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The Savvy Senior: Simple Gadgets That Can Help Older Drivers
By Jim MillerDear Savvy Senior,
Are there any specific auto gadgets you can recommend that can help senior drivers? Both of my parents are in there eighties and still pretty good drivers, but due to arthritis and age they’re very stiff, which causes them some driving problems.
Researching Daughter
Dear Researching,
To help keep senior drivers safe and prolong their driving years, there’s a plethora of inexpensive, aftermarket vehicle adaptions you can purchase that can easily be added to your parent’s vehicles to help with many different needs. Here are some good options.
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The Reviews Begin: ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Off to a 5-Star Start
Being an author is like being a baker hoping and waiting for the cake to rise, unsure it will. I finished ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ not knowing how it would be received, or if it would connect with the audience I wanted to reach – women, readers ‘of a certain age’ (men and women), and fans of mysteries set in small towns, with a strong woman sleuth. Could I do it? It appears I have!I know not to get too excited about these things and I know no book is universally liked, but the first 8 reviews are all 5-star, and it’s enough to make me certain this will be a series.
Here’s just one review, from an author I regard highly and who would not be less than honest in his appraisal:
“The new Maggie Dahl mystery series from Mark McNease has it all: An intrepid and tenacious amateur sleuth. A small-town setting that makes you feel right at home. A gruesome crime with dreadful secrets at its core. Plus, a pushy feline named Checks. The author has woven a masterful whodunit that kept me guessing until Maggie reached her “aha” moment. Honest, I didn’t have a clue.”
Michael Craft, author of Inside Dumont and The Mark Manning Mysteries
And so begins the note taking for Book 2: Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery. Coming to a coroner’s office near you in 2019.
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It’s a Mega Goodreads Giveaway! 100 (Yes, 100) Kindle Copies of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Available
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Black Cat White Paws
by Mark McNease
Giveaway ends July 10, 2018.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.Enter from now through July 10 for a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions of “Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery.” Prefer to purchase it outright? It’s just $1.99 through July (regular $3.99). The reviews are trickling in and it’s set to be a crowd pleaser.
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It’s a Mega Goodreads Giveaway! 100 (Yes, 100) Kindle Copies of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Available
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Black Cat White Paws
by Mark McNease
Giveaway ends July 10, 2018.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.Enter from now through July 10 for a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions of “Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery.” Prefer to purchase it outright? It’s just $1.99 through July (regular $3.99). The reviews are trickling in and it’s set to be a crowd pleaser.
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Stephanie Mott: Good Tidings of Great Joy
Stephanie Mott By Stephanie Mott
“A great many of us, myself most definitely included, have placed our faith into battle after battle where we have tried anything but love.”
The 10th Verse of the 2nd Chapter of the Gospel of Luke says, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
However, the United States is currently on a runaway train, racing toward an increasing inevitable crash in a place that is more like frightening senselessness and imminent pain. This, of course, for all people who have historically been marginalized and oppressed (and murdered, and enslaved, and incarcerated, and separated from their children, and turned away from the table).
So, whatever happened to good tidings and great joy?
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LGBTSr Exclusive Giveaway: 20 Kindle Editions of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’
Okay, make that 18 free copies! Congrats to Robin and Larry who got their early bird copies.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has a new tool for authors to get the word out. I’ve purchased 20 Kindle editions of my new mystery, Black Cat White Paw: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, and I’m just waiting to send them out to the next 18 claimants. Love a good cozy-esque mystery set in an idyllic river town? Love cats? This book’s for you. All I would appreciate in return for a free Kindle edition is an honest review on Amazon.
Just email me at LGBTSr@outlook.com and I’ll send a download link to the first 18 respondents. It’s just like buying a Kindle book directly from Amazon. No in-between, no gathering of personal information. Just click, open, and read.
Mark/Editor
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.
Black Cat White Paws finds Maggie moving from New York City to Lambertville, an idyllic river town with artists, restaurants, incredible landscapes, and enough local characters to populate a murder mystery. Join Maggie, Gerri, Checks the cat, and a cast of colorful small town natives just as eager—and as shocked—to find a killer in their midst.
