Category: Blog

Geeking Science: N is for No-Fault Divorce

Erin Penn 4 Comments

Meme from the Interwebs, basically public domain because of wide-spread distribution

With the present rapid changes, and even before, I often sent forward memes that crossed my path on Facebook for others to either enjoy or learn from. Recently, a few people have (RIGHTLY) called me out for not fact-checking things I was sharing. Two deeper dives have ended with me deleting the post; in another case, I didn’t have the energy to do the research – I think it was correct, but gut feeling is not enough – and so just deleted it.

For the Meme above, written  by Qasim Rashid, I merrily forwarded it and then went, wait, I need to fact check it.

  1. I found out who Qasim Rashid was: an attorney who has run on the Democratic ticket for state senate in Virginia
  2. When he wrote it: International Woman’s Day in 2023
  3. I found a fact checking website (truth or fiction) which confirmed the data through their research – complete with article sources on the bottom (LaCapria)
  4. I found further data on the South Dakota ACLU website. (Chapman)

As someone who took a lot of Sociology in college (one of my two majors), I was fascinated by the statistical study which could happen because states legalized no-fault divorce at different times. As a result, scientists were able to run models to see if suicides rates impacted:

“For example: California changed its law in 1969, Massachusetts in 1975. “If we expect the suicide rate to fall, we expect it to fall six years earlier in California than in Massachusetts,” said Wolfers.” (Chapman)
This step-stone approach allowed Stevenson & Wolfers to examine suicide rates outside of larger on-going cultural changes such as allowing contraceptives, change in medicines to help with depression, women getting the right to have credit cards and start their own businesses, etc.
The impact? A six percent (6%) decrease nearly immediately for women, no change for men. A twenty percent (20%) decrease in rates after a couple of decades – for women. I suspect why the full impact wasn’t immediate was community pressure – families, churches, and other support systems returning women to the untenable situations, refusing to help them escape even after it became legally possible.
Going further down the rabbit hole, I discovered domestic violence decreased (for both men and women), and murder by partner decreased (for women only).
In other words, when men cannot get out of a poisonous relationship, they kill their partner, and when women cannot escape the situation, they kill themselves.
What is needed for a Fault Divorce? Prove wrongdoing by the spouse: cruelty, adultery, or desertion were the common causes.  But the woman or man would have to prove it IN COURT, telling the judge and other members of THE COMMUNITY WHERE THEY LIVE how they were raped (if the state allows one to claim rape by a spouse, that is a fairly new thing too – South Dakota and Nebraska were the first two states to completely outlaw it in 1975 (wikipedia)), or beaten, or verbally abused. The spouse would need to show bruises, which likely have healed by the time the court date came around, if the woman or man lived that long.
Otherwise, if fault cannot be proven to the satisfaction of the court, the divorce ending the marriage had to be mutually consented to. In a world where women could not own property, would lose a job if they got pregnant, needed a male “owner” (for lack of a more accurate term) to sign off on even getting a bank account, many would refuse to get a divorce because they could not survive without a husband. (Hence why males chose option B, homicide.) On the other side of the equation, men did not have time to work in the house and on the job. Losing the partner (or forced domestic-laborer), would result in lack of food, clean clothing, and a host of other necessary services to be well-placed within the job force. Getting both people to agree to lose these economic benefits was rare, even at the steep cost of mental health and relationship well-being.
If America returns to the age of either mutual agreement or proving fault for a divorce to occur, especially with the ongoing stripping of women rights, one of two things will happen – (1)  females will return to the previous situations resulting in “trapped” reactions – suicide and murder or (2) females will just stop getting married (which will be an interesting side-effect for the “Family” crowd pushing for this legal change to deal with).
A healthy relationship needs the participants to have the power to end it when it is no longer beneficial. I love reading romances, and the healthy relationships resulting in HEA are the best.
Bibliography
Chapman, Samantha. “Attacks on No-Fault Divorce are Dangerous – Especially for those Experiencing Domestic Violence.” ACLU South Dakota. 2023 October 20. (https://www.aclusd.org/en/news/attacks-no-fault-divorce-are-dangerous-especially-those-experiencing-domestic-violence – last viewed 3/31/2025)
LaCapria, Kim. “After No Fault Divorce Was Legalized in 1970, Female Suicide Rates Dropped 20 Percent.” Truth or Fiction. 2023 March 8. (https://www.truthorfiction.com/after-no-fault-divorce-was-legalized-in-1970-female-suicide-rates-dropped-20-percent/ – last viewed 3/31/2025)
Pickler, Les. “Divorce Laws and Family Violence.” The Digest. 2004 March 01. (https://www.nber.org/digest/mar04/divorce-laws-and-family-violence – last viewed 3/31/2025)
Stevenson, Betsey & Wolfers, Justin. “Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Divorce Laws and Family Distress. (Working Paper 10175).” National Bureau of Economic Research. December 2003. (https://www.nber.org/papers/w10175 – last viewed 3/31/2025)
Wikipedia. “Marital Rape in the United States.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marital_rape_in_the_United_States – last viewed 3/31/2025)
Wolfers, Justin. “Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates? A Reconciliation and New Results.” The American Economic Review. December 2006. (https://users.nber.org/~jwolfers/papers/Divorce%28AER%29.pdf – last viewed 3/31/2025)

M is for Martine – Book Review (SERIES): Teixcalaan

Erin Penn Leave a comment

A duology where language and poetry meet with space opera science fiction – all the rich world of Dune and the language of Lord of the Rings.

