Here are a few of the nice things New York Times Bestselling Authors have said about my thriller manuscript BRAINSTORM:

Douglas Preston, NY Times bestselling author of The Codex, Relic and Book of the Dead (these last two with Lincoln Child) as well as many more said that BRAINSTORM: “…is as exciting and fast-paced as a thrill ride on a dive bomber, a maelstrom of action, violence, murder and mayhem, way too much fun to put down once you’re hooked. It is also frighteningly believable, based on an actual black CIA program known as Project Stargate. Kessler is a former US Marine parachutist, recon scout, and Super Squad team leader and he really knows his stuff. An outstanding novel.”

James Rollins, NY Times bestselling author of Black Order, Sandstorm and Map of Bones as well as many others, said: "Gordon A. Kessler's BRAINSTORM is a wild ride into the reality of human consciousness, forcing us to question who we are and our place in the universe.  It's also a kick-ass adventure story that will have you thrumming through the pages well into the night.  Its blend of topical research, cutting-edge weaponry, and current political tension is handled with stunning effect."

BRAINSTORM Synopsis

What if a small American town is secretly replicated, populated with kidnapped scientists and psychically talented civilians, and then used as a proving ground while training psychic assassins? Political and military leaders of the Free World are the targets of these psychic warriors, and Project Brainstorm's goal is world domination. The only person who can stop the unthinkable plot is a seemingly simple man without a clue.

In BRAINSTORM, Gold Rush seems to be just another sleepy little Colorado community full of friendly, caring citizens, quaint cottages, and a sort of quiet peace, held gently by the picturesque mountains that surround it. However, something isn't right in Gold Rush, and early on a Monday morning Robert Weller awakens with a cautioning and insuppressible voice inside his head. He soon finds a secret behind every door, a motive with every glance, and a lie beneath every spoken word. After meeting a strange but beautiful woman named Sunny who insists they were once lovers, people begin dropping dead around him without apparent cause. The world he thought he knew twists upside down as paramilitary teams hunt him, and his own wife and the people he considers friends turn against him. After his wife falls dead inexplicably, he is thrown into the middle of a military mission to rescue thousands of the town's citizens from a plot to destroy the Free World.

In time, Weller discovers he was once the CIA's top remote viewer (based on an actual CIA project called Stargate). He finds out he has telepathic powers enhanced to a lethal level, and his memory has been erased. His subjugators have programmed him with new memories through hypnosis and hallucinogenic drugs aided by old TV shows, commercials, home movies, and other sensory stimuli. Led by Dr. Xiang Gao, his handlers are hoping to make him a psychic warrior in order to assassinate certain heads of state and military leaders.

Dr. Xiang is no ordinary general practitioner, and he's certainly more than the Weller family's trusted physician. Under the guise of a caring doctor, he is a brutal but brilliant scientist, driven by revenge. As the son of a Russian diplomat and a Shanghai prostitute, his vendetta against a cruel world for his horrendous childhood makes him blind to any sort of human empathy. His band of scientists along with Mike Wu, who Weller thinks is his best friend/brother-in-law, have molded Robert Weller into what they hope to be one of the most deadly weapons on earth, only one of hundreds they are now ready to unleash upon the world.

But something goes wrong on the big test day, and Robert Weller shows a psychic talent beyond their hopes. After unknowingly doing away with a number of his keepers, Weller breaks free and is in hiding with the assistance of a strange woman who has seemed to appear from nowhere.

To stay alive, Weller subconsciously connects with the ethereal matrix, an eternal grid work that exists only in the mind (remote viewing). It acts as a never-ending card catalogue, linking his mind to critical happenings in space and time--remote places in the past, present and future--and he uses his seemingly newfound ability to try and outsmart his keepers and escape to safety.

In the end...well, you'll have to wait and buy the book when it's available!  Watch this website for publication date.

Background about Brainstorm:

BRAINSTORM goes beyond the bounds of ordinary reason. Research for the novel led me to the CIA's Project Stargate, a twenty-year exploration into remote viewing and psychic powers which they actually relied upon even during and after the Persian Gulf War. Delving into the background information needed for this project, incredible new developments in non-lethal weapons such as acoustic cannons, sticky foam, anti-traction substances, electromagnetic pulse devices, and infrared lasers was extensively researched. This story reminds the reader of some very sobering statistics as well; there are still thousands of American MIAs from the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Author's Bio:

Gordon A Kessler is a former US Marine parachutist, recon scout, and Super Squad team leader, with a bachelor's degree in creative writing. He has taught novel writing for Butler County Community College, has previously self-published two thriller novels, and is a founder and former president of the Kansas Writers Association (a fifteen-year-old group of one hundred and fifty writers). He has published two thriller novels; Jezebel and Dead Reckoning. His unpublished thriller A Culling of Innocents was a finalist for the Rupert Hughes Award at the 2003 Maui Writers Conference. Two other unpublished thrillers, Jack Knight and The Storegga Effect, won first place consecutively in the KWA's 2003 and 2004 novel-writing competitions. His nonfiction book specifically targeting beginning novelists, Novel Writing Made Simple, won second place in the Oklahoma Writers Federation's 2004 competition. Brainstorm, his latest thriller manuscript, won first place in the KWA's novel-writing competition in a previous year and is by far his best work.

As an independent editor, speaker, conference organizer and writer, he has made and kept current numerous contacts with editors and agents in the NY publishing industry as well as others around the country. He tries to stay connected with writers and the writing industry by doing speaking engagements at writers conferences as well as for writers organizations and even small groups. He's also conducting full-day writing seminars and workshops in the Midwest in cities like Wichita, Lincoln (Nebraska), Kansas City, Omaha, Des Moines, and St. Louis over the coming months, based on his Novel Writing Made Simple book.

Over the past fifteen years, he has edited literally hundreds of fiction and non fiction work. His editing services include the full gamut, dependent upon the individual writer's needs--from quick read-throughs to full line edits and story reviews. As a primer especially for the beginning novelist, his Grabber 1250! is a fun way to help seasoned as well as new writers examine their stories and ensure that when they present their work to the publishing industry, it will be at its very best.