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The Weekly Readlines February 22
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning. You can view the archives here. And coming this spring: an audio edition of the Readlines. Fasten your headphones!
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: the Trump crime family inched closer to indictment on racketeering charges, with the organization’s accounting firm cutting and running. That may be it for an otherwise bleak news cycle.
Vladimir Putin “recognized” two separatist regions of Ukraine, in preparation for what everyone assumes will be a full scale invasion of the sovereign nation.
Taking this week’s hate cake, Florida’s sure-to-pass Don’t Say Gay Bill includes an amendment requiring schools to out LGBTQ students to their parents, with a “harm exemption” removed. So much for saving the children.
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On the Map: A Day Trip to Chester, NJ
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
My husband Frank and I have been enjoying day trips for several years now, especially since we moved to our New Jersey house full-time almost five years ago. And while we also like to take short two night getaways, which have fit well into my three-day-off weekly schedule, there’s a lot to be said for just getting in the car—or on a bus or train—and exploring towns and destinations that have you back by dinner.
This past Wednesday we headed to a city just an hour’s drive away: Chester, NJ. We found a town that’s perfect for short-term exploring and meeting friendly locals. This isn’t always the case, by the way. Heading off into the unknown for an afternoon means risking that you may not be so thrilled with the place when you get there, but that’s part of the fun. A surprise is what you’re looking for when it’s somewhere you’ve never been.
Chester is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 1,649, not counting tourists and day trippers! Chester is completely surrounded by Chester Township, making it part of 21 pairs of “doughnut towns” in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds another. The borough’s name is derived from the township, which was named for Chestershire in England. (Wikipedia)
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Q Audiobooks: Where to Find Free Audiobook Codes
Welcome to the return of Q Audiobooks, a regular feature offering audiobooks of interest for the LGBTQ+ listener.
As someone who has published 12 audiobooks, I understand the attraction of providing free download codes for audiobook fans and the authors and narrators who keep them listening. I’ve given away well over 1,000 audiobook codes over the ten years I’ve been making audiobook editions available for my books, and I have two sites to recommend. I’ve used both of them to great effect, and if you search “LGBTQ” you’ll even find a lot of the audiobooks in your favorite not-so-mainstream genres. Codes are specific to each book and can only be redeemed at ACX/Audible links provided when you get the code (US or UK), or on the Authors Direct app if you’re getting a code from Findaway Voices.
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The Twist Podcast #184: Truckers Got Talent, Rams Take the Ring, Texas Toasted, and the Week in Headlines
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we slam the brakes on the trucker caravan craze, check our emotional states post-Super Bowl, gaze aghast at the Texas voting fiasco, and scan the week in headlines. Twist Top picks and our listicles, too!
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2021 MadeMark Publishing
Join Mark’s email list for updates, podcasts, giveaways, and his monthly newsletter! Reach us at: TheTwist @ TheTwistPodcast.com
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Valentine’s Day eBook Sale! ‘Cupid Shot Me: Valentine Tales of Love, Mystery & Suspense’ Just $2.99 on Kindle
It’s a one-day-only sale on Kindle for ‘Cupid Shot Me: Valentine Tales of Love, Mystery & Suspense (A Queer Mystery Anthology Book 1).’ Show yourself or someone you love a little murder for this special day! The anthology includes my own ‘Paper Hearts: A Marshall James Thriller,’ along with 10 other short stories from some of the best writers in the genre. (You can read about my story here.)
Eleven award-winning queer authors come together to spin tales of murder, horror, and suspense all during a Valentine’s Day you won’t soon forget!
From the Introduction by Michael Nava, celebrated author of the Henry Rios mysteries:
The stories in Cupid Shot Me fall somewhere between the classic Richard Rodgers tune “My Funny Valentine” and the gangland Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. You’ll find bushels of red roses but some may be lethal, and watch what you eat at that romantic dinner because that exquisite morsel on your fork may be poisoned. You’ll definitely want the bomb squad to inspect that enormous box of chocolates before you open it.
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Enter to Win One of 5 Paperback Editions of ‘Cupid Shot Me’ Mystery Anthology (Ends March 1)
Enter to win one of 5 paperback editions of the just-released ‘Cupid Shot Me: Valentine Tales of Love, Mystery & Suspense (A Queer Mystery Anthology Book 1).’ The anthology includes my own ‘Paper Hearts: A Marshall James Thriller.’ Winners will be selected and notified March 1! Only ships within the U.S.
About ‘Paper Hearts’
It’s now or never, as Marshall decides to search for the love of his life thirty years after he’d been told they were finished forever. Mac McElroy was an LAPD homicide detective back when Marshall lived in Hollywood and trouble came calling for him once, twice, three times over. The third time was not the charm: it nearly got Marshall killed, and it put their love on ice for the next three decades. Will he find Mac? Is Mac even still alive? And exactly what happened that Valentine’s Day, 1992, when it all came crashing down? Find out in ‘Paper Hearts.’
