Writers of great horror don’t hold back when it comes to subject matter: nothing is off limits. Their stories go to places that make readers shudder, sweat, squirm. In these columns, Lisa L. Hannett – the award-winning author behind Bluegrass Symphony, Lament for the Afterlife, and Song For Dark Seasons — turns her attention to the topics of writing, horror, and her adopted country of Australia. Drawn from her popular Southern Dark column, Wide Open Fear collects Hannett’s advice on selecting new monsters for horror literature, capturing the Australian gothic, embracing the I in horror, avoiding the overuse of literary techniques across the breadth of your career, and more. Whether you’re an aspiring author looking advice, an established horror scribbler looking to hone your technique, or simply a fan Hannett’s work seeking a glimpse behind the scenes, Wide Open Fear offers insights into the practice and philosophy of an extraordinary writer of horror and weird fiction.

Jim Palmer's critically acclaimed Divine Nobodies was only half the story - the deconstruction and shedding of a religious mentality that hindered his knowing God. In his next book, Jim takes the reader along into the wide open spaces of exploring and experiencing God beyond religion. Jim writes, "It is no secret that God can be lost beneath the waving banner of religion. Divine Nobodies is my story of how this happened to me. Sometimes you have to disentangle God from religion, even Christ from Christianity, to find the truth. With the help of some unsuspecting nobodies, I uncovered a new starting line with God. As I've put one foot in front of another, I've experienced God in ways that are deeply transforming." Each chapter revolves around a central question related to knowing God on fresh terms: Is God a belief system? Is the Bible a landing strip or launching pad? Can what we're feeling inside be God? Are we too religiously minded to be any earthly good? Brian McLaren wrote, "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Don Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice." The Library Reviews said of him, "Jim Palmer's casual, yet compelling writing style cuts through the religious rhetoric and gets to the real issues...readers will love this author! His sense of humor is alternately mixed with shocking sentences and poignant moments. Laced throughout is a refreshing honesty that ties his ideas together with a ribbon of reality...each turn of the page strips away a little more of the contrived mystery of Christianity until the simplicity and sincerity of it stands in realistic splendor." More and more people seek a deeper spirituality beyond status-quo religion. Others are left empty and weary from a shallow and narrow pop-Christianity. Palmer says that God's kingdom of love, peace, and freedom can be a present reality in any person's life. He proclaims that God is indeed in the process of birthing something deep and wide among unlikely people in unconventional ways, which is changing the world...one "nobody" at a time.

BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In Mind Wide Open, Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? Along the way, Johnson explores how we "read" other people, how the brain processes frightening events (and how we might rid ourselves of the scars those memories leave), what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, what it means that our brains are teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from. Johnson's clear, engaging explanation of the physical functions of the brain reveals not only the broad strokes of our aptitudes and fears, our skills and weaknesses and desires, but also the momentary brain phenomena that a whole human life comprises. Why, when hearing a tale of woe, do we sometimes smile inappropriately, even if we don't want to? Why are some of us so bad at remembering phone numbers but brilliant at recognizing faces? Why does depression make us feel stupid? To read Mind Wide Open is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self, and to see that brain science is now personally transformative -- a valuable tool for better relationships and better living.

Are you ready to free yourself from the hold that any past experience has had on you? Find your own inner power by taking any person, place or thing and use it to propel you to your authentic self. Make peace with anything from your past, once and for all, and watch your life dramatically change and open to a world of potential. Breathe Wide Open captures Cristina’s most significant realizations that have cleared away her deepest and darkest experiences. She created a new mindset by using life lessons that opened the portal to expansive self-awareness, inner potential, and self-love. Cristina fearlessly shares her powerful story, to support her readers who have had experiences that created a pattern of resentments, loss of trust, repeated unwanted circumstances, or for those who are of service to helping others. Use her journey and tools to release all things that no longer serve you. From there, you will find your own inner-power and fearlessly step into all you are intended to become.

Now more than ever, Divine Love and Spiritual Awakening are essential to the survival of humanity. In this fast-paced world of techie-toys, instant messages, unconscionable greed, appalling indifference, and unspeakable violence, it is the Heart-Based New Humanity leading the way to conscious awareness. Ignoring life's intense ups and downs is no longer an option. In F'd Wide Open, author Marja West explores the challenges of living life while developing Divine Love in our relationships and facing the horrors of today's world. She addresses the dark feelings, thoughts, and triggers we work so hard to ignore or deny. West provides a no-holds-barred boot camp, offering practical, no-nonsense advice and embodied, advanced spiritual wisdom of the highest order. This guide seeks to help you remember who and what you are: one of the grand creators and the free energy source of the Universe. You can reclaim the depths of your Divine Nature as a creator of reality and allow enlightenment to illuminate your path of evolutionary growth, change, and expansion. Invite the Divine to live in you; F'd Wide Open can show you how.

The way we talk to ourselves is often unkind and filled with self-judgments. These overly harsh self-criticisms can make us feel unworthy and incomplete. What if what you really need is not higher standards for yourself, but greater self-compassion? In Living with Your Heart Wide Open, you’ll discover how mindfulness and self-compassion can free you from the thoughts and beliefs that create feelings of inadequacy and learn to open your heart to the loving-kindness within you and in the world around you. Based in Western psychotherapy and Buddhist psychological principles, this book guides you past painful and self-limiting beliefs about yourself and toward a new perspective of nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of who you are, just as you are. You’ll receive gentle guidance in mindfulness and compassion practices that will lead you away from unproductive, self-critical thoughts and help you live more freely and fearlessly, with your heart wide open.

A new, fully revised edition of Roger Baker's highly regarded book on panic attacks and other fear-related conditions. Baker sets out in clear and concise language a psychological self-help programme for panic sufferers, answering important questions such as: What is a panic attack? What does it feel like? What causes attacks? Can they be cured? 'A full recovery is possible,' explains Baker. 'It certainly is not easy, nor quick, but it definitely is possible.'

Arms Wide Open provides a window into the lives of young pregnant women struggling with the decision of making an adoption plan or becoming a single parent. It is a vital tool for couples considering open adoption. Mrs. Waters clearly outlines the emotional turmoil of the birth mothers and offers suggestions to help make an open adoption a positive experience for the child, the adoptive parents and the birth mother.

Both love and fear can compel one’s eyes wide open. In April of 1937, amidst the carnage of the Spanish Civil War, for a time the Basque town of Guernica had managed to escape much of the violence, murders, and tortures as were hallmark atrocities committed by both the Nationalists and Republican government. Yet soon Guernica would unknowingly become a breeding ground for modern warfare. Alejandro has suffered from such violence. Unable to move or speak, his invalid condition prompts him to become a patient in a convalescent ward of a terrifying hospital. There, he meets Isabel, a beautiful nurse whose angelic presence he falls in love with. Also, he is befriended by Raul Miguel, a man gripped by torturous insanity, or perhaps not. As Alejandro’s strength returns and the secrets of this terrible place are revealed, overwhelming fear leads to a desperate escape. However, one hell is traded for another, compelling one to forever keep his eyes wide open. Reader Advisory: A passionate romance amidst tortuous images. PUBLISHER NOTE: Historical Romance. Inspirational Romance. 22,400 words. M/F. All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.