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Double Trouble: A Frightfully Good Halloween Giveaway (October 27 – 31)
For 5 days only! From October 27 – 31 you can download A House in the Woods, and Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, free on Kindle. Treat yourself to a supernatural chiller where fear has a home in the woods, and the first book in the Maggie Dahl mystery series. They’ll keep you up reading till the witching hour.
(The second Maggie Dahl book, Open Secrets, is available now on Amazon, and the upcoming A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due will be out in 2023!)
“Country living is Hell.”
Laurel and Jeremy Calloway have longed for a new life away from the chaos and confusion of New York City. Driving along a country road in New Jersey with a young real estate agent in the back seat, they almost miss it: a small house in the woods for sale. Laurel immediately thinks this could be the house for them, the house of their dreams, where a simpler life awaits. Laurel can finish her debut novel. Jeremy can look for a job in Philadelphia just an hour away. Stopping to take a look at the property, they meet the house’s caretaker, Eileen, and within a few weeks they find themselves the very lucky owners of their ideal home. But who are the mysterious old couple who’d put the house up for sale, having moved out months ago? Is Eileen more than a friendly neighbor? Who are the townspeople they meet, who all seem aware of the young couple now living in the house in the woods? And is it the house of their dreams, or of their nightmares?
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Book Review: Halloween Books for Kids and Adults
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezHalloween Books for Kids and Adults
c.2022, various publishers $16.95-$29.99
various page counts
The leaves are crunchy beneath your feet.
There’s a chill in the air, too, and darkness creeps into the day earlier and earlier. It’s the perfect time to get terrified, isn’t it? These three books will do it to you…
Let’s start with something for everybody over the age of 8 in your haunted house: “Tales to Keep You Up at Night” by Dan Poblocki (Penguin Workshop, $17.99). In it, young Amelia’s grandma has disappeared and it’s natural that Amelia would look for her, right? But grandma’s not in the attic. What is there is a book, one that sure looks like a library book but the library says it’s not. Nope, it’s a book of stories and as Amelia begins to read them, they start to look a lot like real-life, making her wonder exactly what’s merely story and what’s not.
This book is written in chapters that are the perfect length for reading aloud every evening. Start a tradition: turn off the lights, bring a spooky candle, but do it well before bedtime.
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Savvy Senior: Home Sharing: A Growing Trend Among Baby Boomers
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
I saw a news segment on television a few months ago about home sharing programs for seniors and would like to learn more. I’m 68, divorced, and am interested in renting out a room in my house to help make ends meet. What can you tell me?
Interested Boomer
Dear Boomer,
Because of inflation and rising housing costs a growing number of baby boomers are opting to rent out a spare room in their house as a way to generate some extra income, and for some, increase companionship. To find a good fit, older homeowners often turn to “home sharing programs” that will match an empty nester with someone needing affordable housing.
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On Dreamshaping: Mission Accomplished
Mark McNease
I’m on a mission. How many times have we said this to ourselves? How many times have we told it to the people around us? Being on a mission is a way of focusing our attention and energy onto whatever that mission is. For a few people there may be one overriding mission in their lives—to be an actor, a writer, a doctor, the raiser of a family—but for most of us there are multiple missions that change over time. We may be on a mission to earn a degree during our college years, or to succeed without one. We may be on a mission to raise children, or to live our fullest lives without them. We may be on a mission to lose weight, or further our careers, or even to find the kind of inner peace that surrenders missions altogether! That’s a little closer to nirvana than I will likely ever come, so I accept that I have missions. The challenge is finding the best ways to pursue them.
It’s okay to have a goal, to see a particular destination in the distance that we work our way toward. A mission can be as narrow as arranging an event and having it go off to our satisfaction, or as wide and critical as surviving our formative years. I’ll admit I’d been on a mission to get through high school and leave the town I’d grown up in. It was among the most difficult missions of my life, but it is a mission accomplished. I made it. I thrived. I found other, less life-threatening missions to devote myself to.
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The Weekly Readlines October 13
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every week. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
Quote for the Week: “In the long run, you make your own luck—good, bad, or indifferent.” – Loretta Lynn
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESA desperate Putin launched a series of attacks on Ukraine following an explosion on a bridge linking Russia to the stolen territory of Crimea.
President Biden indicated he’s open to reevaluating the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia following OPEC’s planned cut in oil production, widely seen as a betrayal.
And just as we’d begun recovering from the death of Loretta Lynn, Cabot Cove’s indomitable Angela Lansbury passed away at 96. We can’t take much more.
