve written about child sex trafficking (Anybody’s Daughter), gender discrimination (Attorney-Client Privilege) and sexual harassment (In Firm Pursuit). I didn’t start my writing career intending to take on social issues. It just turned out that the issues that interested me were great backdrops for legal thrillers.
That was definitely the case with Abuse of Discretion. I learned about teen sexting during a telephone conversation with a law school classmate who is a criminal defense attorney. He was complaining about having yet another teenage client charged with possession and distribution of child pornography as a result of sexting.
He explained that teens all across the country were facing pornography charges after taking naked selfies and sharing them with a boyfriend, girlfriend or classmate.
I was floored when he told me that these children—some as young as 13 or 14—were not only being prosecuted, but would have to register as sex offenders if convicted. As soon as we hung up, I Googled “teen sexting” and was stunned at the massive number of prosecutions all over the country. Many news articles called teen sexting an epidemic.
I immediately knew this was a topic I wanted to explore in a legal thriller and Abuse of Discretion was the result.
In Abuse of Discretion, Graylin Alexander is a model fourteen year old. But when his principal gets a report that he has a naked picture of a classmate on his cell phone, he soon finds himself embroiled in the criminal justice system.
My main goal in writing Abuse of Discretion was to educate parents and grandparents about the teen sexting epidemic and the very serious consequences for our children—who don’t even know they’re doing something that’s against the law.
After the book was released, many readers expressed shock that kids were being prosecuted for sexting. I soon realized that I also needed to educate teens. For that reason, I created a young adult adaptation of the book, entitled #Abuse of Discretion.
Open and honest discussion with our kids and grandkids about teen sexting is the key to saving them from the devastating legal consequences of an adolescent act that they don’t even know is a crime.
When a reader—be it a teen or an adult—gets to the end of Abuse of Discretion, it’s my hope that they’ve enjoyed the mystery, but also that they’ve been educated about this epidemic.
Most of my books—which are legal thrillers—deal with social issues. For example, I’ve written about child sex trafficking (Anybody’s Daughter), gender discrimination (Attorney-Client Privilege) and sexual harassment (In Firm Pursuit). I didn’t start my writing career intending to take on social issues. It just turned out that the issues that interested me were great backdrops for legal thrillers.
That was definitely the case with Abuse of Discretion. I learned about teen sexting during a telephone conversation with a law school classmate who is a criminal defense attorney. He was complaining about having yet another teenage client charged with possession and distribution of child pornography as a result of sexting.
He explained that teens all across the country were facing pornography charges after taking naked selfies and sharing them with a boyfriend, girlfriend or classmate.
I was floored when he told me that these children—some as young as 13 or 14—were not only being prosecuted, but would have to register as sex offenders if convicted. As soon as we hung up, I Googled “teen sexting” and was stunned at the massive number of prosecutions all over the country. Many news articles called teen sexting an epidemic.
I immediately knew this was a topic I wanted to explore in a legal thriller and Abuse of Discretion was the result.
In Abuse of Discretion, Graylin Alexander is a model fourteen year old. But when his principal gets a report that he has a naked picture of a classmate on his cell phone, he soon finds himself embroiled in the criminal justice system.
My main goal in writing Abuse of Discretion was to educate parents and grandparents about the teen sexting epidemic and the very serious consequences for our children—who don’t even know they’re doing something that’s against the law.
After the book was released, many readers expressed shock that kids were being prosecuted for sexting. I soon realized that I also needed to educate teens. For that reason, I created a young adult adaptation of the book, entitled #Abuse of Discretion.
Open and honest discussion with our kids and grandkids about teen sexting is the key to saving them from the devastating legal consequences of an adolescent act that they don’t even know is a crime.
When a reader—be it a teen or an adult—gets to the end of Abuse of Discretion, it’s my hope that they’ve enjoyed the mystery, but also that they’ve been educated about this epidemic.
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message 1:
by
reneeNaDaCherry
(new)
May 25, 2018 05:11AM
My goodness, I had no idea this was a teen epidemic and against the law. Even though I have younger grands, this info is still helpful. #Abuse of Discretion is on my TBR list now.
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