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Q Audiobooks: Under the Udala Trees, by Chinelo Okparanta, Narrated by Robin Miles
Under the Udala Trees
By: Chinelo Okparanta
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 09-22-15
Language: English
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.Inspired by Nigeria’s folktales and war, Under the Udala Trees is a deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly. Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does; born before independence, she is 11 when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child, and the star-crossed pair fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls. When their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this part of herself. But there is a cost to living inside a lie.
Q Audiobooks features audiobooks for the LGBTQ listener. Hearing is believing …
Copyright MadeMark Publishing. Join my email list for monthly updates.
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The Twist Podcast 5 Year Anniversary Giveaway!
Mark and Rick have been Twisting for five years this month! You heard that right. And to celebrate all those opinions, trends, news takes, and cultural observations – as well as to high-five our rapidly growing audience – we’re giving away three each of Twist coffee cups and sturdy Twist T-shirts. Just enter above or HERE and listen for an announcement on the first show in December. Six winners will be randomly selected from entrants on November 30 and contacted by email: you choose a T-shirt or cup).
We’ve had eye-popping growth in 2020 and we hope you’ll spread the word. Here’s to another five great years!
Mark and Rick
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The Twist Podcast #140: Victory in November, Trumpworld Laughs at Addicts, and the Week in Headlines
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose for this week’s podcast as we talk about our hopes for the election, Trumpworld’s mockery of Hunter Biden’s addiction, food trends, and the week in headlines.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2020 MadeMark Publishing
Join Mark’s email list for updates, podcasts, giveaways, and his monthly newsletter!
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Free Sample from ‘Reservation for Murder: A Kyle Callahan Mystery’
Enjoy a complimentary pre-release sample from ‘Reservation for Murder: A Kyle Callahan Mystery.’ The book is releasing October 30. You can download the excerpt directly from Book Funnel (ePub, MOBI, or PDF) and get an early glimpse of murder and mayhem in a Delaware River town. Life seems perfect for Kyle and Danny in their new life away from Manhattan … until death checks in. The book is available on Amazon for pre-order at a discounted $2.99 (regular $4.99). AND I’m giving away 15 Kindle editions in a new release raffle. Just check out the links below. -
The Twist Podcast #139: Predictions for 2021, Death to Doom and Gloom, Say It Ain’t So Subway, and This Week’s Headlines
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose for this week’s podcast as we talk about our hopes for 2021, an and to the doomsayers, Subway’s bread heartbreak, and the week in headlines.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2020 MadeMark Publishing
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Cover Reveal and a Kindle Edition Giveaway for ‘Reservation for Murder: A Kyle Callahan Mystery’
I’ll be releasing the new Kyle Callahan Mystery, Reservation for Murder, later this month. I’ll also be giving away 15 Kindle editions of the book once it launches, for lucky email subscribers chosen at random on October 30 (announced on Halloween, of course!). Just enter with your email in the Raffle Press giveaway above and look for an announcement at the end of the month. Please note that Kindle limits redemption to accounts in the U.S.
Here’s a synopsis, and I have to say it’s been great to see Kyle and Danny again as they head off into a new home and a new adventure … if only murder will leave them alone!
About Reservation for Murder
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 have come along for the ride. There’s a writers conference in town, with big names and big egos checking in for a clash—and a murder—of titans. No sooner has the ink dried on the guest registry than Kyle finds himself pursuing another killer, 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 the shocking truth is exposed.
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Author Garrett Hutson Talks Historical Fiction and His New Novel ‘Gray Paree’
Join me today as I chat with fellow Hoosier and author Garrett Hutson. Garrett joins the podcast from his home near Indianapolis where he lives with his veterinarian husband David and a menagerie of pets. We talk about a passion for writing he’s had since childhood, fiction choices, and his love for historical detail that infuses his novels. His newest, Gray Paree, releases October 25.
American Oliver Carmichael loves his life in Paris, playing in a night club jazz band, and enjoying the freedom and intellectual stimulation of his bohemian set of friends. His happiness is tempered by unresolved feelings for his ex-fiancée, Lisette, especially after he sees her with another man in his club-but he tends those wounds with an affair with an older woman…and also with the boy next door.
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Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail: One Dog at a Time
Photo by Sue Hardesty By Lee Lynch
I can’t save our democracy, but I can do a little good in the world. We are adopting a dog who needs a home.
It’s been five years, seven months since our dog Bea died and we’re finally ready and able. I inherited her at age six. I lost her to my sweetheart soon thereafter, as those two bonded immediately. When they were together, Bea would growl to keep me away.
