The Bookworm returns! Welcome to a regular feature here in 2020, offering Terri Schlichenmeyer’s insightful book reviews. Terri’s reviews were part of the LGBTSr website for several years, and I’m delighted to offer them here. – Mark

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

“Chasing the Sun: How the Science of Sunlight Shapes Our Bodies and Minds” by Linda Geddes
c.2019, Pegasus Books $27.95 / $36.95 Canada 240 pages

You are decidedly not a vampire.

There’s no way you could be: you like sunshine much too much for that. You crave that warmth, that sun-kiss on your cheek, the brightness it brings to your day. And as you’ll see in the new book “Chasing the Sun” by Linda Geddes, you need the health benefits sunlight offers, too.

2020 will be much more focused for me: writing, writing, and more writing. Enjoying life with my husband, working for the bennies until I can stop … and writing. I’ve got plans for next year, including a monthly short story giveaway for subscribers, the audiobook edition of ‘A House in the Woods‘ coming out in early January, an excerpt of the upcoming ‘Beautiful Corpse‘, the second Marshall James thriller, and more great things I’ll think of as the year progresses. It’s going to be a good one.

Join me for a chat with Dr. Ronni Sanlo as we talk about her dedication to LGBTQ history, her life as an educator, her perspective on vanishing lesbian spaces, and the need to preserve our LGBTQ legacy.

About Dr. Ronni Sanlo:

Author, LGBT historian, and playwright Dr. Ronni Sanlo (UF ’69, UNF ’89, UNF ’96) is the Director Emeritus of the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center (LGBT) Center and a frequent keynote speaker and consultant on LGBT issues in Higher Education. Now retired, Dr. Sanlo was director of the UCLA LGBT Center and professor/director of the UCLA Masters of Education in Student Affairs as well as a Faculty in Residence. Prior to coming to UCLA in 1997, Dr. Sanlo was the director of the LGBT Center at the University of Michigan.

In a previous life, Dr. Sanlo was an HIV epidemiologist in Florida from 1987-1994. Ronni developed the initial standards and guidelines for LGBT work with the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) and was founding chair of the Consortium of LGBT Professionals in Higher Education. Ronni is the originator of the award-winning Lavender Graduation, a commencement event that celebrates the lives and achievements of graduating LGBTQ college students. Ronni continues to research and write with a focus on LGBT history which is the foundation for her play Dear Anita Bryant. She and her wife Dr. Kelly Watson have been deeply involved in the current Resistance movement, travel and bike ride domestically and internationally, and enjoy their boat Strait Knot. They live in Palm Springs, CA and Sequim, WA. Ronni may be emailed at ronnisanlo @ gmail.com.

Coming Up on the One Thing or Another Podcast:

• Rick Rose and our Christmas catch up
• Kevin O’Connor on the life of a literary agent
• Scott Coatsworth, Founder of Purple Roofs LGBT Travel website

Enjoy the One Thing or Another Podcast on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or SoundCloud.

Subscriber here for easy delivery of each new podcast.

Copyright MadeMarkPublishing

As I anticipate the upcoming audiobook release for my latest chiller, ‘A House in the Woods,’ narrated by the terrific Daniela Acitelli (our third audiobook together), I’ve decided to do a regular audiobook giveaway for subscribers “while supplies last.” Not a subscriber yet? Just sign up here and look for these and more complimentary audiobooks, eBooks and author updates as we sail into 2020. I have a limited number of free download codes for all my audiobooks, so fasten your headphones and enjoy! – Mark

This month:

Stop the Car
Narrated by Braden Wright

Stop the Car was selected as a Kindle Single after the editors at the Amazon program deemed it an outstanding short story. Bradon Wright brings his marvelous talent as a voice actor and narrator to this story about three teens on an Indiana backroad in 1977 – what they see there, and how it changes their lives.

Brad Shreve, author and host of the Gay Mystery Authors Podcast, joins me for a chat about his life, his entry into writing and the gay mystery genre, and the successful launch of his podcast. You can listen to him interview a stellar list of authors, as well as enjoy reviews by Justene Adamec, at this link. Authors he’s interviewed include: Michael Craft, Michael Nava, C.S. Poe, Frank Butterfield, Marshall Thornton, R.E. Bradshaw, Jon Michaelsen, and Garrick Jones, with many more to come.