Teixcalaan by Arkady Martine

  1. A Memory Called Empire
  2. A Desolation Called Peace

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.

Arkady Martine’s debut novel A Memory Called Empire is a fascinating space opera and an interstellar mystery adventure.

MY REVIEW for A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE

Worldbuilding, Characters, Plot, and … something not quite right? maybe? (spoiler area)
Or … wow, is my book club going to have a LOT to talk about when we meet.

Worldbuilding
Ms. Martine explores how language and cultural heritage drives a government’s, a people’s future. The City/World/Empire (same word/symbol) is the center of their own world, anyone not them is a barbarian. Poetry and story and art drives choices from encrypting letters to declaring war. Names, web-eye interfaces, and careful release of information combine to create the world of the City-Empire. Into this world comes an Ambassador from a mining conglomerate-colony-government, not of Empire descent – either herself or the people she represents. They have an alphabet, spin-stations, and inserts of mental scans. She is seduced by their poetry, but the ambassador is not them and can never be them.

The poetry dependence reminds me of Japan, and India, and Viking heritages. Rune or kanji for the language where one picture means one thing and a thousand things at the same time. A Memory Called Empire is rich in worldbuilding and I loved every moment of it.

Characters
These are people of Empire and Indigenous/the Colonized. The Ambassador both totally in love with the big, beautiful, brutal empire and its hundreds of years of culture and history – and totally tied to her upbringing where generations count at 14 – so around 300 years. She will never be Empire. Back home, her government strives to be just helpful enough that the Empire doesn’t try to fix them and useless enough to not be worth taking over.

Meanwhile the Ambassador makes friends with the locals and Ms. Martine hits pitch perfect the patronage and patronizing of people who earnestly want to help the poor barbarian navigate in civilization. Except Mahit (the Ambassador) isn’t as barbaric as they expect and they are not as civilized as they thought. The first thing they have to help her with is investigating the last Ambassador’s possible assassination.

Plot
So many strands weaving together. The murder investigation, the Ambassador integration into the political world, the Ambassador integration with herself, the empire sliding into the end of a reign with big unknown of succession, and the secrets the small mining government is holding very tightly to its chest. There are hints of love, sabotage, war, plus poetry structure impacting everything.

Overall, no matter what type of thing you read for, this book has it in spades.

So why didn’t I completely love it? (on to editorial analysis – if not your cup of teach skip it, also lots of spoilers here. If you like hyper analysis and have read the book, continue on.)

SPOILER START
I never really liked the main character. I emphasized, I understood, I sympathized … but liked, not so much. And she doesn’t change. Who she is at the end of the story is the same as the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, part of the story is “coming of age” and she does come of age. But she just becomes more “her” in the process.

And that is true about all the characters. No one changes, except to become more of themselves. Plot doesn’t drive them or twist them. When they enter a scene in the book, they leave with nearly all the same goals and drives intact.

In fact, the only thing that really changes is the Empire. It was pouring in one direction, roaring like a river, an ocean, to drown a quadrant in an aggressive acquisition/assimilation. The Ambassador manages to put a pebble into the bed of the river and sends it spinning off into a slight change of direction. Will it return to the old bed? That will be revealed in the next book. But right now, the Empire’s war horn is singing a different tune.

It’s weird to have a book with so little character growth. Instead of growth, we have character polish. Each character is shaped like a statue, not pottery – instead of adding clay, the author chips away the stone until only the character remains. Within the story, each strikes the other, creating facets along the fractures to become the perfect true-self gems. Mahit, Three Seagrass, Nineteen Adze, and Twelve Azalea all shine so … brightly … tragically … perfectly … by the end.
SPOILER END

(checked out through the library system – support your local library)

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.

Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan’s destruction—and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion.

Or it might create something far stranger . . .

MY REVIEW for A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE

The star-spanning Teixcalaan space saga continues with all the poetry, politics, and personalities of the first installment. If you love epic science fiction, the likes of Dune but more accessible, you need this series.

The first story covered the fall and rise of an Emperor. Book two focuses on a possible war on many fronts. The depth of worldbuilding of the internal Empire politics of the military crossing swords with the greater politics of the Empire politicians, with their ankles being nibbled on by rats from systems which haven’t been conquered yet, while a new threat that is actually an EXTERNAL threat to the Empire as it devours the Edges of the World.

The first story is about poetry and culture; the second is about language and society.

