It’s hard to overstate how wonderful it is to be able to share Jean Ryan’s amazing essay collection Strange Company in both paperback and audiobook. Some people are writers, some are artists, and Jean is that rare author who is both. Her award-nominated fiction sears the heart and jolts the mind, and her essays are constructed with the excruciating detail of a master.

Of her Lambda Literary Award finalist short story collection Survival Skills, Publishers Weekly said: “Ryan controls devastating psychological material with tight prose, quick scene changes, and a scientist’s observant eye.”

And from the Los Angeles Review: “With her debut collection Survival Skills, Jean Ryan brings to the short story what Mary Oliver does to poetry.”

Okay, I heard you. Whatever happened to lgbtSr! Well, here it is. But there are some obvious changes. I can’t keep up a website the way I did for six years and still be an author, a publisher, an editor, a husband, and have that pesky thing called a job. Last year I was hit with a bad case of shingles at the age of 58 and realized I had to take better care of myself.

By Rod Hensel
The Gayging Advocate

It has been hard to watch the news lately without dismay over the antics of our new president, who keeps himself the top story of the day — every day. So it is not surprising that almost every media outlet completely overlooked the Obama administration’s final gift to the community of LGBT seniors.

I could not be prouder to announce the first book for 2017 from MadeMark Publishing is the re-issue of Jean Ryan’s Lost Sister. Jean’s writing has received a Lambda Literary finalist nod (for her short story collection Survival Skills). She’s also been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize.

Praise for her collection Survival Skills—

Publishers Weekly: “Ryan controls devastating psychological material with tight prose, quick scene changes, and a scientist’s observant eye.”

By Cathy McNease, Herbalist

I have just taken a remarkable journey towards well being. What appeared impossible a short time ago, became a stepping stone to awakening. This journey began 5 years ago when I hurt my hip while gardening. The pain was so bad at the beginning, that I thought death would be a better choice. I wrote a will, put my home in a trust, and picked out my method of death for when the pain became unbearable. I spent every penny of my savings trying to “fix” my hip, short of surgery, with nothing helping the increasingly intense nerve pain from butt to foot. Enduring pain became my stance in life. Then, as hopelessness increased, the Tibetan Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron, and her beautiful words, got inside my head and changed me. Actually, she changed my relationship with pain. She taught me that facing pain is the way through it, and provided meditation tools to do just that. My journey towards choosing life had begun. Meanwhile, my hip continued to degenerate to the point of constant pain that could be measured 10 out of a scale of 10. Yet, death was no longer on my radar as a solution.

Well, the time finally came to move on to my other projects, especially the mysteries, podcast, and that pesky thing called making a living. Here’s a farewell email I sent to subscribers of lgbtSr.org …

Dear email subscribers: It’s been almost six years since I launched lgbtSr.org. As with all things, this too is passing. This is the final email I’ll be sending to subscribers to the site. All previous posts remain online, while the domain itself now points to a page at my personal website, MarkMcNease.com

Folks, it’s been almost six years since I launched the lgbtSr website. I’ll be posting very lightly here for the foreseeable future, any new columns or contributor’s articles that come in. It’s a time management issue. But our Facebook page, with over 4,100 fans, remains alive and active.

You can keep up with my personal life at MarkMcNease.com, and enjoy our weekly Twist Podcast, co-hosted with Rick Rose, at TheTwistPodcast.com.

Hang in there! It’s going to be a bumpy ride with the new administration coming in. All hands on deck!

Mark McNease/Editor

By Lee Lynch

As an adult, I’ve had no interest in children’s books. I left them behind half a century ago. Or did I?

Chicken Little, for example, has been a powerful influence in my life. I was a nervous child—that hasn’t changed—and the Little Golden Book didn’t help. First my mother read it to me, then I read and re-read it on my own. I didn’t have many books then, which might help to explain why visitors never see walls in the home my sweetheart and I share. The walls are covered by bookcases.