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One Thing or Another: Auld Lang Anxiety (So Long 2016)
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNease/EditorI’ve witnessed the end of a few years in my time, but seldom have I welcomed their passing as much as I welcome the final days of 2016. It has been both a year to remember and a year to forget, the way one allows painful memories to fade. While I wouldn’t trade the year for, say, a wrinkle in time that caused me to jump from 2015 to 2017, I can say without hesitation it’s been a year of cataclysm, change, overwhelming emotion, and degrees of stress I hope to never experience again.
I could write about job loss for the year, the death of one pet and health scare for another. I could write about getting shingles that still itch. I could write about an entire year consumed by political news that went from the entertaining to the grotesque, to the utterly heartbreaking. And that would be just the beginning.
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One Thing or Another: Shingle Bells
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNeaseI don’t know what’s more excruciating, living through shingles or attempting to write a humor column about them. But since I consider laughter a true medicine, and a sense of humor vital to surviving this life, I’ll do my best to smile through the pain.
It seems appropriate to end my Year of Living Stressfully with a case of something we’re led to believe only strikes people over the age of 60. I celebrated my 58th birthday in October, so while I’m not that far from the mile marker beyond which shingles waits for one in every three of us, I still thought I was safe for a few more years. I obviously have not had the vaccine I see commercials for every hour or so (do our television sets know what products to market to us yet, the way websites do?). I also couldn’t tell you until now that I’d had chickenpox as a child. I don’t remember my childhood diseases, only its discomforts, which were many.
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One Thing or Another: Heaven’s Diner
[clickToTweet tweet=”One Thing or Another editor’s column: Heaven’s Diner. ” quote=”I wonder how different the world would be if we met in diners instead of on Facebook or through apps designed for brief encounters.”]It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
Mark McNeaseI recently read an article about New York City’s disappearing diner culture. The writer lamented the loss of a sense of community diners gave the city over many decades, falling victim now to ever-rising rents and changing tastes. (The concept of community that takes place outside a smartphone is apparently strange and foreign to many people today.)
This, one day after ending a visit to relatives by having breakfast in a Richmond, Virginia, diner. When we walked into the place I immediately looked around at the colors inside. The exterior, in black and red, had told me I could expect something exceptionally diner-ish. The booths were red and black, the tables yellow. The two waitresses were distinctly post-punk, with tattoos and neon hair. The crowd, as is usually the case in diners, consisted of people who knew each other from years of eating there. Only first names were necessary, if names were needed at all. And each of them – men, women and children – looked as if they’d enjoyed lives filled with grits and hash browns, without a single kale salad from cradle to grave. My kind of people.
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One Thing or Another: Country Mice
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNease
It’s the morning of the time change, that twice-yearly, incomprehensible turning of the clocks by an hour. We’re told, as if it’s an extra treat for puppies, that we’ll have “another hour to sleep.” This is ridiculous, since most of us inhabit bodies, not clocks, and rather than sleep another hour (something I would relish) we just wake up sooner. So here I am an hour earlier than I would have been yesterday, sitting at my living room desk in the true darkness of the countryside, listening to the few sounds a small, old house in the woods has to offer this time of morning. It’s a house I’ll soon be moving to with my husband and two cats. A house I’ve loved for ten years but only experienced as a weekend getaway. That’s all about to change.
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6 Questions for Author Michael Nava
Michael Nava By Mark McNease
As a mystery writer myself, it shouldn’t be surprising I jumped at the chance to interview Michael Nava, an icon in the genre. His seminal Henry Rios series was heralded as the gold standard when the books came out, beginning with The Little Death in 1986.
In communicating with Michael for this interview, I discovered we were both in Los Angeles during the same time period, and both considered queer bookstore A Different Light (Silver Lake location) central to our writing and reading lives. This December we’ll see the release of Lay Your Sleeping Head, from Kórima Press (now available for pre-order), a reimagined and substantially rewritten version of that first book. I had the great pleasure of reading an advance copy, and was struck on the first page by its literary strength, its meticulous, rich detail and the aching humanity of its characters, as well as its finely crafted plot. Nava, as was declared of him in the New York Times, was, and is, “one of the best.” I’m delighted to share his answers to ‘6 Questions’. (And for all you audiobook fans, check out his Henry Rios series on Audible.)
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One Thing or Another: The Joys of Being an Almost Halloween Baby
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.By Mark McNease
It’s that time of year again when all the world celebrates a birth like no other … mine! What’s that saying? ‘60 is the new 55.’
October has always been my favorite month. It’s the month when autumn really makes itself felt, especially if you live where the seasons are discernible. (It recently went from air conditioner weather at the tail end of a relentlessly hot summer, to a sudden and unexpected freeze with a 30-degree drop). It’s flu season, which is always good for a sick day or two spent lying on the couch taking over-the-counter cold remedies that do nothing to stop you from feeling like death is near. Honey, is the healthcare directive in place? You’re sure you’ve still got your copy? And, How about the will? Can I change it by tomorrow? My sister forgot my birthday, I’m not sure she deserves the belt buckles.
