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Now on Spotify! Five of My Audiobooks
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The Twist Podcast #240: Fun Days in Philly, Food Court Faves, and an Interview with Cannabis Activist Alan Robinson
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as rundown Mark’s great two-night trip to Philly, list some favorite food court hotspots, and enjoy Rick’s interview with cannabis activist and advocate Alan Robinson.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2023 MadeMark Publishing
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Book Reading Notice in the Bucks County Herald. See You There!
It’s coming up fast! Join us for a Halloween-ish reading of my newest book: I, Warlock: The Warlock Wars Book I, at Bucks on Bridge coffee shop in Lambertville. Friday, October 13, 6 pm. It will be absolutely bewitching!
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9/11 Twenty-Two Years Later
Tuesday, September 11, 2001. I’d just started working at Reuters News in Times Square. It was a beautiful, clear day with blue skies. I got my coffee and went to my desk on the 19th floor … and soon the commotion started. I called my boss who was in London and told him a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. That’s what we thought had happened. It didn’t take long to know what it really was: a passenger plane flying into one building, with another soon to come.We could see the towers from a corner window in the newsroom. At some point we were told to draw the blinds and turn off the lights, in case more was coming. And now it’s 22 years later.I don’t spend much time reminiscing, especially about such horrific events, but when I see what’s going on in the country now, how deep the chasms are, how furious and angry and on-the-verge-of-violence it all is, I can’t help thinking: they won. They turned us into a paranoid, enraged, self-hating nation of tribes that blame each other for the perceived end of it all, this imaginary America with its imaginary past and its imaginary future. We live in a perpetual “culture war” fed by fantasies of civil war, and revenge, and the satisfying smell of the defeated bodies of our enemies strewn at our feet.What more could they have asked for, those terrorists? How much more completely could they have destroyed us than we are destroying ourselves? We’re constantly trying to “take our country back,” without admitting that the people we fight to take it back from is us. They won. And as long as we continue down this road of destruction that appears to have no exit, they will continue winning. “To the victor go the spoils.” No one ever said the victor had to be alive. -
On the Map: Provincetown Paradise with a Side Trip to Wellfleet
On the Map is a feature at LGBTSr.com offering travelogues and recommendations. Narration provided by Wondervox.
By Mark McNease
As we come to the end of another annual trip to Provincetown, I’m reminded why we value our visits here. Frank has had a timeshare for 35 years or so, at a place called Eastwood at Provincetown. It’s like a sprawling motel complex on the far east side of town, and has been very lesbian-centric for years. Plenty of gay men, too, but a lot of women come here. This time I noticed several children with their opposite-sex parents, and I found myself hoping it’s not losing its edge. We’ll see.
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On Dreamshaping: The Slippage of Time
Are human beings the only animals aware of time passing? Do cats know they’re getting old? Do fish ever wish they’d swum in this direction instead of that one? Is a tree concerned at all with the number of years it has stood rooted in one spot?
When we were children, most of us had occasion to hear those words, “When you’re older …” We were told that someday we would be able to drive a car, or go on a date, or leave home. Patience was required, tested by anticipation and desire. We waited because we had to, and each time we reached that milestone, that magical “older,” and we got our driver’s license, or we went on a first date, we looked ahead to the next thing we could experience when the time came.
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The Twist Podcast #237: Married 10 Years, COVID Double Whammy, and An Interview with Keto Baker Rebecca Hall
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we congratulate Mark and Frank on 10 years of marriage, hear how awful a second bout of Covid can be, and enjoy an interview with Keto Baker Rebecca Hall.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2023 MadeMark Publishing
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New Video Promo for Dead Eyes: A Harry Hell Novella
Chapter 3 goes up this weekend. I’ll be offering an audio sample of the first three chapters as well. Be sure to ‘like’ the chapters after you’ve read them! Harry’s a badass. Here’s the Amazon link:
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‘Dead Eyes: A Harry Hell Novella’ Now a Kindle Vella Exclusive!
Harry Hell has lived in my head for several years now, and he’s finally found a way out! Intended as a three-book series, the Harry Hell Novellas have begun as a Kindle Vella serial, with a new chapter coming out every Sunday. The first three chapters of every Vella story are free to read, then subsequent chapters are accessed with token you can purchase for the stories. CLICK ON OVER and read the first, intense beginning of Dead Eyes: A Harry Hell Novella.
About Dead Eyes:
The year is sometime in the distant future. Planet Earth remains inhabitable, but only by those on the extremes: the wealthy, in their fenced-in fortresses, and everyone else killing or being killed to survive another day. Harry Hell strides atop the have-nots, having once been an elite assassin for Control, the ultimate authority that maintains what’s left of order. He chose the harder life after his partner and lover Raul was murdered by the villainess Nectar. Since then he has lived for one reason only: to take revenge. He is determined to watch her eyes go cold as she exhales one last time and dies by his hand.
Meet Harry Hell, Crater, Echo, Nectar, the Witch Woman, and many others as they prowl the Ruins, travel in and out of the Slopes, and watch from afar as the distant, gleaming Eastward reminds them of everything they’ve lost. As much a love story as a tale of revenge, Dead Eyes begins a journey of one man, with one mission, who is prepared to destroy it all to get what he wants.
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New Website Header
New era, new drive. This is the image I’ve used for all the new Kyle Callahan Mysteries covers. Truth in advertising: I write mysteries, thrillers, horror … and so much more.
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Hot August Giveaway: All 6 Kyle Callahan Mysteries Free for 6 Days!
Get all 6 of my Kyle Callahan Mysteries FREE on Kindle from August 1 – 5. CLICK HERE to see all my books. New covers, new regular price, new adventures await for Kyle and the gang.
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My Interview on Daniela Acitelli’s YouTube Vlogcast
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Interview: 6 Questions for Dave Hughes, Author and Founder of Retire Fabulously
Shared from LGBTSr.com
By Mark McNease
I’m delighted to share a new interview with someone I consider a longtime friend, inspiration, and fellow go-getter. Dave Hughes started his website, RetireFabulously.com, ten years ago. We managed to connect, considering some shared demographics with LGBTSr.com. Since then we’ve had many communications and several interviews. I believe he offers some of the best advice on retiring and living in retirement, and he’s now a novelist as well. Can you say dynamo? Enjoy the latest ‘6 Questions’ interview with Dave, and hopefully he’ll inspire some readers to pursue their goals as well, whether you’re retired or not. – Mark
Dave Hughes Congratulations on 10 years of Retire Fabulously! What’s the 411 on Dave Hughes for readers: who/what/where/why.
I enjoyed a reasonably successful career as a software engineer. That’s a broad job title, but at various times in my career, my responsibilities included writing code, customer support, training, and management. Overall, it was very enjoyable. It certainly paid better than being a jazz musician, which was my true passion (and still is). I spent the last 17½ years of my career at Intel Corporation where, in addition to my regular job, I was very active in their diversity and inclusion initiatives, primarily on behalf of LGBTQ employees.
I’m originally from Ohio. I lived in the Washington, DC suburbs for 11½ years before moving to warm, sunny Phoenix, Arizona in late 1995, at age 38. At the time, my motivations were to move to someplace where it doesn’t snow and freeze, and where the cost of living (especially real estate) was much less expensive. At the time, I wasn’t considering where I’d retire, but as it turns out, Phoenix is an excellent place to retire – at least for me.
