Elizebeth Reidenbach

“Aurelia was just about to take a sip of a mimosa when Mother Guardian snatched the flute away and promptly downed the drink in one gulp. Burping unashamedly, she said, "We can't have the validity of the marriage contracts jeopardized because the bride got rat-assed on her wedding day.”
― Therisa Peimer, Taming Flame

“Despite the countless acts of violence that the two had witnessed, and even participated in, over the years, they were still shocked by what they saw.”
― Stephen A. Reger, Storm Surge: Book Two of the Stormsong Trilogy

“Genocide, after all, is an exercise in community building. A vigorous totalitarian order requires that the people be invested in
the leaders' scheme, and while genocide may be the most perverse and ambitious means to this end, it is also the most comprehensive.
In 1994, Rwanda was regarded in much of the rest of the world as the exemplary instance of the chaos and anarchy associated with collapsed states. In fact, the genocide was the product of order, authoritarianism, decades of modern political theorizing and indoctrination, and one of the most meticulously administered states
in history. And strange as it may sound, the ideology- or what Rwandans call "the logic"-
-of genocide was promoted as a way
not to create suffering but to alleviate it. The specter of an absolute menace that requires absolute eradication binds leader and people
in a hermetic utopian embrace, and the individual-always an annoyance to totality -ceases to exist.”
― Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

“            It was stated by an Australian Army Officer, “Phuoc Tuy offers the perfect terrain for guerrilla warfare. It has a long coastline with complex areas of mangrove swamps, isolated ranges of very rugged mountains and a large area of uninhabited jungle containing all of the most loathsome combinations of thorny bamboos, poisonous snakes, insects, malaria, dense underbrush, swamps and rugged ground conditions that the most dedicated guerrilla warfare expert could ask for.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy