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Q Audiobooks: Conflict of Interest (Portland Police Bureau Series, Book 1), by Jae, Narrated by Abby Craden
This week’s Q Audiobooks pick sticks with one of my favorite genres. Written by prolific lesbian romance author Jae, it features a workaholic detective (is there any other kind?) who falls for a psychologist. Will circumstances keep them apart, or can they overcome the obstacles, including crime? Fasten your headphones and find out for yourself in Conflict of Interest.
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Two (Count ‘Em, 2!) Kindle eBook Giveaways: Reservation for Murder, and Beautiful Corpse
It’s no mystery I love offering complimentary eBooks from time to time, and April provides a great opportunity to spring into action with two free eBooks for five days. The following titles are available as Kindle giveaways from April 27 – May 1. Just click each title and and enjoy!
Reservation for Murder: A Kyle Callahan Mystery
It’s been several years since Kyle Callahan sought the help of a New York City therapist to overcome the trauma of his encounter with a serial killer, and just as long since his investigation into a teenage girl’s murder brought down the Manhattan District Attorney. He and his husband Danny Durban have decided to move away, to start a new life in the idyllic river city of Lambertville, New Jersey. They have friends there. They’ll have peace and quiet. They can leave the hustle and bustle and stresses of America’s biggest metropolis behind.
They open a bed and breakfast, and soon discover that murder and mayhem are waiting to check in. There’s a writers conference in town, with big names and big egos heading for a clash—and a killing—of titans. No sooner has the ink dried on the guest registry than Kyle finds himself pursuing another murderer, this one closer to home than they’ve ever come. He enlists the help of his old friend and local resident Linda Sikorsky, once a detective on the New Hope, Pennsylvania, police force. The two of them follow one lead after another in a race against time until the shocking truth is exposed.
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LGBTSr Celebrates 10 Years with a Comeback!
Yes, it’s been a decade. I was a mere 52, contemplating whatever years immediately precede the golden ones, when I decided to launch a website dedicated to the over-50 LGBTQ audience. Not only have I left my 50s behind, but we officially added the ‘Q’ as our umbrella gets bigger and more inclusive.
With a couple of extended vacations from LGBTSr.com, I’ve been doing this site for a decade. I’m collecting Social Security now. I’m a year from retiring from full time work (I will almost certainly work part time after that, but not in my current position). And I’ve written and published 10 novels of the mystery and thriller varieties
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LGBTSr Celebrates 10 Years with a Comeback!
Yes, it’s been a decade. I was a mere 52, contemplating whatever years immediately precede the golden ones, when I decided to launch a website dedicated to the over-50 LGBTQ audience. Not only have I left my 50s behind, but we officially added the ‘Q’ as our umbrella gets bigger and more inclusive.
With a couple of extended vacations from LGBTSr.com, I’ve been doing this site for a decade. I’m collecting Social Security now. I’m a year from retiring from full time work (I will almost certainly work part time after that, but not in my current position). And I’ve written and published 10 novels of the mystery and thriller varieties
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On Dreamshaping: Groove Is In the Mind
Mark McNease
On Dreamshaping is a weekly blog about shaping the dreams we live.
Remember that song by Deee-Lite, Groove Is In the Heart? It popped into my head when I was thinking about this blog post. The difference is that the song is very upbeat and infectious, but what I’m writing about is the opposite – or it’s infectious in a bad way.
I’m talking about the grooves we create, deepen, and tread in our minds. The mental repetitions that make up much of our daily thinking. So much that it’s hard to really call it thinking. When I’m walking around half-conscious, repeating the same threads of conversation to myself, the same angers, frustrations, and stuckness, can it be said that I’m thinking at all? This is a trap, a series of grooves, that my mind sinks into with alarming frequency.
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Restaurant Review: The Black Bass Hotel, 5 Yums with a River View
Reprinted from LGBTSr.com
By Mark McNease
Restaurant reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 meaning put it on your must list, 1 meaning avoid at all costs.The Black Bass Hotel
3774 River Road
Lumberville, PA 18933
(215) 297-9260
Website: blackbasshotel.com
Spend Meter: $$$$
Service: Excellent
Now that we and our friends have all been fully vaccinated, it’s time to get out there and enjoy each other’s company again. What better way to do that than with a fine meal in a fine restaurant?
My husband Frank and I have been getting takeout on Sundays for many months. It’s the end of my work week (Thursday through Sunday), and I’ve been determined not to cook, clean, or otherwise tax myself after putting in four days at the job. Once the pandemic started a year ago we followed all the precautions and restrictions, and with a few exceptions for outside dining last fall, we’ve been taking it easy with takeout.
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One Thing or Another: Are We There Yet?
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another… a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
“Who was that masked man?”
– The Lone Ranger
I’ve learned the past year that it’s possible to forget what someone looks like without a mask, as well as to marvel at the face of someone I’ve never seen without one. In the grocery store where I work four days a week, masks have been omnipresent for over a year now, especially among those of use who work there, euphemistically called ‘associates.’
I wear a mask because I’m required to, and because I care about my community, my family, and bringing this all to some kind of end. But I don’t like it. In this case, ‘hate’ is not too strong a work. My glasses fog up. I breathe my own spittle. And I often wonder, as we enter the post-vaccination stage, how long we’ll have to keep wearing them, and how much of it is requirement and how much is conditioning. I imagine we’ll find out as states begin to eliminate mask mandates and companies follow suit. I will add, with emphasis, that not getting the flu last year was a big plus. Masks are uncomfortable and often annoying, but they have helped us minimize our contagious disease transmission to an amazing level.
