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This Week’s Survey: What Can Make Your Day a Little Better?
What can make your day a little better? Multiple answers okay
A good cup of coffee, tea, or something else (no judgement)
Hearing from a friend (phone call, text, telepathy)
Finishing a task on your to-do list
Laughing quietly (or maniacally)
Quiet time / alone time / animal time
Something else (please say what) -
Tech Talk: AI for Regular People — What It Is, What It Isn’t, and How to Use It Safely
By Mark McNease
A note on AI-shaming: Opinions on AI and using it run for “I can’t function without it” to “I hate it and if you use it, I hate you too.” There is a lot of uncertainty out there, and a significant amount of AI-shaming. I came out of the closet as an AI user who finds it incredibly helpful. I produce a large amount of content, as well as writing books, publishing, podcasting, and teaching. This genie is out of the bottle and not going back in. It may be better to engage with it than reject it and watch as the world moves on.
As someone who uses AI regularly to help me with research, outlining, fleshing out ideas, and graphics, I’m aware of both its benefits and its dangers. One of the most annoying things about it for me, at least with OpenAI (ChatGPT) is its insistence on “talking” to me as if it knows me, as if we’re friends or could be someday. (I recently switched to Claude due to OpenAI’s politics.) I don’t need it to remind me who I am, or to do its best imitation of a playful acquaintance. There is no one there. Yet it’s programmed to use language we normally reserve for people in our friends and family plan. It’s creepy, and the danger it poses to individuals who aren’t able to discern what’s happening, or whose psyches are fragile, are obvious and real. But if you can use it as another very powerful tool and not mistake it for a date, you’ll be okay.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast 80: Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 10 – 12)
Welcome back to Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.
In the next three chapters, Marshall’s fresh start in New York takes a sharp, unsettling turn. What begins as a nostalgic breakfast in a familiar Manhattan diner becomes something far more dangerous when Trent finally hints at the truth behind his sudden wealth. Laundromats? Not exactly. And the “job” he has in mind for Marshall may come with consequences neither of them can fully control .
As the charm of Trent’s polished world gives way to whispers, bodyguards, locked lobbies, and carefully managed secrets, Marshall realizes he may have stepped into something darker than he imagined. And just when the walls begin to close in, we shift—back to Lambertville. Back to Boo. Back to the choices that will define what kind of man Marshall becomes.
A new city. A dangerous offer. And a past that refuses to stay in the rearview mirror.
Settle in… the flight’s about to get turbulent.
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Savvy Senior: Is Your Aging Parent Safe at Home?
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
After watching the coverage of the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case, I’m worried about my own elderly mother who lives alone in another state. I want to make sure she’s safe without being intrusive. Are there simple, affordable ways to check in on her from afar?
–Concerned Son
Dear Concerned,
You’re not alone. High-profile cases like this often heighten fears, especially for adult children whose parents live alone and may be vulnerable. The good news is there are several free or low-cost ways to stay connected and gain peace of mind without infringing on your mother’s independence. Here are some nice options to consider.
Check-In App
If your mother uses a smartphone, a simple solution is Snug (snugsafe.com), a free app that checks in daily to confirm she’s OK. It’s used by tens of thousands of older adults who live alone and want their loved ones alerted quickly if something goes wrong.
Here’s how it works: After downloading the app, your mother selects a daily check-in time. Snug sends several reminders leading up to that time, prompting her to confirm she’s OK by tapping a large green button on her screen. If she doesn’t check in within 10 minutes after her scheduled time, the app automatically notifies her emergency contacts and shares her last known location so help can be sent promptly.
For added peace of mind, Snug also offers a Dispatch Plan ($20 per month or $200 per year) that includes multiple daily check-ins. If she misses one, Snug will call her directly to see if she’s OK. If there’s still no response, they can request an in-person wellness check by local authorities, who will visit her home to make sure she’s safe. The app works with both iPhone and Android devices.
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The Daily Readlines
Her thoughts have sparked a wave of biphobic comments.Read moreDate: 2026-03-05Source: LGBTQ NationThis article is offered exclusively to members, those who contribute monthly or annually to LGBTQ Nation.View this article on LGBTQ Nation to learn more or…Read moreDate: 2026-03-05Source: LGBTQ Nation
The far-right conspiracy theorist compared the president to a broken lawnmower that needs to be replaced.Read moreDate: 2026-03-05Source: LGBTQ Nation
The campaign comes after the National Park Service removed the monument’s Pride flag in the dead of night last month.Read moreDate: 2026-03-05Source: LGBTQ Nation
Only a few months ago, Jared Polis claimed he would not capitulate to the president’s threats of “harsh measures” if Tina Peters remained behind bars.Read moreDate: 2026-03-05Source: LGBTQ NationCarolyn McCall, naturally, got deals-related questions during an earnings conference call.Read moreDate: 2026-03-04Source: HOLLYWOOD REPORTERJulia May Jonas adapts her own acclaimed novel about a married English professor who develops an all-consuming crush on a younger colleague.Read moreDate: 2026-03-04Source: HOLLYWOOD REPORTERCanal+’s African Pay-TV Giant MultiChoice Pulls Plug on Streamer Showmax Amid “Unsustainable” LossesThe decision reflects a focus on “financial discipline and investment optimization in an increasingly competitive and capital-intensive global streaming environment.”Read moreDate: 2026-03-04Source: HOLLYWOOD REPORTERThe U.K. TV giant, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, also provided an update on its cost savings program.Read moreDate: 2026-03-04Source: HOLLYWOOD REPORTER -
This Week’s LGBTSr Humorscope
🌟 This Week’s LGBTSr Humorscope
♈ Aries
You are feeling bold — possibly too bold. Before you “reply all,” pause. Your energy is magnetic, but your patience is thin. Channel that fire into something productive instead of reactive.
Best Day: Tuesday
Avoid: Impulse spending♉ Taurus
Comfort is calling your name. Answer it — but don’t unpack and redecorate. A financial or practical conversation benefits from calm, not stubborn silence.
Best Day: Friday
Avoid: Digging in your heels just to win♊ Gemini
Your mind is racing ahead of your calendar. You’ll start three things and finish one. That’s fine — just circle back. A message late in the week lifts your mood.
Best Day: Thursday
Avoid: Group chat drama -
Book Review: The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster, by Shelley Puhak
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster” by Shelley Puhak
c.2026, Bloomsbury $32.99 293 pagesYou saw it online, so it must be true.
It can’t be just a rumor because you got it from a reliable source. Verification, bah! You trust the origin of this juicy story, even it seems outlandish. Even if, as in the new book “The Blood Countess” by Shelley Puhak, the rumor’s been wrong for centuries.
You’ve probably heard the story.
Supposedly, hundreds of years ago, a Hungarian Countess was somehow convinced that eternal beauty and longevity was hers if she bathed in the blood of virgins, so she sent emissaries across the land to fetch all the teenage girls they could find. When the Countess was caught, she was walled up in her castle forever.
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Health Beat: Why Emotional Well-Being Matters as Much as Physical Health
By Mark McNease
I confess: anxiety has been getting the best of me lately. While I prefer feeling busy, associating it with fulfilmment, I also have a bad habit of taking on too much. Part masochishm, part outrunning the passage of time, as if I have to get everything done today or I’ve failed in some way to meet my goals. And while I’m very good at taking naps on a daily basis, I’m not good at preventing the stress and anxiety in the first place. So let’s take a look at some causes and ways to address that knotted-up feeling pleading for our attention.
We’re very good at tracking the physical, espeically with watches, phones, alerts, step counters, calorie counters, and more alerts to remind us we must try harder. We know our blood pressure numbers. We discuss cholesterol. We schedule scans. We swallow vitamins medications, if we wakt them, with the consistency of a drill sargeant. But emotional health? That often gets the “I’m fine” treatment, as if fine were a medical diagnosis.
The truth is, emotional well-being matters just as much as physical health, and in many cases it quietly determines how well the rest of the body functions. You can’t separate the two. The body keeps score, even when the mind insists everything is under control.
Stress, especially the long-term kind, doesn’t simply pass through us. It settles in. It affects sleep (something I know too well). It tightens muscles. It disrupts digestion. It elevates blood pressure. Chronic stress raises cortisol levels, and over time that constant state of alert can wear down the immune system and strain the heart. We may call it “just life,” but the nervous system calls it an onslaught.
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Listen Along! Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller, on the Fearsome Fiction Podcast
Listen Along to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller (Book 4)
On the Fearsome Fiction Podcast
The engines are humming. The runway lights flicker. And somewhere in the darkened city below, things are about to go very wrong.
On the Fearsome Fiction Podcast, you’re invited to listen along as I roll out three new chapters at a time of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller (Book 4).
This is a serialized descent into mystery, murder and corruption on a killer scale. Three chapters. Then a breath. Then three more.
Marshall James returns in Night Flight to Murder Town, Book 4. Marshall is thinking of leaving New York City with his husband for a new life away from the hectic pace of the nation’s largest city. But how did he get here in the first place? After three stories detailing his harrowing Hollywood past, where lovers, losers, and a serial killer or two nearly ended his life before he could make something of it, he finally tells us how and why he left LaLa Land for Gotham.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 7 – 9)
Welcome back to the Fearsome Fiction Podcast. One of my offerings is the weekly serialization of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller, book 4. This week, we dive into Chapters Seven through Nine of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller. Marshall leaves behind Hollywood—and a heartbreaking goodbye—to chase a new life in New York City. But from a turbulent red-eye flight to a sunrise over Manhattan, it’s clear this isn’t just a fresh start. With Trent waiting at the gate, a mysterious chauffeur, and whispers of danger already in the air, Marshall’s arrival in the City may be the beginning of something far more complicated—and far more dangerous—than he ever imagined.
Let’s step into the night flight… and what’s waiting on the other side.
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One Thing Or Another: Life, Aging, and the Absurdities Of It All – The Drawer of Things We’ll Never Throw Away
By Mark McNease
Every home has one, and ours has several. Not the junk drawer. That’s different. The junk drawer is innocent, cluttered through no fault of its own. It has batteries, rubber bands, expired coupons, a screwdriver that doesn’t belong anywhere else. Maybe a hammer for no discernable reason. That drawer has plausible deniability.
I’m talking about the other drawer. The drawer of things we’ll never throw away.
It might be in a desk. Or a bedroom dresser. Or tucked into a cabinet no one opens unless they’re looking for something specific and end up standing there longer than they intended. You don’t organize this drawer. You visit it.
Inside mine
A program from a musical I don’t remember seeing.
A couple of old photos that never made it into my scrapbook.
Several keys of mysterious origin and purpose.
A napkin from a restaurant I’ve never been back to.
Loose match sticks. -
Audiobook for ‘A Marriage Below Zero’ by Alan Dale Now Available!
Listen to a 20 minute sample – Narration provided by Wondervox
I’ve just released an audiobook edition of ‘A Marriage Below Zero’ by Alan Dale. You can listen to a 20 minute sample by clicking the audio file above OR HERE. It’s just $3.99 at my Payhip storefront storefront, and provides a Zip file with all individual chapters, AND a single MP3 with the entire audiobook.
More about the book …
This month I’ve released a very hidden gem: A Marriage Below Zero, by Alan Dale. It’s one of the earliest published novels to deal with same-sex attraction, narrated by a woman who married a man with a secret life.
A Marriage Below Zero (1889), written by Alan Dale, is a pioneering work of early gay fiction and one of the first English-language novels to center a homosexual male character in a serious, tragic narrative. The story is told from the perspective of Elsie Bouverie, a young woman who enters into what appears to be a promising marriage with the charming and refined Arthur Ravener. At first, their life together seems socially enviable—secure, respectable, and filled with the expectations of Victorian domestic happiness.
But beneath the surface, something is wrong.
Arthur grows emotionally distant, evasive, and restless. Elsie senses that she is not the true object of her husband’s affection. Gradually, she discovers the devastating truth: Arthur is romantically and physically involved with another man. In an era when homosexuality was not only taboo but criminalized, this revelation shatters her understanding of marriage, loyalty, and identity.
Rather than portraying Arthur as a villain, the novel presents him as a man trapped between societal expectations and his authentic self. The “marriage below zero” becomes a metaphor for a union devoid of warmth, passion, and truth—frozen by repression and secrecy. As scandal looms and emotional tensions escalate, the story moves toward a tragic conclusion that reflects the harsh realities faced by gay men in late 19th-century society.
