The Swetky Agency - What It Really Means To Get Married and Divorced Legally

Submission Synopsis

What It Really Means To Get Married and Divorced...Legally
A Complete Guide for Choosing the Best State
In Which To Tie the Knot

by Carmen Cusack

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Length:
Estimated at 40,000 - 50,000 Words

Genre:
How-To
Self-Help
Relationships
Law

Series:
The "What It Really Means To" series is similar to "So You Want To" or "Dummies," except that this series demystifies subject matter that is essential for happily living with personal choices that are often overlooked a priori. This series will inform people of what it really means to engage in a certain practice, event, contract, etc. by giving the information most dreamers would never even think about before plunging head-first into a major decision. Future series titles will include everything from What It Really Means To Become A Pop Star to What It Really Means To Be a Woman: Major Realities Not Commonly Comprehended By Men. All contain information to help create a full picture of what it really means to be a part of whatever the reader is interested in becoming.

Sentence:
All of the truths you might regret having overlooked.

Blurb/Logline:
The most complete and comprehensive guide to getting married and divorced anywhere in the United States, including everything you'll ever need to know after the honeymoon but you should have known before the proposal.

Synopsis:
Love is blind, so you take the plunge without looking first. Before your feet are even wet you find that Justice is also blind and doesn't care that you got married because you are in love. Justice cares only that you got married, and now there are certain expectations in exchange for providing you with that title that you never thought about before you got hitched. Almost everybody gets married because he or she wants to commit to a partner, but very few people understand the nature of the commitment they are making. Now there's a book that any on-line or bookstore browser will pick out when trying to understand what they are about to do...or what they have already gotten themselves into. Covering the main bases from how to get legally married through the consequences of shared debt and divorce, this book is the most important reference book any two love birds need in order to get grounded, get informed, and not get into more commitment than they can happily handle.

Introduction

Infatuation blinded me. He seemed to have a golden halo that softly swayed from those muscles he spent so much time perfecting as a triathlete. He was 6'4", a national hero, and a Texan; naturally he had come to believe the world did revolve around him and should succumb to his grandeur. And yes, I thought that was a very reasonable thing to give, if it meant I could just stand next to him as we brushed our teeth in the morning.

Never before had I let go of my own demands so completely and it seemed I was being spiritually profound by letting myself, my borders, my caution, my awareness, and even my self interest evaporate into an ocean of passionate, servant-like devotion. It seemed right, right up until the night we had our first big fight.

We were at home, arguing over nothing really, when he softly and sexily said--"this is my house, leave." Clearing my throat I thought he was kidding, surely he understood that it was our home. I had just spent all my money moving across the country to live with him after he was re-stationed by the Coast Guard from Florida to the Columbia River on the west coast of Oregon. I went there to start a life, with him, but really, for him. I never even placed it in the realm of possible that he could betray me, so I never thought to ask for any legal validation of my commitment. I never dreamed my name would have to be on the lease in order for me to have the right to live in that house. I thought it would be ok for him to own the house.

I loved him and trusted him and knew that he would always look out for my best interest. I was scattered and grasped internally to any thing that I could say that would reverse his decision. Completely stunned, I still couldn't speak and cleared my throat again. I said, "No, I want to talk about it, and there's nothing you can do about it except listen, and when I'm done I'll listen to you."

He walked away and within a few minutes there was a policeman standing in our bedroom. He said "Ma'm, this is his house and you have to leave."

I said, "I live here!" And he simply said, "Ma'm, you don't want to go to jail do you?"

I put my head down and crawled out of the bed I thought was the alter to our religion. It was framed by the bed board he had custom made, planned to have engraved with our initials, and would one day pass down to our children. I packed my clothes into a suit case and was escorted by the police into a cab. I spent a week in a nearby hotel leaving voicemails that insanely pleaded with him to not be so irrational and to just to see that we could talk about this later, but for now to burry the hatchet.

But he never picked up the phone and never apologized. I am 100% certain that if I would have had a contract with him, if would have been legally committed to being emotionally committed, if we had been married, we would have spent a week sleeping in different rooms and eventually would have worked it out and had two or three good laughs about the whole fight. With this experience under my belt, I know that everyone intending to one day be or currently continue being married needs to understand the virtues of marriage and the empowerment that comes along with making a love union legal, and at the same time understand the heavy ramifications that could be presented to you if you decide to change your mind once you're in. This boy could have lost half his house if we were married and he still wanted never to pick up my calls again.

I now know that I was considering the future based on the present--but we all know the future is unpredictable. The contract, in a general sense, was not created because people follow through, it was created because people don't. In the case of the marriage contract, the parties are agreeing to enter into a union that becomes an entity responsible for itself. Two parties not only enter into an agreement with the state they agree to recognize that love isn't always enough to make people stick to the word they gave when their hearts and minds were twirling each other around on cloud nine. For better or for worse, marriage and divorce are extremely serious and influential events that too many people don't recognize of as a long-term legal decision that change most of the aspects of your legal identity.

What It Really Means To^TM Get Married and Divorced...Legally: A Guide for Choosing the Best State in which To Tie the Knot is a straight-forward manual that presents the latest research and facts on the 50 states' marriage and family law. No reader considering the topic of marriage will be able to pass up the opportunity to read this book, no matter what part of the process of being bonded they are in. Anyone going through a divorce will tell you this book is like the sports almanac that made Biff rich in Back to the Future...if they could have only known the information in it ahead of time, they would have come have done a lot better.

And for anybody looking to get married, their eyes will eagerly spring to What It Really Means To^TM Get Married and Divorced Legally because the title tips the client off that there are things he or she should know, and once they know that there are major things to be known, they are definitely going to want to know them.

The presentation is straight forward and extremely easy to read. It allows the reader to see the the different ways that each state views marriage and divorce, and gives readers the option of choosing ahead of time how, and subsequently where, they would like their union to be recognized, upheld, or dissolved. With charts highlighting the major differences, a glossary of common Latin terms, the up-to-date phone numbers for each state office dealing with marriage and licensing, as well as a list of Family Law firms that can answer legal questions in each state, the book leaves no stone unturned in helping the reader gain all the knowledge one should have before entering into a lifelong, life altering contract.

Table of Contents

The Process of Licensing and the Meaning of the Marriage Contract in Each of the 50 States

State Laws on Breaking the Marriage Contract: Divorce

Family Law, Children, and Child Support
In the marriage
Outside of the marriage
--Through Divorce
--Out of Wedlock

Residency Laws Applicable to Marriage and Divorce, Taxes, Property, and Debt Including Medical Bills, Business Ventures, Personal Loans, and Education

Sorting It All Out