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The Twist Podcast #70: Calling Dolly Parton, Baby Jails, Miss America Meltdown, and Our Secret Agent President
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, consider who we’d like to play us, America’s newest baby jails, the great Miss America meltdown, and Trump’s KGB handler comes to the White House.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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‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot’ Takes the #1 Slot in Gay Mystery
I haven’t been on this list for awhile. It’s nice to ‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot’ grab the #1 slot once again, and to see 6 of the 7 books I have on sale for .99 cents through Tuesday back in the top 100.
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‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot’ Takes the #1 Slot in Gay Mystery
I haven’t been on this list for awhile. It’s nice to ‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot’ grab the #1 slot once again, and to see 6 of the 7 books I have on sale for .99 cents through Tuesday back in the top 100.
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It’s a Killer Deal: 7 Mysteries and a Book Bub Featured Deal July 8, 9, 10
My latest mystery, Murder at the Paisley Parrot, is running as a Book Bub Featured Deal July 8, 9, 10. Included in the 3-day deal will be all 7 mysteries and thrillers at just .99 cents! Enjoy Murder at Pride Lodge, Pride and Perilous, Death by Pride, Kill Switch, Death in the Headlights, and Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge – all books sure to chill you at the beach this summer.About Murder at the Paisley Parrot
Time waits for no one, including Marshall James. Now 58 and living in New York City, Marshall has outlived the expiration date he was given with a cancer diagnosis three years ago. He beat the odds but he knows he may not beat the clock. So he’s decided to tell a story or three about some murders he was involved in back in the day.
The year was 1983. The bar was the Paisley Parrot in Hollywood, a gay, mob-run dive where people came to drink and few of them remembered the night before. Marshall loves his job as a bartender there. But one night, among the regulars, a killer arrives. Body by body, death by death, Marshall finds himself pulled into a web of murder, deceit and crime, with a psychopath waiting at the center of it all. Marshall falls for the cop who’s investigating him, not knowing if their relationship will survive or even if he’ll come out of this alive. Find out before last call comes around, in Murder at the Paisley Parrot.
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Book Review: Tin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezTin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
c.2018, Putnam
$23.00 hardcover / $22.95 paperback CanadaThe picture reminds you of a thousand things.
You recall the day it was taken: the smell of the air, the background sounds, food and drink, laughter and the sense that this was forever. You’ve seen that photo many times throughout the years, but it never fails to remind you of the best of times. Or, as in the new book “Tin Man” by Sarah Winman, it may represent the worst.
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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.