Showing posts with label Kindle Select Free Days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kindle Select Free Days. Show all posts

Thursday, June 20, 2013

The Violin Man's Legacy by Seumas Gallacher is FREE! #TBSU

Seumas Gallacher's first novel, The Violin Man's Legacy, is FREE on Kindle! Woohoo!
Click here to download FREE on Amazon US.
Here's the Story

Thriller with bloody twists and turns as ruthless killers meet their match in a former SAS hit squad.

Jack Calder is an ex-SAS soldier working with former colleagues at ISP, a specialist security firm. He is sent to investigate a murderous diamond heist in Holland, but swiftly learns that there is a very strong Far East connection. He then travels to Hong Kong where he meets the glamorous chief of ISP's local bureau, May-Ling.

Together they begin to unravel a complex web of corruption. The twin spiders at the centre of this web are the Chan brothers, leaders of one of Hong Kong's most ruthless and powerful triad gangs.

The trail of death and mayhem coils across Europe, Hong Kong and South America until all the scores are settled.

Here's my Amazon review

 Excellent Highly Detailed Crime Blaster Procedural 

 I really enjoyed reading The Violin Man's Legacy. The story of Jack Calder's background growing up in Scotland initially caught my interest. The rest of the novel draws on the author's many years in international banking to detail the intricate footwork of finding and then tracking the tentacles of a series of triad-based robberies. Fascinating!

Each of the many international locations feels real, probably because Gallacher has visited or lived there, though I don't know that for a fact. The authenticity of the local detail was another highly enjoyable part of the novel.

If you enjoy police procedurals, you'll like The Violin Man's Legacy. It's advertised as a thriller, and it is one, with plenty of action and a smash-em-up finish that's sneaky and loud enough to satisfy die-hard black ops thriller fans. But for me the great strength of the novel is the wealth of insider detail as the ex-SAS team works with international law enforcement to track and expose the perpetrators of a series of brutal financially motivated crimes.

Buy The Violin Man's Legacy today, and enjoy a solid read immersed in a totally different and exciting world.

Download The Violin Man's Legacy FREE!

Amazon US


Vengeance Wears Black

Vengeance Wears Black is the second novel in the thriller series by Seumas Gallacher. When you download a free copy of the first book, why not buy the second? It's like a two-for-one deal! Woohoo!

Click here for the US Amazon link.

Here's the Story


Jack Calder and his former SAS colleagues at ISP, a specialist security firm, are saved from certain death when an ex-Gurkha is killed smothering a deadly grenade thrown into a lunchtime Chinese restaurant in the West End of London. They learn that murderous turf wars are raging between Asian Triads and Eastern European mobsters vying for control of international fiefdoms of drug smuggling, people trafficking, prostitution and money laundering.

An unexpected visit from the highest levels of international law enforcement offers Jack and the ISP team a means to use their black operations skills to wreak a ruthless retaliation against the drug lords. 
Unlikely partners emerge in their onslaught against the gangs as the warring criminal factions threaten an unholy alliance to repel them. The pursuit spins across Europe, Turkey and North Africa before a final reckoning.

Download Vengeance Wears Black

Amazon US






Give yourself a treat. Download The Violin Man's Legacy FREE! Buy Vengeance Wears Black. Pour yourself a beverage of choice. And settle in for a sojourn in the world of Seumas Gallacher's Jack Calder. 

 Visit Seumas' amazing, funny, insightful blog, too! You'll be glad.

 Have you read Seumas's books? Would you like to talk to the man himself? Or me? *smile* Grab that beverage of choice and join us for a chat!


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Monday, May 27, 2013

Tasty Humble Pie #TBSU


Do you know the Taoist story of the Chinese farmer and his son? If not, here’s a brief version.

