• New,  Wondertext

    My Date with AI: Some Words About Self-Publishing from My Ghost Writer Robot

    April 24, 2023 /

    Audio narration by WondervoxAI

    I embrace technology, and new advances mean new creative opportunities for me. This includes the AI/synthetic voice narration through my WondervoxAi venture (using Eleven Labs).  All of my Mark McNease on Topic Substacks now include audio supplements narrated by androids, and the audiobook edition of my latest book, Final Audition: A Marshall James Thriller, is coming out with AI narration so good you’ll be challenged to tell the difference. I’m also embracing AI writing. It’s the future, and it’s here now.

    Everything changes. Authors can self-publish. Musicians don’t need labels. Everybody streams. And I invite technological change into my create-o-sphere because it keeps me challenged and it’s exciting to the imaginative mind. In that vein … here is an article about self-publishing that was just written using Jasper, and it was born fully formed within minutes. Fear not, stay on the tip, explore and expand with exuberance. – The Real Mark

    Why Self-Publishing is a Great Option for Authors

    As a writer, you have a lot of options for getting your work out there. You can go the traditional publishing route, but that can be a long and difficult journey. There’s also the option to self-publish. While it might seem daunting at first, self-publishing can be an incredible option for many authors. Here are just a few of the reasons why.

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  • New

    Dystopia Cornucopia! April Book Funnel Promo for Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Thrillers

    April 1, 2023 /

    Party like it’s the end of the world with dozens of free dystopian and post-apocalyptic thrillers. This includes my own Rough and Tumble, along with books and stories by H.G. Kelly, Nicholas P. Adams, Suzanne Jenkins, Angela R. Watts, Colby Rice, Jami Gray, and many more! JUST CLICK HERE and start downloading.

    About Rough and Tumble

    “Rough and Tumble were not their names by birth.” Boy meets boy at the end of civilization in this extended short story. The year is distant, the reality of those living appears dark and harsh. Among them, surviving by wit and easy violence, are Rough and Tumble, two young men whose lives became entwined so long ago neither of them remembers exactly when, only that it was love at first sight. Now, as Rough imagines an escape from the Slopes, the area they live and expect to die in, he yearns to take Tumble with him. But is it possible? Does Tumble want to go across the murky water, too, or are dreams for the foolish and the dying? Join them as they go on a last nightly prowl, looking for loot and any way out.

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  • New

    Complimentary Audiobooks for New Subscribers!

    March 19, 2023 /

    New at BookFunnel: select audiobooks for email subscribers. Click on any of these and receive the audiobook edition with an email sign up!

    Reservation for Murder: A Kyle Callahan Mystery
    Narrated by Sean Rhead

    It’s been several years since Kyle Callahan sought the help of a New York City therapist to overcome the trauma of his encounter with a serial killer, and just as long since his investigation into a teenage girl’s murder brought down the Manhattan District Attorney. He and his husband Danny Durban have decided to move away, to start a new life in the idyllic river city of Lambertville, New Jersey. They have friends there. They’ll have peace and quiet. They can leave the hustle and bustle and stresses of America’s biggest metropolis behind. They open a bed and breakfast, and soon discover that murder and mayhem are waiting to check in. There’s a writers conference in town, with big names and big egos heading for a clash—and a killing—of titans. No sooner has the ink dried on the guest registry than Kyle finds himself pursuing another murderer, this one closer to home than they’ve ever come. He enlists the help of his old friend and local resident Linda Sikorsky, once a detective on the New Hope, Pennsylvania, police force. The two of them follow one lead after another in a race against time until the shocking truth is exposed.