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Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast #35: 6 Chapter Sample of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery,’ Narrated by Holly Palance
Welcome to the first Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast of 2022! I’m finishing up the second mystery in the Maggie Dahl series, ‘Open Secrets,’ and should have that out by the spring. In the meantime, enjoy a 6 chapter audiobook sample of the first book. ‘Black Cat White Paws‘ was narrated by the fabulous Holly Palance, and if I decide to do an audiobook of the new one, she’s the only choice for it. You can hear my interview with Holly on the One Thing or Another podcast HERE.
In Black Cat White Paws, recently widowed Maggie Dahl finds herself faced with challenges on all fronts: life alone in a new town, running a business she and her husband had dreamed of and started together, and now pursuing a killer. Her sister, Gerri, moves from Philadelphia to Lambertville, New Jersey, to support her sister and start a new life of her own. Together, the women search for a murderer, helped in critical ways by their neighbor’s cat. A black cat with white paws. A cat whose independence sets it all in motion and sees it through to the end.
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The Twist Podcast #183: Pence Pulls the Pin, Active Shooter Highlights, Super Bowl Funday, and the Week in Headlines
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we give props to former VP Pence, weigh in on the new workplace norm (look! it’s an active shooter!), dish up the Super Bowl, and scan the headlines. Twist Top picks and our listicles, too!
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2021 MadeMark Publishing
Join Mark’s email list for updates, podcasts, giveaways, and his monthly newsletter! Reach us at: TheTwist @ TheTwistPodcast.com
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The Weekly Readlines Februrary 9
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning. Browse the archives here. And coming this spring: an audio edition of the Readlines!
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: Queen Elizabeth II celebrated 70 years on the throne!
Mike Pence said Trump was wrong to claim the VP can overturn an election (cue vicious attacks). And the national Republican Party declared beating Capitol police with flag poles and smearing excrement on the Senate walls is ‘legitimate political discourse.’ What a world!
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Restaurant Review: 5 Unbeatable Yums at Ferry + Main (New Hope, PA)
By Mark McNease
Shared from LGBTSr.com. Restaurant reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 meaning put it on your must list, 1 meaning eat at your peril.Ferry + Main
10 W. Ferry Street
New Hope, PA 18939
Website: www.loganinn.com/
Tel: (215) 862-2300
Spend Meter: $$$$
Yums: 5+ (food and service)Some food is so good it’s criminal, and that’s what you’ll be treated to at Ferry + Main, the restaurant inside New Hope’s renovated Logan Inn. The Inn was undergoing upgrades for several years as it was transformed from a well-known local inn to a luxury establishment where everything is meant to impress, and does. The decor, the staff, the atmosphere, and, yes, the prices: the Logan Inn is one of those places where you get what you pay for, in the best ways.
The restaurant is all wood and brick, with arched ceilings and a large working fireplace in one of the two main seating areas. The first time we went there, for Thanksgiving, the place was packed and we were seated in a raised area away from the thick of things. That was better for us, since the acoustics in this restaurant amplify the noise. There’s nothing to absorb sound, so if you’re seated near the kitchen and fireplace, be prepared for the echo of voices bouncing off the ceiling and walls. There’s also a popular bar in the space, which adds to the volume as well as to the ambience. Is that a criticism? Not really. Having lived in New York City for twenty-five years, I’m familiar with loud restaurants. But if they’re offering tables away from the main activity, take one.
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The Weekly Readlines February 2
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning. Browse the archives here.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement. President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to nominating the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, while conservatives began their smear campaign and accusations of quota-filling (having apparently never heard of Thurgood Marshall’s replacement).
Texas indulged its inner fire starter and began pulling LGBTQ and race-related book titles from school shelves in record numbers. Florida, neck-and-neck in the race to erase, readied a bill to prohibit schools and private corporations from telling White snowflakes that they may not be the most special people ever. So discomforting!
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Release Day Has Arrived! Love is a Mystery 11 Times Over in New Anthology, ‘Cupid Shot Me: Valentine Tales of Love, Mystery & Suspense’
Nothing says ‘I love you’ quite like murder! Prepare for a bloody Valentine’s Day with a heart stopping new collection of LGBTQ mysteries, thrillers and suspense short stories – mine included! With an introduction by iconic gay mystery author Michael Nava, and including eleven top-notch short stories from some of the best writers in the genre, ‘Cupid Shot Me: Valentine Tales of Love, Mystery & Suspense’ will keep you on the edge of your seat with each journey into love and homicide. NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON and at select locations listed below.
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On Dreamshaping: An Inside Job
Mark McNease
It’s not the thing the emotion attaches to, it’s the emotion.
It’s not the person or event the anger attaches to, it’s the anger.
It’s not the thoughts around which the confusion swirls, it’s the confusion itself.When I’m consumed by an emotion, even something as simple as anger aimed at another driver on the road, it’s the emotion that generates my state of mind, not the other driver. So many people have a need be angry, or even enraged, without ever comprehending that the object of their rage is not the issue: it is the rage, and the need for it, that lies at the heart of the experience.