There is no promise of a third book that I can find, but the unrest of the Empire and the City’s AI continues its threads in the second book. I fully expect the third book to focus on this … maybe … if there is a third book. Book one was published in 2019, book two in 2021. With that schedule book three in 2023 … and it is mid-2025 now. I want the third book of this series. I can see the shape of the poem – like Xanadu, unfinished yet the ghost edges provide structure leaving you hungering for more.

Each story has worked as a complete stand-alone. People sometimes ask if you would be willing to live in the world you love to read. This is a universe I want to inhabit.

(Read through Kindle Unlimited AND also borrowed from a library, support your local library system!)

Editing Rant: F is Fact Check

Erin Penn 2 Comments

Photo by www.testen.no on Unsplash

Having friends, selectivity readers, and editors from a widely diverse background really helps writing accurate fiction. In my life, I have earned degrees in business, sociology, and computer science; my social circles looks like a Venn diagram with historic reenactors, D&D role players, and fiber art enthusiasts (especially embroidery, with a side of calligraphy and medieval illumination); I have worked as a teacher, tax preparer, and politician along with many other jobs in a lot of different industries, often more than one at a time. Plus unpaid side quests as a CPR instructor and adoring space exploration. (Oh, did I forget to mention writing, editing, book reviews, and small press publishing? I figured this website kind-of give that part away.)

This varied background means I often go “hold up, I need to do a little bit of research” when I am editing, then return with “FACT CHECK: here’s what I found.”

Having beta readers different from your personal background helps craft a more accurate picture of the world. Having specialists you can text with “Where can a person be shot with an arrow and still run for about three miles? How about if they are a werewolf and the arrowhead is silver?” or Facebook message with “So how do moon cycles ACTUALLY work? And what do you mean solar eclipses can only happen during the New Moon?”

My most recent Fact Check for an edit was CPR. Like I said, I was a CPR-First Aid instructor, something I did voluntarily for over a decade. I’ve been lucky enough never to have needed to administer CPR-Rescue Breathing in my life, but I have taught people who have used these skills in the real world.

And Fiction gets it wrong SO MUCH!!!!

Editing Rant activated.

Let’s start with the TV shows. How many times actors perform CPR on a BED!!! Look, you do compressions on a bed, the body is going to bounce up and down on the springs. Nothing is going to be compressed. Either put a body board under the body – and I say BODY because you only do CPR when there is no heartbeat. No heartbeat, no living person, … that is a dead body. – or you move the body to the floor or other flat hard surface.

Also on TV, the medical staff always “break” their elbows. The elbows are bent.

If you are doing compressions, the arms are stiff, and you have your shoulders and body above your hands and you push down with your whole body weight onto the body. You are falling on their chest basically with stiff arms. The effort on your part, after gravity does its thing with your weight compressing the ribcage, is lifting back up. Anyone who does pushups know the control fall is as exhausting as the push-up. Compressions are going to tire you out.

Now I will give the TV shows and Movies the elbow bend because you don’t want to perform CPR on a living person; no actor wants to go through that. It falls in the same category as the fact Movies and TV shows they never show the full vows during a marriage ceremony. Some things just aren’t done: perform CPR on a guest-actor or marry your co-actor on film.

Now onto books I have read or edited.

In one book, a group of three college students were electrocuted. Another person enters the room and is able to perform CPR and rescue breathing on all three people by themselves and revive all three people.

Uh, no.

Do you know how much effort it takes to do compressions, while also doing rescue breathing? Do you know how long you need to do both before it is effective? Not the typical TV, 15 seconds with three-to-five compressions and two breaths! I give TV a pass because of time limitations of the medium, but a book has all the time in the world. Three bodies needing CPR isn’t a quick fix.

If you are going to do CPR, figure you will be at it for minutes. The rule is once you start, you continued until you are relieved or you cannot physically do it anymore. Call 911 BEFORE you start. Because those “minutes” you are going to be at it is the ambulance response time for your area.

Back to the Editing Rant: Then there is the constant … and I do mean constant … “I feel a faint heartbeat, so I need to perform CPR.”

NOPE … no-no-no NO!!!

Again CPR is to restart the heart. You got a heartbeat, you are good. CPR is only done on dead people who were recently alive, to remind the body what it felt like to have a heartbeat and to be breathing.

Faint heartbeat – no CPR.

No heartbeat – then it is CPR time.

I ain’t got time to teach the world this fact one writer at a time.

So let me recommend something here. Take a CPR and First Aid course. American Red Cross, American Heart Association, OSHA training, whatever your country offers. Just take it. While the life you save likely won’t be your own, it may be a niece or nephew who fell in the pool, it may be a grandmother you are visiting, it may be a co-worker massaging the left side of their chest during a stressful meeting.

Or it could be you are able to write about CPR, rescue breathing, and basic first aid bandaging more accurately in your books.

Go! Get training.

I’m tired of editing this. It’s basic life knowledge. Or should be. Make it so.

Rant over.