About Brad Shreve:

After growing up in Michigan and North Carolina, Brad crisscrossed the country while working in the hotel industry. In addition to working in hotels as a bellman, front desk clerk, and reservation call center director, he managed coffee houses, waited tables, sold potato chips off a truck, and even hawked pre-burial funeral plans.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak developed his first interests in art and storytelling. He’d spend hours on the floor sketching and painting and writing stories.

“On the ninth slay of Christmas the author gave to me …” Seven eBooks in a holiday .99 cent sale! Murder makes the perfect stocking stuffer in any one of these mysteries and thrillers, or get all seven for the price of a caramel half-chai skinny double cappichato with a cinnamon splash. Keep the lights on as you read: Murder at Pride Lodge, Pride and Perilous, Death by Pride, Death in the Headlights, Kill Switch, Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge, and Murder at the Paisley Parrot.

Coming in 2020:

The New Year promises thrills and chills in three new books coming out next year: Beautiful Corpse: A Marshall James Novel (2), Reservation for Murder: Kyle Callahan Returns (6), and Open Secrets, the second Maggie Dahl Mystery. It’s going to be be a busy year. In the meantime, enjoy the eBooks at a killer discount, and subscribe to my site for updates, promos and giveaways. Prefer to listen? Check out most of the books on Audible, too!

See you soon … Mark

Fasten your headphones and keep the lights on! A House in the Woods is arriving on audiobook in time for those Christmas chills. Narrated by the fabulous Daniela Acitelli, who has now performed three of my books, it’s sure to make you think twice about stopping on a lonely country road. Stay tuned, and here’s a special offer for subscribers: I’ll have 50 free download codes for this gem (25 US, 25 UK), so get ready to sit back, adjust the volume, and never look at the shadows in the room the same way again.

About ‘A House in the Woods’:

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?

Guest Rick Rose returns to the podcast to talk turkey for this year’s Thanksgiving. Grab a plate and listen in as we give thanks for the good things, offer up a few Thanksgiving headlines, and enjoy a fabulous feast of friendship.

Enjoy the One Thing or Another Podcast on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or SoundCloud.

Subscriber here for easy delivery of each new podcast.

Copyright MadeMarkPublishing

What a treat! I finally got to meet friend and audiobook narrator Holly Palance and her husband Bob. They were visiting NYC from their home in California for the birth of Holly’s first grandchild (her daughter lives in Brooklyn). They drove out on Sunday and I met them after work at Bucks on Bridge, on Bridge Street, naturally. I have to give Holly extra thanks for telling me I must finish the second Maggie Dahl Mystery. She narrated ‘Black Cat White Paws’ and promised to narrate the new one, ‘Open Secrets,’ when I finally finish it next year.

There’s a new podcast in the podsphere and it’s all about gay/LGBTQ mystery authors and the worlds they create. I’ve counted quite a few of them among my friends, and I’m excited to hear interviews with them and the podcast host, Brad Shreve.

First up on the Gay Mystery Authors podcast is Michael Craft, whose writing is impeccable and who’s become a friend over the past few years. His new mystery, ChoirMaster: A Mister Puss Mystery, happens to launch today. So check out the book and listen to the interview.

October is my favorite month. It’s my birthday month, and it’s Halloween season! I offer a killer sale or giveaway each year at this time, so let’s get to it:

I have a limited number of free download codes for all 9 of my audiobooks. Just take your pick(s) and email me at audiobooks @ markmcnease.com with your selections. I’ll get codes to you faster than you can say, “There’s a serial killer at my door!”

Following are descriptions of each book. I have US and UK codes (be sure to specify which), for our friends across the pond. Codes are unique to each audiobook and cannot be used for other audiobooks. Just please consider leaving a review on Audible after you’ve enjoyed the listen.

Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery
Narrated by Holly Palance

In Black Cat White Paws, recently widowed Maggie Dahl finds herself faced with challenges on all fronts: life alone in a new town, running a business she and her husband had dreamed of and started together, and now pursuing a killer. Her sister, Gerri, moves from Philadelphia to Lambertville, New Jersey, to support her sister and start a new life of her own. Together, the women search for a murderer, helped in critical ways by their neighbor’s cat. A black cat with white paws. A cat whose independence sets it all in motion and sees it through to the end.