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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.
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The Twist Podcast 320: Tooth Worms, Best Climates to Live In, Terrible Texting and More
Welcome to The Twist Podcast, Episode 320. Join co-hosts Mark and Rick as we drill into the bizarre history of teeth, with tooth worms and contagious cavities.
Then we hear from friends and fans about where the climates they prefer to live in, from dry desert air to breezy coastal towns and everything in between.
And finally, we dive into terrible texting habits and experiences, from relentless reminders to mysterious texters. “Who are you?” by the way.
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Weekly Survey Results: What’s More Important To You As You Age?
As you age, what’s more important to you? Multiple answers okay
Feeling calm and content through the ups and downs of life 25 percent
Staying curious, creative and engaged 29 percent
Maintaining friendships and relationships 16 percent
Feeling seen, valued and heard 8 percent
Having flexibility with my time and choices 21 percent
Something else (write in the comments):
“Not holding back. I used to keeep the peace and my thoughts to myself. Not anymore.”
“Having enough money for retirement.”
“Reorienting interest in sexuality in a productive way.” -
This Week’s LGBTSr Humorscope: G is for Gemini
🌈 LGBTSr Weekly Humorscope
“The Stars Are Watching… and They Have Opinions.”
♈ Aries
You are filled with bold ideas this week. Some of them are excellent. Some of them involve rearranging furniture at 9:30 p.m. Pause before lifting anything heavier than your optimism.
♉ Taurus
Comfort is calling your name. Soft blankets. Good snacks. A show you’ve already seen three times. Honestly? The stars support this fully.
♊ Gemini
You will say something “harmless” that somehow launches a 40-minute discussion. Consider whether you want entertainment… or peace.
♋ Cancer
You’re feeling nostalgic. Resist the urge to text that person from 2008. The past is a museum. Visit gently. Don’t move back in.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 4 – 6)
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 Chapters Four through Six take us from the fading shadows of Los Angeles to the restless pulse of New York—and toward a future neither Marshall nor Boo can quite see coming. Marshall says goodbye to a dying friend and the ghosts of his Hollywood past, turns down one last temptation on a city bus, and boards a flight east with more regret than luggage. Years later, settled into marriage and New York life, he finds himself facing a different kind of fear: leaving behind the city that became his identity. Love, loss, survival, and the uneasy sense that life is about to shift again—these chapters mark the end of one era and the trembling beginning of another.
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MadeMark Publishing to Offer Public Domain Works, Starting with ‘A Marriage Below Zero’ by Alan Dale
This is exciting. As a way to attracted subscribers to my long-running website, LGBTSr.com, I decided to offer free books of select public domain works. Fiction, nonfition, poetry, more will be revealed.
I’m also publishing them for the general public, as both ebooks and paperbacks.
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.
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This Week’s Fun Facts: Sinking Your Teeth Into Teeth
Medieval “tooth worms” were a real diagnosis.
For centuries, people believed toothaches were caused by tiny worms burrowing inside teeth. Dentists would even try to “smoke them out.” There were no worms, of course. Just cavities doing their thing.People used to reuse other people’s teeth.
In the 1700s and 1800s, dentures were often made from teeth taken from the poor or from soldiers killed in battle. After the Battle of Waterloo, so many teeth were collected they were nicknamed “Waterloo teeth.”Your mouth has more bacteria than there are people on Earth.
Over 700 species can live in your mouth. Most are harmless (even helpful), but don’t invite them to stay by not brushing.The first electric toothbrush appeared in the 1950s.
It was developed in Switzerland and originally designed for patients with limited motor skills.There’s a condition where teeth grow in places they absolutely shouldn’t.
It’s called hyperdontia, and some people grow extra teeth, occasionally even in the roof of the mouth.Cavities are technically contagious.
The bacteria that cause tooth decay can be passed through saliva — sharing utensils, kissing, even blowing on a child’s food.
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Tech Talk: Social Media Without the Stress
By Mark McNease
Facebook, Instagram, and avoiding scams, fake friends, and outrage fatigue
Social media hasn’t felt all that sociable for a long time. What started as a way to share photos and stay in touch can sometimes feel like walking into a wall of noise, outrage, and fake videos, fake images, fake quotes, fake everything. But we can use Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms without completely sacrificing our peace of mind. It just takes a few small adjustments.
First, remember this: we’re in charge of our feeds. On Facebook, we can “unfollow” someone without unfriending them. This can be particularly useful with friends and family we don’t want to alienate by tossing them out the virtual door. By unfollowing them (and, frankly, being unfollowed), we can stay connected but stop seeing posts that raise our blood pressure, sometimes to the point of needing a visit to the nearest Urgent Care. Love you, but I don’t feel like agreeing to disagree right now. Maybe in a month. On Instagram, tapping “Not Interested” teaches the algorithm what we’d rather see. If we engage with travel photos, gardening tips, or grandkid snapshots, we’ll get more of that. Converserly, if we linger on outrage, we’ll get more outrage. The platforms respond to our behavior — so guide them.