We would not have brought another animal into the house in any case. Our cat Bolo had health problems. We, and the Vet, feared the stress might kill her. Bolo took her only pet status as her due. I lasted three weeks after she died and started looking.
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Q Audiobooks: Fallen Elements by Heather McVea, Narrated by Sarah Grace Wright
By: Heather McVea
Narrated by: Sarah Grace Wright
Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 09-16-15
Language: English
Publisher: Heather McVea
Ryan Myers’ life is on the fast track with a new career, a supportive group of friends, and an easy going relationship. Then an unexpected death, a diary that leaves more questions than answers, and a few family secrets turn her life upside down. Will Ryan be able to brave the elements and find the joy she has been searching for?
Q Audiobooks features audiobooks for the LGBTQ listener. Hearing is believing …
Copyright MadeMark Publishing. Join my email list for monthly updates.
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Matt Lubbers-Moore Talks ReQueered Tales and the Reissue of Grant Michaels’s Stan Kraychik Series
My return guest on the podcast is Matt Lubbers-Moore, one of the founders of ReQueered Tales. Listen as we talk about their reissue of the late Grant Michaels’s Stan Kraychick mystery series. ReQueered Tales has a mission to bring select queer fiction back into circulation, with an emphasis on gay mysteries, that flourished in the 1960s through the early 2000s. I had the privilege of writing the foreword for the just-released Time to Check Out, the 5th book in the series.
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The End, One Way or Another
October 6, 2020 (Tuesday)In the past three years, it has so often felt like things were reaching the breaking point. But the image of Trump on the balcony of the White House last night, defiantly taking off his mask as he gasped for breath, truly looked to me like the beginning of the final chapter. – Heather Cox RichardsonHeather Cox Richardson offers among the most astute and sober analysis available. Reading it agitates me, but I know I have to stay awake to everything that’s happening. We really are at a precipice in America and, frankly, I want to say I was there when it happened, not pretending it wasn’t.
There is no word in the English language (“fury” comes closest but is still far too mild) to express how I feel about Republicans and Trump steamrolling Americans to put a religious extremist on the Supreme Court. But note that the real pressure to do this is not from gullible pro-lifers. It’s from corporations and mega-rich donors who could not care less about abortion, a service they will always be able to avail themselves of. They want entrenched oligarchy and corporate minority rule over the United States. Hard stop. Overturning Roe is just the meat they’ve thrown to Christians. They really don’t care about that. A 6-3 majority will help ensure that “we the people” have almost nothing to say about those who govern us. Jesus has nothing to do with it.
I’m going to be 62 this month. Never in my darkest fantasies, even though I remember the 60s somewhat and lived through the AIDS years, did I imagine I would see a cartoonish authoritarian with a spray tan line around his face, gasping for air on a balcony like some high-school production of Evita, bringing the United States to the brink of ruin. But that is where we are. Millions of businesses can go under, tens of millions of Americans can go hungry, untold jobs lost, over a thousand people dying every day from a virus that doesn’t care about tough guys, real or fake, and all that matters is a court packed with judges who serve the rich and the rabid. Wow.
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Two October Promos: Books with a Halloween Twist, and Paranormal Roundup
It’s my favorite time of year, when ghosts and black cats roam the land. I’m participating it two fabulous deep-discount promotions this month with dozens of fellow authors at Book Funnel. Just click on the links below and browse to your heart’s horror … er, content. You’ll find lots of books to choose from at killer prices.
My two books, both reduced to .99 cents for this promo, are Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, and my supernatural chiller, A House in the Woods.
Books with a Halloween Twist CLICK HERE
Paranormal Round-Up CLICK HERE
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One Thing or Another: The Joys of Being a (Almost) Halloween Baby
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
I’m reprinting this column as an annual tradition, knowing that the current pandemic has altered the reality it presents for all of us. But the fun of Halloween remains and its pleasures will return someday. Nothing can keep a good witch down!
October has always been my favorite month. It’s the month when autumn really makes its presence felt, especially if you live where the seasons are discernible. (It recently went from air conditioner weather at the tail end of a relentlessly hot summer, to a sudden and unexpected freeze with a 30-degree drop). It’s flu season, which is always good for a sick day or two spent lying on the couch taking over-the-counter cold remedies that do nothing to stop you from feeling like death is close by. Honey, is the healthcare directive in place? You’re sure you’ve still got your copy? And how about the will? Can I change it by tomorrow? My sister forgot my birthday, I’m not sure she deserves the belt buckles.