• Columns,  Savvy Senior

    The Savvy Senior: What’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia?

    By Jim Miller

    Dear Savvy Senior, What’s the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia? My aunt has dementia, but they don’t know if she has Alzheimer’s disease, which is very confusing to me.

    Trying To Understand

    Dear Trying,

    Many people use the words “Alzheimer’s disease” and “dementia” interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. In fact, you can have a form of dementia that is completely unrelated to Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s what you should know.

  • Columns,  Grace Anne Stevens

    Grace Anne Stevens: My Transgender Life – Hi! I’m the Bride’s Dad

    Grace Anne Stevens

    By Grace Anne Stevens

    It all seemed to be happening so quickly.  It was only about a year ago, that my oldest son told me that my daughter, Stella, had visited him with her new boyfriend, Rob.

    This was a first-time event for the family, that has already worked through not only the split up of their parents in 2001 and my own transition in 2011.  Given that Stella is 38, and we had not experienced this with her before, none of us was quite sure what to make of it.

    I got to meet Rob last summer and was pleasantly surprised last Thanksgiving when this kind of old school young fella, started asking everyone in the family – one at a time, and secretly – that he was “thinking about marrying her, and was seeking permission from each of us.”    Do people actually do this anymore?

  • The Twist Podcast

    The Twist Podcast #70: Calling Dolly Parton, Baby Jails, Miss America Meltdown, and Our Secret Agent President


    Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, consider who we’d like to play us, America’s newest baby jails, the great Miss America meltdown, and Trump’s KGB handler comes to the White House.

    Enjoy The Twist on LibsyniTunesSoundCloud, Stitcher, YouTube, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.

    Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing

  • New

    The Twist Podcast #70: Calling Dolly Parton, Baby Jails, Miss America Meltdown, and Our Secret Agent President


    Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, consider who we’d like to play us, America’s newest baby jails, the great Miss America meltdown, and Trump’s KGB handler comes to the White House.

    Enjoy The Twist on LibsyniTunesSoundCloud, Stitcher, YouTube, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.

    Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing

  • Latest

    It’s a Killer Deal: 7 Mysteries and a Book Bub Featured Deal July 8, 9, 10



    My latest mystery, Murder at the Paisley Parrot, is running as a Book Bub Featured Deal July 8, 9, 10. Included in the 3-day deal will be all 7 mysteries and thrillers at just .99 cents! Enjoy Murder at Pride Lodge, Pride and Perilous, Death by Pride, Kill Switch, Death in the Headlights, and Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge – all books sure to chill you at the beach this summer.

    About Murder at the Paisley Parrot

    Time waits for no one, including Marshall James. Now 58 and living in New York City, Marshall has outlived the expiration date he was given with a cancer diagnosis three years ago. He beat the odds but he knows he may not beat the clock. So he’s decided to tell a story or three about some murders he was involved in back in the day.

    The year was 1983. The bar was the Paisley Parrot in Hollywood, a gay, mob-run dive where people came to drink and few of them remembered the night before. Marshall loves his job as a bartender there. But one night, among the regulars, a killer arrives. Body by body, death by death, Marshall finds himself pulled into a web of murder, deceit and crime, with a psychopath waiting at the center of it all. Marshall falls for the cop who’s investigating him, not knowing if their relationship will survive or even if he’ll come out of this alive. Find out before last call comes around, in Murder at the Paisley Parrot.

  • Book Reviews,  Columns

    Book Review: Tin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman

    By Terri Schlichenmeyer
    The Bookworm Sez

    Tin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
    c.2018, Putnam
    $23.00 hardcover / $22.95 paperback Canada

    The picture reminds you of a thousand things.

    You recall the day it was taken: the smell of the air, the background sounds, food and drink, laughter and the sense that this was forever. You’ve seen that photo many times throughout the years, but it never fails to remind you of the best of times. Or, as in the new book “Tin Man” by Sarah Winman, it may represent the worst.

  • Columns,  Savvy Senior

    The Savvy Senior: Simple Gadgets That Can Help Older Drivers


    By Jim Miller

    Dear Savvy Senior,

    Are there any specific auto gadgets you can recommend that can help senior drivers? Both of my parents are in there eighties and still pretty good drivers, but due to arthritis and age they’re very stiff, which causes them some driving problems.

    Researching Daughter

    Dear Researching,

    To help keep senior drivers safe and prolong their driving years, there’s a plethora of inexpensive, aftermarket vehicle adaptions you can purchase that can easily be added to your parent’s vehicles to help with many different needs. Here are some good options.

  • Latest,  Maggie Dahl Mysteries

    The Reviews Begin: ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Off to a 5-Star Start

    Being an author is like being a baker hoping and waiting for the cake to rise, unsure it will. I finished ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ not knowing how it would be received, or if it would connect with the audience I wanted to reach – women, readers ‘of a certain age’ (men and women), and fans of mysteries set in small towns, with a strong woman sleuth. Could I do it? It appears I have!

    I know not to get too excited about these things and I know no book is universally liked, but the first 8 reviews are all 5-star, and it’s enough to make me certain this will be a series.

    Here’s just one review, from an author I regard highly and who would not be less than honest in his appraisal:

    “The new Maggie Dahl mystery series from Mark McNease has it all: An intrepid and tenacious amateur sleuth. A small-town setting that makes you feel right at home. A gruesome crime with dreadful secrets at its core. Plus, a pushy feline named Checks. The author has woven a masterful whodunit that kept me guessing until Maggie reached her “aha” moment. Honest, I didn’t have a clue.”

    Michael Craft, author of Inside Dumont and The Mark Manning Mysteries

    And so begins the note taking for Book 2: Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery. Coming to a coroner’s office near you in 2019.

  • Latest

    It’s a Mega Goodreads Giveaway! 100 (Yes, 100) Kindle Copies of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Available

    Goodreads Book Giveaway

    Black Cat White Paws by Mark McNease

    Black Cat White Paws

    by Mark McNease

    Giveaway ends July 10, 2018.

    See the giveaway details
    at Goodreads.

    Enter Giveaway

    Enter from now through July 10 for a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions of “Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery.” Prefer to purchase it outright? It’s just $1.99 through July (regular $3.99). The reviews are trickling in and it’s set to be a crowd pleaser.

     

  • Latest

    It’s a Mega Goodreads Giveaway! 100 (Yes, 100) Kindle Copies of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Available

    Goodreads Book Giveaway

    Black Cat White Paws by Mark McNease

    Black Cat White Paws

    by Mark McNease

    Giveaway ends July 10, 2018.

    See the giveaway details
    at Goodreads.

    Enter Giveaway

    Enter from now through July 10 for a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions of “Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery.” Prefer to purchase it outright? It’s just $1.99 through July (regular $3.99). The reviews are trickling in and it’s set to be a crowd pleaser.

     

  • Columns,  Stephanie Mott

    Stephanie Mott: Good Tidings of Great Joy

    Stephanie Mott

    By Stephanie Mott

    “A great many of us, myself most definitely included, have placed our faith into battle after battle where we have tried anything but love.”

    The 10th Verse of the 2nd Chapter of the Gospel of Luke says, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

    However, the United States is currently on a runaway train, racing toward an increasing inevitable crash in a place that is more like frightening senselessness and imminent pain. This, of course, for all people who have historically been marginalized and oppressed (and murdered, and enslaved, and incarcerated, and separated from their children, and turned away from the table).

    So, whatever happened to good tidings and great joy?