Favourite literary legal scene

All of my novels contain some legal elements. The BackTracker series is chock-full of criminals and crime fighters and my latest release DISPASSIONATE LIES takes a look at the law in the near future.

However, my favourite legal scene is in my SciFI novella, SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT. While engaged in a heated custody battle over her dying daughter, Chorie tries desperately to find a lawyer who understands the fact she is caught in two vastly different universes.

“Do you have children?” Chorie asked.

“No. No, I don’t.”

“Is there someone else available who does have children?”

“I was trying to be gentle,” he said. “Put more bluntly, you don’t have a chance in hell of regaining custody.

“Why not?

“Because you’re crazy.”

My two SciFi novellas

"I’m not crazy!”

“You find a psychiatrist to back you on that and I’ll reconsider. In the meanwhile, take advantage of your visiting rights. Be with the child as often as you like. I give you that advice free of charge.”

“My rights?” Chorie leaned forward in her chair, put her fists on his desk, and slowly rose. “My husband is planning to move in with his secretary and I have the right to join them in their love nest, does that seem adequate ‘rights’ to you?”

She heard her voice rise, tremble, bounce off the walls. She knew it she was being inappropriate, but she couldn’t stop.

“I want to be with my daughter, day and night. Hear every whimper. Dry every tear. I want to cool her fevered forehead. Swab glycerine on her cracked tongue. I want to wipe the vomit from her lips. I want to sing her lullabies. I want to monitor her IV. I want to be holding her hand when she passes from this world. And, Mr. Strongberg…”

She leaned so far into him he was compelled to tip back his chair. “I sure as hell don’t want to be doing it in Deanna’s spare bedroom!” She inched closer and locked her eyes on his. She felt her breasts brush the folder of papers before him.

“Ma’am,” he said, finally shaking free of her gaze. “Please, sit. Please.” Chorie kept her eyes on his face as she slowly slumped into her chair. “Ma’am, like I said, if you can get someone to vouch for your sanity. In the meantime, I suggest you continue with your counselling--"

“Continue with my counselling?” Chorie interrupted. “My counsellor testified against me! I’d like to sue her for breach of confidentiality! She had no right to reveal the content of our sessions…”

“When a child is at risk, she not only has a right to, but has a legal and moral obligation to.”

“She said the child wasn’t at risk! She said I was no danger…”

“She was just being kind! If it were my child, I’d sure as hell be wondering who was looking after her while you were out meandering in alternate universes!”

“You don’t understand the true nature of time, do you? It’s not as if I divide my time between lives. Time is not linear; it’s multi-dimensional. Simultaneous, in a way. I’m not absent from one life while pursuing the other…”

“Listen!” Strongberg interrupted loudly. “Listen! This is irrelevant to the case! There is no way I’m arguing quantum physics or the nature of time before a judge in a court of law!”

He picked up his pen, pulled his chair forward, and lowered his voice. “Ma’am, even if I were to agree to do that for you, it sure as hell wouldn’t get you custody!

Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

It's a matter of time...

The world has plunged into cyberspace oblivious to the dangers and totally unaware of who created it, who owns it, and under whose control it remains. Governments, banks, militaries, law enforcement...trusting their data and their secrets to the ether.

If, as recent headlines prove, hackers can crack into government data bases, nuclear facilities, and retailer computers, it is only a matter of time until...

• gangsters hack into forensic laboratory computers and alter fingerprint/DNA/blood spatter analysis to avoid prosecution
• mobsters layout an electronic trail of phony emails and photos to divert guilt and exact revenge
• criminals invade and alter digitally-stored records to delete their criminal history

It is only a matter of time...

until the total collapse of internet security renders it impossible to know who is guilty and who is innocent

My new adult SciFi, DISPASSIONATE LIES looks at our world in 2035--the technology, the materials, the chaos. NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!

Join me in celebrating my latest release by entering to win an autographed copy of SCHRODINGER'S CAT and see how quantum mechanics' multiple universes affects justice...
ONLY 3 days left to enter!

