Avoiding The Abyss

She was a failure as a rebel. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for starting an apocalypse. Aubrey never realized there was a better life beyond being the rebel leader’s disappointing teenage daughter. But when she’s abducted by the government and taught the demonic truth behind the rebellion at their official academy, she is torn between two worlds. Wielding a power she didn’t know she had, Aubrey must decide who she can trust. The rebels want her to open a dark dimension that will destroy the government once and for all. It is the opportunity to earn the approval she’s always yearned for. But if she goes through with it, Aubrey will lose the person she’s beginning to love. Can Aubrey master her power in time to prevent the end of the world? Avoiding the Abyss is book 1 in a YA fantasy trilogy filled with complex characters and demonic powers, set in a dystopian world with a beautiful balance of hope and despair.

In December 1993, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced the Counterproliferation Initiative, a response to President Clinton's assertion that if we do not stem the proliferation of the world's deadliest weapons, no democracy can feel secure. This timely book brings together contributions from a wide range of experts to help readers understand how far the nation has come since then—and what still needs to happen. Insightful essays examine: arms control treaty programs; export control regimes; interdiction; diplomatic/economic/political persuasion and sanctions; deterrence; counterforce; active and passive defense; and consequence management. Many positive changes have occurred since 1993. Regime changes in Iraq and South Africa have removed some WMD proliferation threats. Saddam Hussein has been overthrown, and a new Iraq is beginning to emerge. South Africa's clandestine WMD program has apparently ended. Libya announced it has given up its efforts to have active WMD programs. The Taliban and al Qaeda have been routed in Afghanistan, probably delaying efforts to develop or buy WMD. Yet, states continue to develop and export WMD and/or their delivery systems. As many as 30 states are still believed to have either a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons program. Some have all three. India and Pakistan have acknowledged programs. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who directed the Pakistani A-bomb program, has admitted selling nuclear weapons designs, and nuclear enrichment equipment to Libya, Iran, and North Korea. His colleagues have held discussions with al Qaeda representatives. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, number two in the al Qaeda chain of command, claims that the terrorist organization has several suitcase A-bombs from the Former Soviet Union. It appears clear to many that Iran has a desire to develop nuclear weapons. Syria still has a chemical weapons program. North Korea's WMD profile has escalated. As Avoiding the Abyss so convincingly demonstrates, much has been accomplished since the Counterproliferation Initiative was launched-but much work still lies ahead. It is an important story for every American.

"Aubrey grew up as part of the rebel movement, protected but lonely. All she wants is her mother's love, but without an ability she's worthless in her mother's eyes. When she's captured by the government, Aubrey sees an opportunity to prove her worth. Instead, she realizes that her mother has been withholding many truths. Aubrey experiences an acceptance outside of the rebels that her heart has yearned for, and a discovery. She has an immunity that has never been seen before. But Aubrey isn't immune, she's absorbing powers as the key to the Abyss--a portal into the demon realm. Her mother finally sees purpose in her daughter and hopes to use it for her cause. Aubrey isn't as certain. If she doesn't gain control of her ability, she'll open the gateway to hell and destroy everyone she's come to care about. Including herself." -- page [4] of cover.

"Just when you think Kelso has taken you as far as he can, he proves you wrong, setting off in a bold new direction." ​​-​John Langan, author of The Fisherman "Lyrical, intelligent and deeply astute" ​​-​Laura Mauro, Black Static Interrogating the Abyss is the first volume in the collected interviews, essays, and fictions of Chris Kelso. It's an exploration of darkness and a dissection of human relationships and obsession, featuring conversations with writers such as Dennis Cooper and Matthew Stokoe, and culminating in Voidness, ten sessions of psychic intervention by some of literature's most compelling storytellers.

A vivid, intimate, and inspiring exploration of how to write through persona, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning founder of an influential writing school. Throughout his growth as a writer, acclaimed poet Philip Schultz has battled with the dark voice in his head—the “shitbird,” as his late friend the poet Ralph Dickey termed it—that whispers his insecurities and questions his ability to create. Persona writing, a method of borrowing the voice and temperament of accomplished writers, offers him imaginative distance and perspective on his own negative inclinations. In this candid and generous book, Schultz reflects on his early life in an immigrant neighborhood of upstate New York, his first writing experiments inspired by Ernest Hemingway and John Keats, his struggles with dyslexia, and the failures he witnessed in his father’s life and his own. Through surprising, sometimes humorous, and encouraging encounters with the writers who influence him—including Elizabeth Bishop, Joan Didion, and Norman Mailer—as well as moving experiences of loss, Schultz learns how to fashion personas out of pain. Perceptive, enlightening, and profound, Comforts of the Abyss reveals how persona writing can be used as a tool for unlocking a writer’s own story, the philosophy on which Schultz founded The Writers Studio in 1987.

ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER YORK HOUSE It was such a lively old house, elegant and airy, but it had one minor flaw. The people who checked in, never checked out-alive. Undaunted by rumors of evil, Cathy Lockwood walked right into the festering heart of the crumbling mansion, determined to find her brother. She was sure he was alive-in some form-and she swore she'd rip York House apart, timber by timber, to find him. She thought nothing human or inhuman could scare her away-until she confronted the horrifying secret that waited for her in the dark, fetid basement. The she could scream to high heaven, but only hell would hear her.

The political philosophy of Leo Strauss has been the subject of significant scholarly and media attention in recent years, particularly in the context of the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Allegations that a group of Strauss-inspired Neo-conservatives intervened in the foreign policy establishment of the US in order to realise the policy of 'regime change' began to emerge soon after the invasion, and unanswered questions remain a decade later. This book addresses these claims, focusing specifically on a group of Straussians active in the spheres of intelligence production, think tanks, and the media during the period from the 9/11 attacks to the invasion in 2003. Such an examination is intended not simply to identify and expose their activities promoting the policy of 'regime change' in Iraq during this period, but also to challenge them and the Straussian logics underpinning them. Utilising the thought of Jacques Derrida, the book enacts a deconstructive challenge to Strauss’ political philosophy which unsettles the fundamental assumptions it relies upon. In doing so, it exposes the securitising imperative underpinning Straussian thought and the Straussian interventions. It thereby simultaneously addresses crucial issues in political theory and contemporary foreign policy studies, while asserting that these dimensions of international politics can and should be dealt with in conjunction with each other. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of Global Politics, Political Theory, Security Studies and US Foreign Policy, and those outside the academy interested in Neo-conservatism and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.