A farmer has a strong young son. The neighbors say, “How lucky you are.” The farmer shrugs. The son breaks his leg and can’t work. The neighbors say, “How unlucky you are.” The farmer shrugs. The army comes and takes all the young men off to war, except the farmer’s son. The neighbors say, “How lucky you are.” The farmer shrugs.  And so on, and so on...
The point of the story is that we can’t see a big enough picture to know how something will ultimately turn out. The farmer knows that, but most of us are so caught up in the moment that we can’t help but react to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ news.

My Farmer Moment

I’m in the middle of a farmer moment myself right now. Twelve Nights shot up to #1 when it went for its Free Days on Amazon Kindle in early May. Amidst a frenzy of promotion, thousands of people all over the world downloaded copies. Of course, I was thrilled, happy dancing around the living room for days!
A small cloud appeared a week later when negative ratings began to appear on Goodreads. It seems some of the people who picked up the novel just because it was free ended up not liking it. The euphoria of having a #1 novel far outweighed the tiny downside. Overall though, I was quite happy to get back to a less promotional life, quietly blogging and walking my dogs.
Last week another of my novels, Who Is Candid?, was on Kindle Free Days. The downloads were in the hundreds, rather than the thousands. Same promotion. Same frenzy. Totally different outcome.

Can Humble Pie be Tasty?

Honestly, once the initial disappointment wore off (it took a few hours), I felt more in tune with the farmer than ever before in my life! It REALLY doesn’t matter! I kept on Tweeting and Facebooking the promotions, hopefully not obnoxiously, and at the same time I was laughing inside.
Already, by not feeling upset, I could see the upside of NOT having a best selling novel. My friends are amazingly supportive, some more upset than I am. When people are there for #1 and they are also there for #who-knows-how-low, you know you have strong real friendships! All sorts of new ways of supporting our friendships have occurred to me in the last few days. One is the book and blog trailer sharing on YouTube that I announced recently. 

Thank You, Readers!


 I also appreciate more than ever the readers of this blog, most of whom are nameless and yet keep visiting by the hundreds every day. The same day my novel had the least downloads, I found out that the blog had been nominated for 2014 Blog of the Year. The next day I was invited to a write regular guest post column on a popular website. How cool is that?! You can read my How To post every Saturday at Skelat.com, starting with How to Let Go of Self-Consciousness.
I like to imagine myself as the Chinese farmer, stepping back and scratching my chin. Truth is, it’s all good. The good parts are good, and the bad parts are also good. With a shrug of Taoist chin scratching, Life is Awesome!
And humble pie is really quite tasty!
Hardly humble! Thank you Molly Ann Wishlade for the photo
of your cranberry and orange meringue pie!

 Have you had an experience that could have felt awful, and instead felt okay, even comfortable? How do you ride the wave of outward success and outward less-than-success? Please share your secrets for serenity, your questions, your doubts and affirmations, in the comments. I look forward to a lively discussion!

Check Out These Related Posts


Five fantastic blogs about LIFE, presented in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU 


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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

FREE Kindle Days and Sexy Idaho! #TBSU

Today Lucy is in Idaho. I love Idaho! I found a beautiful photo and some fun tidbits to share! First a reminder that Who Is Candid? is FREE starting today on Amazon! All the Amazon links worldwide to download the novel directly are listed at the bottom of this post!

This badge is off by one day, but who's counting?!

Once you've downloaded the novel, it will be even more fun to follow Lucy's story here on the blog, with photos and personal anecdotes from stops along the way.

Lucy in Idaho

Idaho is one of my favorite states. It's hard to pinpoint why. Maybe the friendly people, or the spaciousness. Lucy drives across the northern part of the state, where it's skinny.


Here's part of Interstate 90 between Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Gorgeous!


A little more I-90 fun. Police have figured out that the best way to move moose off the roadway is... paintball guns! The moose might up with pink rear ends, but they move off the highway. No harm, no foul!

Here's a link to read the full story. 

Back in the novel, before you know it, Lucy pulls into an outlet mall. Luckily there's lots of parking space, so she doesn't have to try to back up the trailer. Can you back up a thirty foot trailer? Neither can I.