Enter below or for more details visit Magic of the Muses:

 a Rafflecopter giveaway



Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Digital data compromised...

News headline: Dean Del Mastro denies sending series of emails, trial hears.

In real life in 2014, it starts with the defendant denying he sent the emails but where does it end? 

Nearly 100 per cent of computer attacks are criminal in nature, say experts.Can a defendant argue the lab results were compromised? The police reports altered? The DNA analysis fixed? 

News headline: Malware threats making anti-virus software 'totally useless' 

Can organized crime hack into police computers? Pay someone to compromise forensic lab results? Force someone through blackmail or threats to fudge results? Can those with money and clout alter digital data to clear someone or, alternately, to make it seem their enemies are guilty? 

How safe is a forensic lab computer when hackers have been known to breach the computers of nuclear facilities? Hack attack on Iran's nuclear facility easier than thought 

There is an entire section at the back of my new near future release DISPASSIONATE LIES that outlines the news, technology and science headlines that inspired the story about the collapse of the internet, the global economy and the judicial system. It was written to provoke discussion and spark preparation for new technologies and their abuses and uses. 

 

"...brilliant storyline..."

"...a fast-paced and enjoyable read"

“Romance, suspense and technological thrills round out this wonderful sci-fi novel.”

"A highly recommended read to all fans of futuristic fiction."

 

DISPASSIONATE LIES

Official Launch price ONLY $1.99

July 13 -26, 2014

on Amazon and Smashwords (Use coupon code GS42H on Smashwords for the eFormat of your choice.)

SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT joins the celebration at only 99₵ on Amazon and Smashwords!

Smashwords coupon JU57W 

To enter the rafflecopter draw for multiple e- and print books visit my blog Magic of the Muses 

Imagine the chaos...

UPDATE: Now on Amazon!

It's 2035 and hackers have collapsed the internet. Economies teeter. Governments struggle.

The judicial system is in chaos as defense lawyers argue all evidence is tainted...police records, lab results, criminal records.

Sifting through compromised digital data, Ladesque tries desperately to find out the truth about her past while simultaneously designing the high-tech recovery of cyberspace.

"The world was depending on her; she had promises to keep..." --so begins my new release... DISPASSIONATE LIES.

More information about the novel and more of the cover revealed on Magic of the Muses

Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Futuristic Legalese

Science Fiction writers, if not looking to the stars, are often looking to the future. The fantastical that may one day be ours is a fertile field in which to wallow.

Futuristic technology, social norms, politics, fashion, weapons and time travel are common themes of the genre. Futuristic legalities? Not so much. However, I may have found a way to make even that fun.

In my first sci fi SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT I take a stab at explaining differences in eyewitness accounts--perhaps our consciousness is shifting between alternate universes, we may not all have exactly the same shared past. I think Chorie's lawyer summed it up best when he told her there was no fricken way he was arguing an alternate universe theory before the court. They'd both be judged insane and she'd for sure lose custody of her dying daughter. Yeah...that did stretch it a bit, didn't it?

But, suppose the year is 2035 and all other universes are tucked neatly away and inaccessible, as they ought to be. What will our legal system look like then? Suppose hackers and criminal organizations decimated the world wide web, corrupted the internet beyond salvation. Suppose this corruption reached into police files, lab results, court orders, all things digital and transferred, stored, or otherwise exposed to the internet.

What then, my friend? What good defence attorney would not argue DNA results that proved guilt, might very well have been corrupted? What good gangster would not have hired a techie to alter a police report prior to trial? What terrorist would not have invaded government systems to drain dollars?

Ah, yes, the year is 2035 and computer whiz Ladesque is charged with getting the world back online with a system immune to attack, perhaps a task almost as impossible as hunting through corrupt data to find the truth about the pharmacological screwup that stole her generation's fertility and libido.

DISPASSIONATE LIES, coming later this summer from WolfSinger Publications.

Perhaps we ought to be more concerned about who's inventing the quantum computer than who has nuclear capabilities. Perhaps.


Eileen Schuh, Author
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