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Grace Anne Stevens: My Transgender Life – The Measure of a Man
Grace Anne Stevens Grace Anne Stevens
My Transgender LifeAs the month of June 2018 is coming to a close, I am reflecting on my gratitude to have spent half this month traveling, between my 10-day boat and bike adventure in Bordeaux France and a 5-day seminar/adventure in Toronto. As I review some of my pictures, there is one that captures me and takes me on another one of those time traveling trips I often find myself on. The picture is of a fruit stand in Bordeaux.
As I am drawn into this scene of a fruit stand on the street, that is still making my mouth water, I find myself tripping back over 50-60 years ago to my old neighborhood on Avenue J in Brooklyn, when each block seemed to have an outdoor fruit stand similar to this one.
If you wanted anything, you had to ask the vendor for what you wanted. This is a long distance from today, where you pick what you want, bag and weigh it, and probably could not find help when you need it in today’s supermarkets. -
Featured Book: Beowulf for Cretins, by Ann McMan
Read the review by Velvet Lounger HERE.English professor and aspiring novelist, Grace Warner spends her days teaching four sections of “Beowulf for Cretins” to bored and disinterested students at one of New England’s “hidden ivy” colleges. Not long after she is dumped by her longtime girlfriend, Grace meets the engaging and mysterious Abbie on a cross-country flight. Sparks fly on and off the plane as the two strangers give in to one night of reckless passion with no strings attached, and no contact information exchanged.
Back home at St. Albans, the college rocks Grace’s world when it announces the appointment of a new president, the first woman in its 165-year history. Cue Abbie—and cue Grace’s collision course with a neurotic dog named Grendel, a fractious rival for tenure, and a woman called Ochre, in what very well might be Grace’s last real shot at happiness.
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Book Review: Beowulf for Cretins by Ann McMan, Reviewed by Velvet Lounger
The following review first appeared at the Lesbian Reading RoomBeowulf for Cretins, by Ann McMan
Print Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Bywater Books (June 26, 2018)Take one rather lost and lonely English professor and sit her next to a gorgeous, intellectual and amusing woman on a flight to San Francisco. Bring them back together for a madcap costume party that evening, and make both of them brave enough to step out of their comfort zones and “go there.” That’s the basic plot of Ann McMan’s wonderful short story “Falling from Grace” in her anthology “Sidecar,” which led to the idea of “Beowulf for Cretins.”
Don’t worry if you haven’t read “Sidecar” (although if not, why not?) as the slightly amended story is repeated as chapter one of the full-length version. And once Grace and Abbie go their separate ways the morning after the party, with no contact details, not even last names shared, then surely it will take an act of fate, or possibly an act of God, to make their paths cross a second time.
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The Twist Podcast #69: Millennial Malaise, Fascist Emojis, and America Makes Child Abuse Great Again
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, shrinking prospects for millennials, ‘F’ is for fascist, and America’s current fondness for abusing migrant children.Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, YouTube, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
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The Twist Podcast #69: Millennial Malaise, Fascist Emojis, and America Makes Child Abuse Great Again
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, shrinking prospects for millennials, ‘F’ is for fascist, and America’s current fondness for abusing migrant children.Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, YouTube, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
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Back to Work on the Jolly Good Animations
The best writing assignments are fun, too. I’m back to work on the next three Jolly Good animations and some comic panels. And it’s always great to be paid …
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Murder Came Early: Black Cat White Paws Release Date Now June 27
The release date for the eBook edition of Black Cat White Paws has been moved to June 27. You can still get it at the special preorder price of $1.99 (regular $4.99).
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.
Black Cat White Paws finds Maggie moving from New York City to Lambertville, an idyllic river town with artists, restaurants, incredible landscapes, and enough local characters to populate a murder mystery. Join Maggie, Gerri, Checks the cat, and a cast of colorful small town natives just as eager—and as shocked—to find a killer in their midst.