The first place Lucy heads is a bookstore, where she stocks up on books for her trip. Here are links to the titles she buys, in case you share her eclectic tastes: The Tao of Love and Sex (a sex manual!), Carlos Casteneda's The Art of Dreaming, The Dictionary of Clichés (because who couldn't use a few more clichés!),   and Screaming Hawk, by Patton Boyle.

It's a good thing the parking lot is fairly empty, because a few minutes later, Lucy and the bookstore clerk head out to her trailer for a little extracurricular excitement! You can read about their shall we say oral reading adventure in the novel!


Have you ever been to Idaho? What was your favorite part? What's the strangest book on your bookshelf? Have you read it? Share all in the comments. I can't wait to hear!




As promised, Who Is Candid? is FREE for the rest of this week on Amazon Kindle! Here are the links.

International Amazon Links to Download 

Who Is Candid?!


Amazon US











Check out these related posts:


Four fun blogs from Idaho, presented in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU 


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Monday, May 20, 2013

Lucy's Trigger and My Own Rescue Dogs! #TBSU

We're still on Lucy's awesome Sexy Fun Road Trip! Before we see what happens on May 20, let me take a minute to remind you that Who Is Candid? will be FREE tomorrow on Amazon Kindle!

I bet you'd rescue him too! More about Trigger/Maxi in a few minutes.
On May 20 in the novel, Lucy rescues a bedraggled Trigger, who becomes her trip companion. You can read all about the rescue, including an excerpt from the novel, here. I'll wait a minute while you read the story...

Rescue Dogs

For today's post, I thought I'd show you some pictures of real dogs in my life, almost all of them rescues.

Pax was our first dog. My husband was a dog person; I wasn't, until Pax converted me.


Sorry the photo is grainy. It's a poor scan done years ago of an old album photo. This is Pax with my oldest daughter, now an adult, on the beach near Gibson's Landing, British Columbia. Pax was one of the sweetest dogs that ever lived. I have a vivid memory of my daughter pulling a bone out of her mouth, playing with it, and giving it back. Lovely gentle Pax!


This is Joey. He was advertised as a cocker/poodle mix at the pet store (I didn't know any better at the time). By now I was a single parent and Pax was living with my ex. I figured my daughter, who was 7, could have a dog, and when she went off to university, he'd be old and die and I wouldn't be burdened with a dog. Ha Ha. The joke was entirely on me. Joey turned out to be pure hell-on-wheels terrier, and he lived to the ripe old age of 18 years! Joey was the role model for Trigger in Who Is Candid?—a pint-sized escape artist with a Napoleon personality!

Once I moved from Canada to Alabama, the dogs started accumulating, all rescues! BTW despite having broken his back (it healed), Joey was still going strong! Our first rescue dog in Alabama was Soos, plucked from the side of a rural highway as a baby bundle of red fur!



Soos grew into a gorgeous, large Chow mix. She was the best dog and the best mama ever! She was impregnated very young on New Years Eve when we were camping out at a creek. Oops. Her five pups all found homes with family and friends. Jessie, the runt of the litter, is my daughter's dog, and has lived happily ever after in Alabama, Florida, New York City, and now Chicago! Soos died in her sleep of old age last year, having lived the ideal dog's life, hugely loved and with 100 acres of beautiful Alabama countryside to roam.

Fast forward several years and as many as nine dogs at a time (we did have 100 acres). Trust me, they were all spayed and neutered as young as was safe! The one who is still with me, having stuck by my side through twelve years in five states and two countries, is my beloved Gemma.



She's getting old now, aren't we all?, but is as gentle and loving and gorgeous as always! She's also been an excellent guard dog, and still loves to sit by the glass door and bark at passersby. I wrote a poem about rescuing her from the side of a highway in Alabama. My response to 9/11 was an overwhelming urge to rescue dogs. The poem appears in my second book of poems, Equivocal Blessings, and was anthologized in Whatever Remembers Us: an anthology of Alabama poetry. You can read it here, if you'd like.