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One Thing or Another: Electile Dysfunction
[clickToTweet tweet=”Set for another disheartening, demoralizing “debate” in which both sides will declare victory and everyone loses.” quote=”Yet another disheartening, discouraging, demoralizing “debate” in which both sides will declare victory and everyone loses.”]
By Mark McNeaseIt’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
I’ve always been able to identify the lowest points of my life by an inability to find anything funny. My sense of humor is a remarkably reliable barometer with which to gauge my well-being: The less I’m able to laugh at myself and the world around me, the more I’m in need of immediate therapy. Someone needs to talk me off my ledge of despondency. In those dark times I neither smile nor appreciate the smiles of others. I find them grating, in fact, and may even want to wipe them from people’s faces, gently. But then it passes; the clouds reveal a sun that has always been behind them. I appreciate the phenomenon of consciousness again, and find myself engaged in a world that is generally as marvelous as it is overwhelming.
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One Thing or Another: Falling for Autumn
By Mark McNeaseIt’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
I’ll admit it, I’m a fall guy. We’ve just endured what I and millions like me believe must have been the hottest, longest, muggiest summer on record. Aren’t they all?
I don’t just dislike summer; I don’t just find it uncomfortable, unsettling and unending. I hate it. Even knowing it would shorten my life by 25 percent, I would gladly get from birth to death without suffering a single July. (The only exception was childhood, when summer was my annual escape from the dullness of compulsory education, sadistic teachers and, to paraphrase Sartre, the hell of other children.)
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6 Questions for Audiobook Narrator Daniela Acitelli
Daniela Acitelli By Mark McNease
I recently had the pleasure of working with audiobook narrator and voiceover artist Daniela Acitelli on my book Death in the Headlights. Daniela was my first and immediate choice, with a voice as rich and clear as her personality is engaging. We’ve since become friends, and she’s been kind enough to give me a glimpse into the life of a professional book narrator. A Californian now living in London, Daniela follows her passions and inspires others to do the same. Enjoy her answers to ‘6 Questions’ below.
You can see Daniela’s website here, and find her many audiobooks here.
MM: You’re an expat living in London, originally from California. Why London, and how did that come about?
DA: I moved for love… well almost. I grew up with a father from Italy and a mother from America travelling back and forth so as a little girl I always assumed I’d move to some exotic country. London had everything and appealed to the ‘city girl’ in me. I’m married to a Glaswegian. I’m working on convincing him to move to Glasgow someday.
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One Thing or Another: Drug Ads You Can Dance To
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
It’s early morning (or late night, take your pick, Big Pharma never sleeps). You’re distracted by a text message from your third best friend on her vacation in Florida. You’re thinking through an especially clever but short reply suitable for tweeting, when suddenly you hear music that demands you get up and dance! You’re still in bed. The morning news plays in the background, something about a salmonella outbreak in Des Moines, when they cut to commercial and that irresistible music begins. Your feet start twitching, first barely, then with a pronounced rhythm in sync with the song you’re hearing. You look up at the TV. You realize it’s not a song after all, but a jingle, those can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head hooks designed for the sole purpose of getting you to buy something just to make it stop.
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6 Questions for Author Ann Aptaker
Ann Aptaker By Mark McNease
Whether you’re new to LGBT mysteries or a longtime fan, the name Ann Aptaker should by now be a familiar one. Author of the Cantor Gold series, Ann recently had the distinction of being the first author to with both the Lambda Literary Award (tied with Victoria Brownworth) and the Golden Crown Society Award for best mystery for the same book.
Considering that winning book, Tarnished Gold, was only the second in the series, you can plan on seeing many more featuring the irrepressible Cantor Gold. Thanks to Ann for taking the time to answer ‘6 Questions,’ offering an inside look at her life and writing.
Read more about Ann below, following the interview.
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One Thing or Another: Midlife Waist Land
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
Whether or not you think 57 still counts as midlife (who doesn’t anticipate celebrating their 114th birthday wheezing out a single candle on a ShopRite cake, flanked by an anxious home health aide and an impatient funeral director), the fact remains that age and width are proportionate for most of us. Not all of us, of course. There are those among us who insist they’re only as old as they feel, despite sharp disagreement from titanium hips and birth certificates. You know who you are: you swear by kale smoothies, you’ve never met an elliptical you didn’t want to mount, and you start each day by posting life-affirming platitudes on Facebook.
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6 Questions for Author Michael Craft
Author Michael Craft By Mark McNease
I had the pleasure of reading a short story author Michael Craft submitted for an anthology I was co-editing a couple years ago. The story, “Frog Legs”, was an immediate yes, and among the best stories in that collection. As it turns out, it was also the first story in his new book, Inside Dumont, a novel-in-stories that centers on characters in Dumont, Wisconsin, and begins with architect Marson Miles falling in love with his nephew over a dinner that includes frog legs.
With advance praise from Patricia Nell Warren and Michael Nava, Inside Dumont presents the story of Marson Miles in his later life from a variety of viewpoints. Each story connects to the others to make a striking, organic whole. It’s a great pleasure to finally have a chance to ask Michael ‘6 Questions,’ and share his wonderfully detailed answers. Read more about Michael after the interview.