Mark McNease

Workshops are currently 2 hours via Zoom unless marked ‘in person’
All times are eastern (New Jersey) – 2 Hours 

Have a good holiday season everyone! Look for an updated workshop schedule in January.

Fiction Writing Essentials
Self-Publishing with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)
Guided Autobiography

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NEW! 5 Week Guided Autobiography Workshop ($125)
Every Wednesday in April
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM

One of the most rewarding things about working with people to publish their books is that I’m helping them achieve a goal. In this case, a mother’s desire to publish her daughter’s poetry. It was a labor of love for her, and I was able to help her bring it to fruition. Keep reading to understand why it matters to her, and why I feel privileged to help birth this gift from a mother to her beloved but challenged adult child.

The Wildflowers Within Her Heart

Tara Elizabeth Benedetti has written poetry since she was a young girl. Tara wrote a poem when she was 10 years old, in the 5th grade, and it was published when she was 12, in the 7th grade.

The poem “My Windows” was published in the 1993 Edition of the book “Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans.”

Tara was encouraged by her teachers beginning in the 5th grade, and it was always pointed out that she had a profound and rich imagination – the part that can’t be taught.

Tara graduated from Summit High School, in Summit, New Jersey. She obtained a B.A. Degree in Creative Writing and Photo Journalism, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts. She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickenson University in Madison, New Jersey.

Tara was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was 28 years old, while teaching English in Boston. It has been 16 ½ years of a struggle for Tara. She is now 44 years old. All of her poetry was written before Tara was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Lambertville, NJ, is my favorite town! It’s only about 20 minutes from our little house in the woods, and it’s America’s Halloween capital. For years now the neighbors on Union Street and elsewhere have made somewhat of a competition (okay, maybe a HUGE competition) out of decorating their houses for Halloween. People come from miles around the stroll along, or drive slowly past, the extravagant displays. The street itself is closed off on Halloween night and thousands of people gather for the festivities. It’s a must-see if you’re in the area.

I appreciate these so much.

“Mark McNease’s KDP workshop takes a potentially overwhelming path to self-publishing and makes it both practical and manageable.  The workshop covers the most salient points for navigating the KDP site and addresses tips for avoiding glitches with fonts and formats.  Mark provides materials to reinforce the presentation and tales of his own twelve-year journey in the self-publishing world.  I highly recommend the experience for both beginning and seasoned writers.”

Victoria Short, author of Find Your Mini Pumpkin

Big thanks to the 14 participants who came to my workshop on self-publishing last night at the Hunterdon Country Library, including fellow Mystery Writers of America-NY board member (and president) Nev March. It was so rewarding to engage with everyone, and hear so many of them say how much they liked the workshop. Onward!

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We took the train to Philadelphia with our friends Beth and Doris for a day of sightseeing and lunch at the Barnes Foundation museum. First stop: Eastern State Penitentiary, which was open for over 140 years, from 1829 until 1971! It was started by the Quakers and revolutionized incarceration at the time. It was the first to confine every prisoner in a single cell – today known as solitary confinement and a huge contributor to mental illness among the incarcerated. Back then they thought it was a better way to rehabilitate prisoners. They were allowed nothing to read but the bible, and they spent 23 hours a day alone in their cells. This could be something the architects of Project 2025 may want to look into …

After touring Donald Trump’s future lifestyle, we walked over to the Barnes Foundation museum, where we saw an art collection that is among the most unique in the world. I have never imagined seeing so many Cezannes, Picassos, and other modern masters in one location. Dr. Albert Barnes was an astute collector, purchasing works by artists in their un-famous prime that would later be with tens of millions of dollars.

About the Barnes

“Our founder, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, believed that art had the power to improve minds and transform lives. Our diverse educational programs are based on his teachings and one-of-a-kind collections.

Philadelphia art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951) chartered the Barnes in 1922 to teach people from all walks of life how to look at art. Over three decades, he collected some of the world’s most important impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, including works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. He displayed them alongside African masks, native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and decorative metalwork.”

Love those senior perks

I have to take age’s pleasures where I can, and having a senior pass for free travel on trains to Philadelphia is one of them. If you live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware and you’re over 65, you can get a pass to ride for free. We had to go to Philly to get them, but they’re great to have. I prefer going to Philadelphia over New York City for a number of reasons: it’s less congested, it’s much closer, and commuting on a train beats driving to Manhattan any day. We occasionally take a bus to NYC, but I won’t drive there again. Eleven years of that was enough.

All of my eBooks are once again available in wide distribution (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, SmashWords, Kobo and more). And not only that, you can BUY DIRECT AND SAVE! Just visit my Payhip storefront and choose one of my books, or all of them, at a deep discount.

This was the group’s first monthly meeting and it was so rewarding. Everyone was engaged, lots of good  conversation, and it promises to grow from there. As the facilitator, I could not have been happier.

This is a short 6-minute video introducing people to Your Write Path, the workshops, and me!