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A New Me: Soon to Be Writing as MA McNease
Making a book sale at the Frenchtown Bookshop It’s not a gender-neutral thing. It’s not even a pen name, since I’ve always written under my own name, and MA are my initials. Once I finish up the last Marshall James thriller, and the sequel to A House in the Woods, I’ll be using the name MA McNease. No periods. I just feel like some renewal, and I’ve never been fond of the name Mark. (It was Marshall at birth and later changed when I was adopted.) Stay tuned. I may put out A House the the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due, under the new moniker, I’m not sure yet. Just keeping it all interesting for myself. – Mark/MA
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The Twist Podcast #202: Armed and Fabulous, Losing Loretta, Rick’s Flick Picks, and More!
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we contemplate gays with guns, mourn the loss of country music legend Loretta Lynn, run down Rick’s flick pics, and scan the headlines for any signs of hope.
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There’s An App for That: DALL.E 2 Lets You Create Images from Text Using AI
Cat with magnifying glass sleuth hat cartoon style. Those are the words I typed into my image creator at DALL.E 2, part of OpenAI.com.
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.
We will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI, but will also consider our mission fulfilled if our work aids others to achieve this outcome.
DALL·E 2 can create original, realistic images and art from a text description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles.
And I just did this one: fish on a bicycle paiting style. It doesn’t cost anything, either. Try it out!
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Savvy Senior: Auto Aids That Make Driving Easier and Safer
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
Do you know of any car gadgets that can help older drivers? I drive a 12-year-old car and have arthritis in my neck, back and knees which limits my mobility making it more difficult to get in and out of the car and look over my shoulder to backup.
Almost 80
Dear Almost,
To help keep older drivers safe and extend their driving years, there are a number of inexpensive products you can purchase that can easily be added to your vehicle to help with many different needs. Here are some popular auto aids to consider.
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Retire Fabulously’s Dave Hughes on the Where Do Gays Retire Podcast
Dave Hughes is a leading authority on retirement lifestyle planning. He has written over 100 articles about retirement lifestyle planning for his website, RetireFabulously.com, and has published three books: Design Your Dream Retirement, Smooth Sailing into Retirement, and The Quest for Retirement Utopia.
From 2016-2017, Dave was a regular contributor to U.S. News’ On Retirement blog. In 2017, RetireFabulously.com received the Best Senior Living Award from SeniorHomes.com as one of the top retirement blogs, by both reader polling and judge’s selection. Dave was named one of NextAvenue.org’s Top 50 Influencers in Aging for 2017.
Following a successful 34-year career as a software engineer, trainer, course developer, and manager, Dave accepted an early retirement package and retired at age 56.
You can hear my own recent interview with Dave on the One Thing or Another Podcast HERE.
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Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast #46: Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery (3 Chapter Sample)
Welcome to a new Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast. It’s been awhile, and it’s good to be back at the mic, with a new book. In today’s podcast I’m narrating a three chapter sample of Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery. It’s the second book in the series, and it has Maggie pursuing another killer in Lambertville, NJ, a not-so-idyllic river town where murder has a way of showing up when Maggie’s around. She’s also faced with the possibility of new love, or at least new like, after grieving the sudden death of her husband for the past year. Will she date again? Will it be more than that? Read Open Secrets to find out.
About Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery
Maggie Dahl returns in ‘Open Secrets.’ It’s been six months since the media circus surrounding the last murder Maggie solved, and a year since her beloved husband David died. The dust seems to have finally settled. Then one morning a customer walks in and asks Maggie to do her a favor.
Soon a body is discovered on a rural New Jersey road. A body Maggie is sure belongs to a local author whose next book was rumored to reveal secrets not everyone wanted known. But were they enough to kill for? And who murdered the woman found in the woods? Maggie is determined to find out, even as her life continues its road back to normal, complete with the possibility of new love. Can she find the answers she seeks in the death of a local celebrity? And will love be part of her life once again when she least expects it?
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The Great SHOCKtober Giveaway! Nine Mysteries and Thrillers FREE on Kindle for 5 Days Only
For five days, from October 1 – 5, you can enjoy nine (9!) of my mysteries and thrillers FREE on Kindle. Just CLICK ON MY AMAZON PAGE or one of the book links below and start downloading for your killer Halloween reads.
Kyle Callahan Mysteries
Murder at Pride Lodge
Pride and Perilous
Death by Pride
Death in the Headlights
Kill Switch
Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge
Reservation for MurderMarshall James Thrillers
Murder at the Paisley Parrot
Beautiful Corpse