The newest addition to our household is Maximilian, Maxi for short. He was rescued from the streets of Colima, Mexico, where I live, by a neighbor. The photo at the top of the post was my first look at him, by the side of her house.



Maxi is ten pounds of photogenic adorableness who has won over Gemma's and my hearts. He came to us skin and bones and scared, and in two weeks has been neutered, plumped up, and loved to bits.


He started with us as a foster, and even had an prospective dad-in-waiting, but when I saw how much Gemma loved him, I couldn't give him up! Maxi has brought new life to what will probably be her last few months. My gratitude and love for them both is unbounded!

These are a few of the fabulous dogs I've shared my life with. I can't wait to hear your stories about the dogs in your life! Please share photos too in the comments! Let's have a dogfest!!

And don't forget to download Who Is Candid? tomorrow when it's FREE! Woohoo! You can continue to follow Lucy's story here on the blog, with photos and personal anecdotes from stops along the way.

 Check out these dog-related posts:

Five fantastic blogs of friends who also love dogs!, presented in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU 

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Pawn to Queen Six, and Gratitude Unlimited! #TBSU

Yes, I know that Pawn to Queen Four is the standard opening (thank you Google). Pawn to Queen Six, on the other hand, could be the brilliant set up to checkmate, or it could be the random move of a beginner (me!). And that's the point.
a good basic intro to chess
Tonight I find myself on the last night of my First Kindle Free Days adventure. Pawn to Queen Six. When you're in the middle of an adventure, you can lose sight of the simple fact that you are on one carousel, riding one pony of many, in a great big fairground of life! For a few days, I got so caught up in the game of tag-you're-it, that I forgot about the big picture.

That's not an apology. Tag is a LOT of fun! Being immersed in the moment is intense, fulfilling, and... fantastic! If this were an erotica blog, I'd say orgasmic! (*cheeky grin*) BTW, you can still download Twelve Nights for free through midnight Pacific time today! Tag! You're it!

Click here to download!
Now that this one lovely game is winding down, the mosaic of the big picture is coming back into view. The next game is about to begin, when Beauty of the Beast unleashes on Tuesday, May 7. In the breathing space, here are a few observations.

Friendships Are Cemented When You Work Together


Global Internet friends—movie making friends, hugging friends, recipe sharing friends, family photo sharing friends, Law of Attraction friends—all came together to promote the heck out of the Twelve Nights free promo days. You know who you are, and for those who don't know, you can read a whole post about them here.

We're a disparate group who met through each being my friend. Now it feels like I have a true band of brothers (and sisters). Seumas Gallacher's Vengeance Wears Black goes on free days at midnight tonight? We're on it! When Molly Wishlade's Desire in Deadwood debuts in August, we'll be there!

My gratitude is unlimited!

I Love Giving Away My Books


Kindle Free Days are a strategy to sell more books. My brain knows that. My heart is so joyful to give my books away, I could burst! If I put all my novels free on Amazon all the time, I'd be in heaven! [All right, Ms Brain. I won't do it!]

I worried that I would obsess about the numbers (curse of the mathematician). Did you know that you can track downloads click by click? My worst nightmare guilty pleasure! Instead, because the books are free, watching the downloads is fun. I won't check for hours, and then happy dance around the room, again!

From a Law of Attraction perspective, generosity is about the best gift you can give yourself. When you are generous, you feel abundant, and feeling abundant brings more and more abundance into your life. So thank you to the thousands of readers who downloaded Twelve Nights! 

My gratitude knows no bounds!

Things Change in an Eye Blink


With the first of May, all the posts on the blog from April vanished off the front page, into the depths of the archives! I loved April! It's seems silly, but I miss seeing the gecko post on the sidebar. How could One Global Tweet, One Earth disappear from page one? Of course, they're still here, and often posts pick up more readers later than immediately. Google search engine, I love you!

