"With an EMP, almost everything powered by electricity would effectively be wiped out - not physically, but practically. Such things would simply cease to work... Sound like science fiction? It's understandable that some people would think so, especially anyone who has seen the flashy EMP attacks dramatized in TV shows such as '24.' Unfortunately, it's all too real. Why? Because an EMP isn't an altogether new, high-tech weapon. It's the same nuclear blast we've come to fear as a potential destroyer of our cities. It's just used in an alternate way. The difference: the location of the blast. In a conventional nuclear attack, the bomb is timed to explode close to the ground. The resulting radiation blast wreaks great physical damage. But with an EMP, the same kind of bomb is set to explode high in the air. When that happens, the blast doesn't level a city, but it does knock out the power grid, leaving the residents who have come to depend on it largely helpless." Edwin J. Feulner Ph.D, December 12, 2011 From the back cover: Lauren Russell often wondered why her father had been so adamant about teaching her skills that most other fathers wouldn't even consider teaching their daughters. Ever since she was little, she had been taught how to live and survive outdoors, and how to use firearms to protect herself and those around her. Some of the training had been a bit extreme. Or had it been? Many of her questions were answered the day the world as she knew it ended. Now, the skills she had been taught serve an essential purpose. They keep her and those she cares about alive. Even in the sparsely-populated mountains of West Virginia, where she and her family have been forced to relocate for their safety after the collapse, peril lurks around every corner. Normal life has taken on a whole new meaning for Lauren, her family, and the community they have become a part of. In this different world, the new status quo is self-preservation. There is no more middle ground. People either live, or they die. Lauren's father didn't make it home on the day the world changed forever, and she misses him more than anything. Now, in What's Left of My World, she and her family must learn to endure life's horrors-without him. Note: This book contains occasional strong language and scenes that depict the sometimes violent, unsentimental side of human nature--which exists in abundance in the world we all live in, and even though we don't see it every day, is only a single catastrophe away from rearing its ugly head. What's Left of My World was written to be informative, entertaining, thought-provoking, and as altogether vivid and realistic as possible.