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 pages

You 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.

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.

About the Story

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.

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.

About ‘A Marriage Below Zero’

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.

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.

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.

This is exciting. As a way to attracted subscribers to my long-running website, lgbtsr.online/, 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.

About ‘A Marriage Below Zero’

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.

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.

Subscriber exclusive! I’ll be offering one free public domain book each month to LGBTSr subscribers, current and new. If you’re already on board, look for it in the next email. And if you’re new to the place, just SUBSCRIBE HERE for your free epub and PDF versions.

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