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Restaurant Review: The Black Bass Hotel, 5 Yums with a River View
By Mark McNease
Restaurant reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 meaning put it on your must list, 1 meaning avoid at all costs.The Black Bass Hotel
3774 River Road
Lumberville, PA 18933
(215) 297-9260
Website: blackbasshotel.com
Spend Meter: $$$$
Service: ExcellentNow that we and our friends have all been fully vaccinated, it’s time to get out there and enjoy each other’s company again. What better way to do that than with a fine meal in a fine restaurant?
My husband Frank and I have been getting takeout on Sundays for many months. It’s the end of my work week (Thursday through Sunday), and I’ve been determined not to cook, clean, or otherwise tax myself after putting in four days at the job. Once the pandemic started a year ago we followed all the precautions and restrictions, and with a few exceptions for outside dining last fall, we’ve been taking it easy with takeout.
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Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail: How to Write a Book
Photo by Sue Hardesty The following is reposted from LGBTSr.com.
By Lee Lynch
The Amazon Trail: How to Write a BookI’m not giving away any secrets here. Not saying it’s simple or that anyone can do it if they send $25.00 to Post Office Box 1,2,3. Nope, it’s a personal journey and every story has a story. Here’s mine, about the writing of my newly released novel, Accidental Desperados.
This goes back to about 2007. I was living on the Oregon Coast, grateful to be renting a cottage on the property of the Pianist and the Handydyke. I was, and am, part of their lesbian family. I thought about that a lot, how gay people grow families of choice whose members nurture one another in minimal to large ways. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool, maybe even important, to write a multi-volume, intergenerational, lesbian family saga.
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Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail: How to Write a Book
Photo by Sue Hardesty By Lee Lynch
The Amazon Trail: How to Write a BookI’m not giving away any secrets here. Not saying it’s simple or that anyone can do it if they send $25.00 to Post Office Box 1,2,3. Nope, it’s a personal journey and every story has a story. Here’s mine, about the writing of my newly released novel, Accidental Desperados.
This goes back to about 2007. I was living on the Oregon Coast, grateful to be renting a cottage on the property of the Pianist and the Handydyke. I was, and am, part of their lesbian family. I thought about that a lot, how gay people grow families of choice whose members nurture one another in minimal to large ways. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool, maybe even important, to write a multi-volume, intergenerational, lesbian family saga.
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Dave Hughes: The New Normal – Time for a Retirement Reset
This article first appeared at RetireFabulously.com. Reprinted with permission.
Dave Hughes Dave Hughes
RetireFabulously.comThe New Normal: Time for a Retirement Reset
As of April 19, about 40% of the people in the United States have received at least one vaccine shot and many of us in the older age brackets have received both. The pandemic isn’t over by any means, and it will continue to be a factor in our lives for many months to come, but there’s good reason for hope.
Like many people across the nation and around the world, you are probably eagerly anticipating a return to some form of normalcy. But what will this “new normal” look like?
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Book Review: The Son of Mr. Suleman, by Eric Jerome Dickey
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Son of Mr. Suleman” by Eric Jerome Dickey
c.2021, Dutton $27.00 / $36.00 Canada 560 pagesThe sins of the father shall be visited upon the son.
That’s what’s said, that a son pay for his father’s misdeeds, but maybe the old man didn’t intend to leave a negative legacy. Maybe he tried his best, but something went wrong. Maybe, as in the new novel “The Son of Mr. Suleman” by Eric Jerome Dickey, Pops meant well.
Adjunct Professor Pi Suleman didn’t want to be at his employer’s event. He had better things to do, better places to be than a room at UAN, but his boss, the white woman who hired him, the wife of a powerful judge, demanded that he be there or else.
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Q Audiobooks: Michael Craft’s Mark Manning Mysteries (1 through 3), Narrated by David Phillips
Longtime fans of gay mysteries know the name Michael Craft very well. His Mark Manning Mysteries are among the most successful and beloved in the genre, and he’s recently begun offering them as an audiobook series. Fasten your headphones and settle in for gripping good listening as narrator David Phillips brings Mark Manning, the characters, and these finely crafted stories to life. Click to enjoy samples and purchase on Audible.
You can hear my interview with the author on the One Thing or Another Podcast HERE.
Author Michael Craft Michael Craft is the author of 15 published novels, including the highly acclaimed Mark Manning mystery series, three installments of which were honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. His latest title, “FlabberGassed: A Mister Puss Mystery,” marks his return to the gay-mystery genre — with a decidedly quirky twist. Craft grew up in Illinois and spent his middle years in Wisconsin, which inspired the fictitious small-town setting of his new book. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and now resides in Rancho Mirage, California. In 2017, Michael Craft’s professional archives were acquired by the Special Collections Department of the Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside. Visit the author’s website at www.michaelcraft.com.
About the Mark Manning Series (from Book 1)
A masterpiece of mystery and suspense, this is the moving story of a man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality
Investigative journalist Mark Manning is on the trail of a story that could make his career. Airline heiress Helena Carter, who vanished seven years ago, is about to be declared legally dead. Her fortune, valued at over one hundred million dollars, will go to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and the Federated Cat Clubs of America. Manning is the only one who believes that the missing Chicago socialite is still alive. And he’s just been given an ultimatum by his publisher: Prove it, or he’s history. Determined to keep his job—and hoping to secure the five-hundred-thousand-dollar reward from Carter’s estate, as well as the coveted Partridge Prize for investigative journalism—Manning enters a world of religious fanatics who could turn back the clock on gay rights. At the same time, Manning grapples with his own sexuality as he falls in love for the first time—with the man of his dreams. Flight Dreams is the first book in Michael Craft’s Mark Manning series, which continues with Eye Contact and Body Language.
Q Audiobooks features audiobooks for the LGBTQ listener. Hearing is believing …
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