I was so certain if I were ever in that situation, things would be different. I had a stack of hypotheticals and loads of bravado.

I wanted to write this story, but had never been hit by a man.

I especially like to write when I actually have something to say. It is too common, and I wanted to tell an “uncommon” story to properly convey what I felt. I started plotting my latest novel LONG SHOT the night I watched that Ray Rice video, and this year, finally released the book. Daily nightmares where not only their lives are at risk, but all too often, so are their children’s. They’re stuck, many of them, in volatile, life-threatening situations. We gasp, and then the news cycle feeds us some other salacious morsel, and we move on. Needless to say, after a short round of anger management courses, he was free to go.

I held my breath as I read that story, hoping to see him suffer real consequences. Days before, footage from a 2016 incident in a stairwell showed baseball player Danry Vasquez slapping his then-girlfriend and dragging her down the stairs by her hair. To do more.Įven as I write this post, news has broken about a popular hip hop artist Fabolous, who allegedly hit his girlfriend several times, knocking out two teeth, and was caught on camera threatening her and her father. Domestic abuse – our averted eyes, the taps on abusers’ wrists, the violence swept under lumpy rugs – none of it should be typical, and I wanted to write a story that challenged us at every turn to know better. Because I wasn’t really interested in writing a typical anything. Oh, that doesn’t sound like your typical sports romance? You don’t say. I had all of this feeling, but no outlet, and decided I would write a romance addressing domestic violence in professional sports. I had anger and dismay that things like this go on, not only in elevators with surreptitious surveillance cameras, but behind closed doors. You know those mad tears? You’re so full of anger it just spills from your eyes and over your cheeks? I had those. I choked on my indignation, raging uselessly at the screen and spewing at my poor husband. (Please note: There are aspects of this discussion that deal with themes of domestic violence and rape and may be sensitive to some readers.)īy the time I clicked on the YouTube clip of NLF running back Ray Rice knocking his fiancée unconscious in an elevator, millions had already viewed what was to me and most, an outrage.

Long shot kennedy ryan series