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  • New

    Banned in Tennessee? Peter and the Starcatcher Shocks the Senseless

    March 13, 2023 /
    We saw a production of the delightful Peter and the Starcatcher at Music Mountain Theatre yesterday. Several children were in attendance and appeared to be having as good a time as the rest of us.
    Then … to my shock … the actors who played pirates were in two scenes dressed as mermaids. Also, there was another pirate who, donning an apron, played the part of a cook/maid. It was a ship filled with men, but somebody had to do it! Or did they?
    It occurred to several of us that this play, as child-friendly and comical as it is, could not be performed in Tennessee, or soon to be Florida (add to the list as the days go by). There are many, many plays and musicals in the theatrical canon going back hundreds of years, including the original Shakespearean actors who played women’s parts because women weren’t allowed on stage (are we there yet?).
    If the overlords of censorship and suffocation want to drag us (pun intended) back to a godawful 1940s (and even the people back then had Vaudeville, where crossdressing was common on stage), they CANNOT make exceptions for entertainment they approve of for their children. No “prosthetics breasts” means what it says. Period. Having decided what the rest of us can see, and what we can take our children to see, they cannot be given an out. I’m also of the opinion that book bans must include the Bible, as bloodthirsty and incestuous as it is, and most books in general where heterosexuality is portrayed in any way. Sexuality is sexuality. Cut the crap or stop passing these laws to try and smother our spirits. You will fail.
    In the meantime, please enjoy this hysterical show. The young boys with their parents in the row in front of us had a great time.
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  • Books,  LGBTSR,  New,  Terri Schlichenmeyer

    Book Review: Code Gray: Death, Life, and Uncertainty in the ER, by Farzon A. Nahvi, M.D

    March 11, 2023 /

    By Terri Schlichenmeyer
    The Bookworm Sex

    Code Gray: Death, Life, and Uncertainty in the ER, by Farzon A. Nahvi, M.D.
    c.2023, Simon & Schuster $27.99  256 pages

    You know exactly who’s in charge here.

    It’s the person in the white coat, a physician with a stethoscope around their neck and a packed pocketful of paper notes and pens. The white coat instantly gets your attention. It’s meant to quickly convey authority, and it does – so much so that you trust your very life to the person wearing it. In “Code Gray” by Farzon A. Nahvi, M.D., that white coat won’t leave you in the dark.

    It was only supposed to be a friends-catching-up kind of text thread but for Farzon Nahvi and his colleagues around the country, the flurry of messages they exchanged during the pandemic became a lifeline. For each, it was good to know that their hospital’s reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t the only one lacking.

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  • New,  Q Audiobooks

    Q Audiobooks: I’m So (Not) Over You, by Kosoko Jackson, Narrated by Timothy Bell Reese

    March 5, 2023 /

    I’m So (Not) Over You
    By:     Kosoko Jackson
    Narrated by: Timothy Bell Reese
    Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
    4.5 out of 5 stars (50 ratings)

    Publisher’s Summary

    “Shine[s] with a beautiful, blooming sense of wonder.”—New York Times Book Review

    A chance to rewrite their ending is worth the risk in this swoony romantic comedy from Kosoko Jackson.

    It’s been months since aspiring journalist Kian Andrews has heard from his ex-boyfriend, Hudson Rivers, but an urgent text has them meeting at a café. Maybe Hudson wants to profusely apologize for the breakup. Or confess his undying love. . . But no, Hudson has a favor to ask—he wants Kian to pretend to be his boyfriend while his parents are in town, and Kian reluctantly agrees.

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  • Hotel Reviews,  LGBTSR,  New,  Reviews

    Hotel Review: Boston’s Verb Hotel Gets 4.5 Fresh Towels

    March 2, 2023 /

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    Prefer to listen? Just click for the audio version.

    Hotel reviews are based on a Fresh Towel rating. Five means a top destination, one means check in at your peril.

    Welcome to the first hotel review. It’s being added to my restaurant reviews (1-5 Yums), and my general travel reviews and blog posts.

    Like a lot of people, we’ve been traveling a lot since the removal of pandemic restrictions. We’ve been to Delaware, Atlantic City, and we’ll be heading to California and Las Vegas soon, as well as taking a cruise to Canada in October that arrives back in Bayonne, NJ, on my birthday!

    I was especially prompted to kick these off because we’ve come to Boston to visit one of Frank’s oldest friends (who takes the ferry to Provincetown every year in August when we head their for our annual time share). Frank booked us into The Verb Hotel, and I was wowed!

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  • New

    ‘Triple Threat: 3 Marshall James Thrillers’ Hits #1!

    February 18, 2023 /

    It’s a hit! ‘Triple Threat: 3 Marshall James Thrillers’ hits #1 in LGBT mysteries. Now I KNOW I have to write another book in the series.

    You can listen to the first three chapters of Book #2, ‘Beautiful Corpse,’ narrated by the amazing Sean Rhead HERE, as an episode of the Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast.

    About ‘Triple Threat: 3 Marshall James Thrillers

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