• NEW

    Welcome to My World

    June 11, 2026 /

    I’ve been telling stories for as long as I can remember. A surprising number of them have made it into print—fifteen novels so far, which still surprises me a little when I say it out loud. I live in the woods nears Stockton, New Jersey, a small borough on the Delaware River. The kind of place that inspires mysteries, thrillers and horror in the towns and countryside.

    My longest-running series is The Kyle Callahan Mysteries—character-driven, funny in places, dark in others, and rooted in lives you might never expect to be troubled by murder. I also write the Marshall James Thrillers series and the Maggie Dahl Mysteries, each with their own voice and world.

    More recently I’ve been working in horror and psychological thriller—territory I find endlessly compelling. And my forthcoming (October, 2026) Devil’s Wood is a supernatural thriller set in nearby Lambertville, drawing on modern small town life and ancient horror.

    Through Your Write Path, I offer workshops and coaching for writers at every stage—beginners who’ve never shown anyone their work, experienced writers who’ve hit a wall, people who want to tell the story of their own lives. “Every life is a story, and each of us is the storyteller.”

    My imprint Vivid Press publishes annotated editions of public domain classics—recent titles include Carmilla, The Willows, and Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Stories matter.

    Look around, you’ll find much more here, and thanks for stopping by. – Mark

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  • Fearsome Fiction Podcast

    True Crime Tuesdays on the Fearsome Fiction Podcast: The Case of the Giggling Granny

    June 30, 2026 /

    Welcome to True Crime Tuesdays on Fearsome Fiction. Today we’re going to talk about “The Giggling Granny,” a woman who baked prune cake, read romance magazines, giggled at her own arrest, and murdered at least eleven people—most of them her own family.

    Her name was Nannie Doss. The press called her the Giggling Granny, the Lonely Hearts Killer, the Black Widow, and Lady Bluebeard. She was a small, cheerful, grandmotherly woman from Alabama who seemed like the last person in the world you’d suspect of anything. Which, of course, is exactly why she got away with it for so long.

    Her weapon of choice was arsenic—rat poison, mostly, the kind you could pick up at any hardware store in the American South in the 1920s through the 1950s. She put it in whiskey, in coffee, in stewed prunes, in prune cake. She put it in the food of husbands, grandchildren, her own mother, her sister, her mother-in-law. She did it over and over again for nearly thirty years, and nobody suspected a thing—until the very last one. Because Nannie Doss was always smiling. And you don’t suspect the woman who’s smiling.

    This is her story. Narration provided by Wondervox.

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  • Fearsome Fiction Podcast

    Fearsome Fiction Podcast: A Very Strange Bed, by Wilkie Collins

    June 25, 2026 /

    This week we present “A Terribly Strange Bed” by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1852 in Household Words, the celebrated literary magazine edited by Charles Dickens. A young Englishman in Paris visits a disreputable gambling house, breaks the bank at Rouge et Noir, and makes the mistake of accepting a bed for the night. What follows is one of the most gripping sequences in Victorian fiction—methodical, claustrophobic, and chilling in the way only the best suspense can be.

    Wilkie Collins is best remembered for The Woman in White and The Moonstone, but this early story reveals the master at work long before those landmarks. He thought enough of it to adapt it for live readings later in his career. Once you’ve heard it, you’ll understand why.

    No ghosts. No monsters. Just a room, a bed, and the slow, silent certainty of something descending.

    Narrated in the Fearsome Fiction tradition—atmospheric, unhurried, faithful to the original text.

    Story: “A Terribly Strange Bed” by Wilkie Collins (1852) — Public DomainSubscribe for new episodes every week.

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  • NEW

    SAVE THE DATE: Authors Mark McNease and Kim Cook at Federal Twist Vineyard (Saturday, September 26)

    June 17, 2026 /

    If you’re looking for a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon this fall, look no further than Federal Twist Vineyard in Stockton, New Jersey. On Saturday, September 26, from 2 to 4 p.m., local author Mark McNease and memoir writer Kim Cook will be on hand for an afternoon of books, art, and conversation in one of the most beautiful settings in the Delaware River valley.

    Mark McNease is the author of fifteen novels spanning mystery, thriller, and horror — including the Kyle Callahan Mysteries, the Maggie Dahl Mysteries, and the Marshall James Thrillers. Kim Cook is the author of I Am My Father’s Child: A True Story of Mystery, History, Betrayal and Forgiveness, and the just-released Moments with Moose: Life Lessons from the Best Listener I Know, a warm and deeply personal memoir about the lessons we learn from the animals we love.

    Federal Twist Vineyard, tucked into the rolling hills of Hunterdon County, provides a stunning backdrop for an event that pairs great books with great wine. Whether you’re a longtime reader of either author or simply looking for a relaxed afternoon out, this is the kind of gathering that reminds you why local events matter.

    Both authors will be available to sign books and chat with visitors throughout the afternoon. Copies will be available for purchase.

    Federal Twist Vineyard, Stockton, NJ — Saturday, September 26, 2–4 p.m. Free to attend. Bring your curiosity, your love of good books, and your appetite for a glass of something lovely.

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