I wondered who was buying all those books! How exciting is this? I’m ending the year at #1.

I’m releasing two chapters a week, every Wednesday and Saturday. You can now read Chapter 3 of my Kindle Vella serial, ‘I, Warlock.’ Be sure to follow the story and give it a ‘thumbs up’ when you’ve read the chapters. Every little like counts!

For a taste, here’s how Julius Tide reacts the first time he meets Charlotte Blythe, whose destiny will quickly become his own:

“With barely a few feet separating us, I was face to face with the most stunning woman I had ever seen. Everything else we said that afternoon, up to and including, “Thank you,” for her purchase, as I gave her change with a trembling hand, is lost to me. It’s as if I said nothing more at all, consumed by the effort it took not to stare at her.

Charlotte Blythe was twenty-three years old at the time. Had she lived to be a hundred, she would have remained as beautiful. Her hair was a buttery blonde, tumbling in waves over her shoulders. Her skin was so perfect it seemed manufactured from another world, a world where there were no flaws or imperfections. Her eyes were the green of precious emeralds. And her smile, which she offered often and without prompting, was the source of all joy.”

READ IT ALL!

In the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover and ruination of Twitter, and his decision to allow the free flow of misinformation and hate speech, millions of users are looking for alternatives. The one I’ve settled on is called Mastodon. Not only does it have a cute cartoon Mastodon logo, it’s a good opportunity to start over. Gone are the thousands of random Twitter follows and followers. I’m finding like-minded people, politically and creatively, to add to a much smaller and engaged list.

It’s not for everyone, and there are other options out there, but I’m liking it. It’s not a single, for-profit company. It’s open-sourced, and once you create an account you will need to choose from a dizzying array of servers, all of which are connected to Mastodon. I’m on the “mastodon.world” server. Don’t be overly confused by that, all the users are connected, so you don’t need to be on someone else’s server to follow or be followed by them. And a great selling point is that most of the servers, hosted by individuals, have strong-to-strict content guidelines to prevent the sort of pollution swallowing Twitter.

It’s a learning curve, but it’s a nice sense of renewal, and a great escape from the Twitterverse that is sure to only get darker, uglier, and more toxic.

A big leap of faith! I’ve started my first Kindle Vella serial. The platform is an Amazon Kindle offering that allows readers to enjoy one chapter at a time of what could be a novel, a novella, or a short story. I’ve been especially creative this year, and I’ve wanted to branch out. This is a good start, and an excellent challenge: I must write at least one chapter a week for this. I’m aiming to get two out each week, same day for consistency and growing some fans, but for now it’s one chapter a week.

Please check it out at the Kindle Vella store. The first three chapters will be free for any Vella story. Also, PLEASE RATE IT, and folllow it, too. If 2023 is anything like this year has been, I’m entering the most productive time of my life. Come with me! You’ll also notice that it’s my first project under the M.A. McNease name. It’s me. It’s not a pen name. It’s just part of my renewal. I like it, and I hope readers do, too.

I could not be more pleased to announce the publication of my sister Cathy’s Second Edition In Harmony with the Seasons. The first edition was published in 2014 and now, with 7 new chapters and a new introduction, we’re offering this feat of expertise, experience and wisdom in a new edition. Cathy has been my go-to for medicinal advice for most of my life, and her many years as a master herbalist, teacher and healer make her a second-to-none resource. The new book is available as a Kindle eBook or paperback. Dig in!

About In Harmony with the Seasons: Second Edition

This Second Edition of In Harmony with the Seasons includes a new introduction and seven additional chapters offering Tools for Sanity. It brings us current in the author’s life, adding lessons learned and knowledge acquired since the First Edition’s publication.

It’s been a long journey for Marshall James. Beginning with ‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot,’ through ‘Beautiful Corpse,’ and now ‘Final Audition,‘ the conclusion of the series. Time marches on for everyone, as it clearly has for Marshall. He’s come full circle, and in this final story he’s given the opportunity to have the ending he’d been denied so many years ago. Will the conclusion of the story bring joy, sorrow, or something else entirely? Find out as Marshall takes us back to a 1980s Los Angeles forgotten by most, a New York City as current as the squeal of subway tracks at dawn, and a bridge he had to cross between them one last time. Now available on Amazon.

One of my main projects next year is a sequel to ‘A House in the Woods.‘ It’s called ‘A House in Woods 2: The Devil’s Due,’ and it reunites us with Laurel and Jeremy Calloway two years after the first book. This time Laurel knows the stakes could not be higher, and this time she’s determined to win. But will she? Will the strange townspeople of Strickland, New Jersey, get what they want, or will Laurel destroy them all to prevent it?

With the exception of the third Marshall James Thriller, ‘Final Audition‘ (which Frank is reading now and LOVES!), I intend to do a lot of writing under the name M.A. McNease. I just like it, and I need to refresh my creative life a little. Those are my initials. The books are all listed under both names. My Kindle Vella serial, ‘I, Warlock,‘ is coming out under that name, and I have lots more in mind over the next couple years. So … here’s the cover for the Kindle edition.

Stay tuned for links, details and info: I’ll be writing my first Kindle Vella serial, coming very soon. AND it’s under my “other” name, MA McNease. It’s my party, I’ll try if I want to.

For 5 days only! From October 27 – 31 you can download A House in the Woods, and Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, free on Kindle. Treat yourself to a supernatural chiller where fear has a home in the woods, and the first book in the Maggie Dahl mystery series. They’ll keep you up reading till the witching hour.

(The second Maggie Dahl book, Open Secrets, is available now on Amazon, and the upcoming A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due will be out in 2023!)

About ‘A House in the Woods‘

“Country living is Hell.”

Laurel and Jeremy Calloway have longed for a new life away from the chaos and confusion of New York City. Driving along a country road in New Jersey with a young real estate agent in the back seat, they almost miss it: a small house in the woods for sale. Laurel immediately thinks this could be the house for them, the house of their dreams, where a simpler life awaits. Laurel can finish her debut novel. Jeremy can look for a job in Philadelphia just an hour away. Stopping to take a look at the property, they meet the house’s caretaker, Eileen, and within a few weeks they find themselves the very lucky owners of their ideal home. But who are the mysterious old couple who’d put the house up for sale, having moved out months ago? Is Eileen more than a friendly neighbor? Who are the townspeople they meet, who all seem aware of the young couple now living in the house in the woods? And is it the house of their dreams, or of their nightmares?

I’ll be bundled up on the porch at the Frenchtown Bookshop (Frenchtown, NJ) later this morning with a stack of my Maggie Dahl Mysteries. Stop and say hello!

Cat with magnifying glass sleuth hat cartoon style.  Those are the words I typed into my image creator at DALL.E 2, part of OpenAI.com.

From their website:

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.

We will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI, but will also consider our mission fulfilled if our work aids others to achieve this outcome.

DALL·E 2 can create original, realistic images and art from a text description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles.

And I just did this one: fish on a bicycle paiting style. It doesn’t cost anything, either. Try it out!

It’s not a gender-neutral thing. It’s not even a pen name, since I’ve always written under my own name, and MA are my initials. Once I finish up the last Marshall James thriller, and the sequel to A House in the Woods, I’ll be using the name MA McNease. No periods. I just feel like some renewal, and I’ve never been fond of the name Mark. (It was Marshall at birth and later changed when I was adopted.) Stay tuned. I may put out A House the the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due, under the new moniker, I’m not sure yet. Just keeping it all interesting for myself. – Mark/MA