• New

    At the Flemington Summer Book Fest

    May 29, 2024 /

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    This was my second year at the Flemington Summer Book Festival. Last year was great, and I sold a lot of books. This year, not so much. Maybe it was the heat and humidity. There were a lot fewer authors, and the foot traffic was tragic. But … I’m glad I went.

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  • New

    Another Workshop Testimonial: Guided Autobiography 2-Hour Introductory

    May 28, 2024 /

    “Mark gave us a simple exercise, to pick a room and diagram it using the house we grew up in. Put in the furniture, windows, all the room’s features, and take notice of any feelings, emotions, thoughts that occurred as we did the exercise. I was astonished at the power of my memories and feelings as I thought about the knotty pine “den” where my family watched TV, sometimes ate, spent most of the nighttime hours before going to bed. I relived the distance I always felt between my father and me, the anger of my father toward my mother, my disgust with my sad depressed grandmother, who I felt almost didn’t exist for me. I became that teenage boy in Canton, Mississippi, trying to figure out how I could be so different, how I could know I was “queer”, and wondering if I would even be able to act on those feelings.” – Jim G.

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  • Dreamshaping

    Dreamshaping: The ‘What If?’ List

    May 13, 2024 /

    All things are of the substance of dreams …

    By Mark McNease

    I’ve used a ‘What If?’ list in my fiction writing, especially when I feel stuck in the journey of a story. Where should it go? Where do I want it to go? How can I imagine the next turn in the road for these characters?

    I don’t like to admit that I sometimes find myself unable to tell which direction a story should take, and that includes the story of my life. So when I recently found myself feeling indecisive, even to the point of thinking I couldn’t do much of anything, I wrote a ‘What If?’ list for myself.

    WHAT IF I set aside the novel writing for 90 days or so?

    WHAT IF I truly opened up that creative space and let something else come into it?

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  • Health Beat,  LGBTSR

    Health Beat: Finding Ways to Deal with Chronic Pain

    May 11, 2024 /

     

    Health Beat is a feature at LGBTSr promoting health and well-being.

    By Mark McNease

    There’s something psychologically debilitating about walking with a cane, or wearing sandals that can accommodate an ankle brace. Two sizes too large? I had no other choice if I wanted more than one pair of shoes I could wear, which has been the case for a week.

    When the mighty fall

    Chronic pain affects millions of people, and we can find ourselves dealing with it at a moment’s notice. For me, it was a very sudden fall in the yard just over a week ago. I was dragging a hose across the lawn, walking sideways, and suddenly …. SNAP, my ankle bent sideways and every overweight pound of me went falling to the ground. I’ve had this happen before, but never so seriously. I also landed on my chest, and a week later I’m dealing with both the ankle, and, to a lesser degree, rib pain.

    We’re going on a cruise next week. Between that and simply wanting to function—I don’t know how anyone stands being bed or couch ridden for more than a day—I went to an orthopedist. Now that I have Medicare there’s no reason not to, but old habits of avoiding doctors die hard.

    Chronic pain is caused by any number of reasons, such as injury, illness, aging, or stress. It can, and does, have a negative impact on your physical, mental, and emotional well-being, as well as your quality of life. There’s something psychologically debilitating about walking with a cane, or wearing sandals that can accommodate an ankle brace. Two sizes too large? I had no other choice if I wanted more than one pair of shoes I could wear, which has been the case for a week.

    Take heart: there are ways to cope with chronic pain and manage its symptoms. Following are some tips and strategies that can help, or at least inspire you to find your own ways of coping.

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  • New

    Guided Autobiography 2-Hour Introductory Workshop Was a Hit

    May 9, 2024 /

    Thanks to the five participants who came to my first two-hour Guided Autobiography introductory workshop! It was a success. They all found it to be profound in some ways, thought-provoking in others, and well worth their time and attention. And I was delighted to see how effective this kind of journaling and personal exploration is, with me as a facilitator. We have liftoff!

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  • LGBTSR

    Transition Mentor Wendy Cole: An Introduction (Part I)

    May 7, 2024 /

    I knew Wendy when we both worked at the same place several years ago in New Hope, PA. I often wondered where she went and what she was up to. And now I know! She was generous enough to share her past, present and future with us, and I’m delighted to have her as a guest columnist for this six-part series. – Mark/Editor

    I was born transgender! It’s not like people like myself never existed before. We’ve always existed in hiding. It’s one of those things of nature that nothing is ever completely black and white. Nature doesn’t necessarily follow societal norms imposed by man. The hetero societal norms and standards, called “socialization”, begin with our parents, through school and into our adult and work life. Before we’re born, the question family wants to know is, do we wrap it in a pink blanket or do we wrap it in a blue blanket? We’re told certain ways of thinking and behaving. This socialization is generally based on your “sex” assigned at birth. Socialization is certain expectations you need to meet to be perceived as male or female. And it is initially based your physical anatomy at birth. Most of the time, doctors get it right. But “gender”, male or female is between your ears not between your legs. And with me, they got it all wrong! I knew most of the things expected of me from early childhood were wrong for me. But I was without any other options having grown up in the fifties and sixties.

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  • LGBTSR,  One Thing or Another Column

    One Thing or Another: The Back of the Line Looks Better Every Day

    May 7, 2024 /

    One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at life, aging, and the absurdities of it all.

    By Mark McNease

    Age has a strange effect on time: the more we have of one, the less we have of the other.

    When my mother died twenty-four years ago I told someone that losing our parents meant we were moving closer to the turnstile. Then my father died, and the parents of everyone I knew who was my age or near it. The truth became inescapable that we were next: our siblings, our friends, people we looked up to and people we looked down upon. Everyone, it seems, is destined for the same fate, and it was quickening its pace. Each loss takes us nearer to our own jumping off place, and with the departure of every friend, peer and acquaintance comes the uncomfortable sensation that we really, truly, may be next.

    It’s not maudlin to stare at the shortening line and see the rollercoaster coming round the tracks for us. There’s the sense it won’t be long now, and pretty soon—whether it’s a year from now, or ten years, or twenty—I’ll be fastened into the tiny car, have the bar pressed into me and locked for safety, and rocket off into the unknown. It’s a ride we all must take alone. There will be no one seated next to us screaming with delight as we plunge into … wherever it is we go, or don’t go. I’m not personally invested in the next ride, if there is one, or the next. Heaven can definitely wait for me, since I’ve never had any interest in going there. My hope, and belief, is to flicker out, having lived as bravely and as brightly as I could. Beyond that, just drop me back into the ocean, it’s fine with me.

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  • Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast

    Audio Sample: ‘Fatal Mistake: A Harry Hell Novella’ Chapters 1 – 4

    May 6, 2024 /

     

    Spring has sprung into action with something brand new. Fatal Mistake: A Harry Hell Novella just released, and I’m offering four chapters for your listening pleasure.

    This is not intended as an audiobook and no professional narrators were harmed in the making of this clip.

    Available everywhere! Click here for the LinkTree to select retailers

    About Fatal Mistake

    The year is closer than you think. The world has collapsed under the weight of its own insatiable needs, leaving shattered cities where those who still have anything fight to keep it that way, and those who don’t are a constant threat. It’s a danger that must be contained through a tightly controlled society where everyone is observed and everything is kept in its place.
    Harry Hellerman and his twin brother, Elliot, enter this world three minutes apart. By the time they’re teenagers, they’ve been surrendered to Control to be molded into the perfect assassins. A boy named Harry Hellerman enters, and a man named Harry Hell emerges: a killing machine of the highest order.

    Harry’s life takes a drastic turn when he finds himself teamed with a man named Raul, who becomes his partner in every way. Enter the lethal, dreaded Nectar, queen of the Ruins and slayer of hopes and dreams. Even Harry had them once, but no more. His life soon revolves around one mission only: to take his revenge against Nectar, and die someday with Raul’s name still on his lips. It was all he had left to live for.

    Enter Eastward, and the Ruins, and the Slopes beyond them. Make your way to the river’s edge, misted in darkness, where many have tried to escape but none have ever returned. ‘Fatal Mistake’ begins the journey of a man whose heart had not always been stone. Will it beat again, or will he use it to sink his enemy down, down, down, straight to hell?

    Two-time Emmy winner and Mystery Writers of America-NY board member Mark McNease takes us on a journey unlike anything he’s written before.

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