Some changes I welcome. Whew! I can go back to tweeting normal non-promotional stuff and not feel like I'm abandoning my Twelve Nights baby in the middle of her first free spree.

Over three days, Twelve Nights climbed from unranked to #1. It's on its natural way back down now, dropping more slowly than I had anticipated, actually. Still #6 at last count. If you are ever doing a KDP free fling, my observation is that the greatest number of downloads came on day 2. Just for reference.

A small surprise for me is that I'm just as happy as the ranking falls as I was on the way up. Not as giddy, mind you, but internally I'm feeling very content! Yet another lesson in welcoming change. Ahhh...

My gratitude is endless!


Please join me in the comments! I'd love to hear your thoughts. What are you grateful for? What fills you with a sense of abundance? Tell me about change, small or large, and how it affects you. Do you welcome change? Does it scare you, or make you sad? But first of all, how the heck are you doing today??




Three fun book blogs, presented here in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU 


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Sunday, April 28, 2013

KDP Free Days Wedding Night Jitters! He Said, She Said, He Said! #TBSU


Just to get the message right up front, Twelve Nights is going for a free spree on Amazon!

Marissa created this beautiful badge! Please copy and share it!

To make it easy for everyone to download a copy of the book, the worldwide links are at the bottom of this post.

On to the Co-Post!


Seumas Gallacher and I decided to try a little co-blogging. Turns out it's almost as much fun as some other co-activities we all enjoy! You can find this same post on Seumas's blog too! While you're there, give yourself a treat and read some more of his posts. He's unique and a treat to read!

Take it away, Seumas!



 … literary promiscuity works... the well-baited fishing line thrown out in yesterday’s post by Master Gallacher has snared its first success… here’s yer maiden offering of a JOINT BLOG... from a fair maiden in her own right… my friend AUTHOR CAROLE REMY... she of the prolific noveling ilk… about to dip her prosaic toe into the enticing waters of the Kindle Select Program Free Promo… allows her post to be wrapped by commentary from this old spider lurking in his own tentacles of the WEB… Ms REMY encapsulates so well the angst, the trepidation, the JITTERS… oh bluudy hell, the absolutely mind-freezing scariness of letting yer wee baby into the clutches of the KGB...no, strike that, I meant the KDP… being of a more capricious bent than my ally, Ms REMY, when I first linked up with KDP, I harboured no doubts as I entered yet another one-night stand with the femme fatale of the indie publishing world… or was that a five-day stand?… and I must ‘fess up … I have not LUVVED ‘EM and LEFT ‘EM… I’ve LUVVED ‘EM and LINGERED.… KDP has been gentle with me… let’s find out what Ms REMY thinks of it all… here she is:

She Said...


 My first marriage was to Royalty. The wedding was lovely, posh and all. I even received a small dowry. At the time, I was young and naive, and didn’t know enough to have wedding night jitters. Besides, there was no performance evaluation for six months! What more could a first time bride want.

 The marriage went the way so many marriages do these days. The first six month’s Royalty Statement was stellar! Our baby was a grand success! We immediately had another, also a winning performer! And then Royalty’s interest began to wain. He didn’t show up for our child’s starring role in the school play, missed soccer matches, you know the story. Royalty just wasn’t interested in promoting our children. We eventually divorced when I declined to have a third child with a disinterested parent, and that was that.

Now, I find myself on the eve of another wedding night, this time to Kindle Direct Publishing Free Days, filled with the jitters my first wedding never provoked. Of course, I have the reassurance that this marriage is forever. KDP can’t divorce me and my darling offspring Twelve Nights without also canceling all it’s other two million partners. Publishing is a polygamous, but equal, enterprise these days. And I know that this wedding night is but the first of many occasions for free-spirited bliss.

 The Law of Attraction tells me to feel successful and abundant, and really, I do! I love my life, and book sales are the icing on an already delicious cake. Mmmm, wedding cake. Did I remember to call the caterers? I put in twelve orders for company Tweets, and invited all my friends to celebratweet with me. The Facebook invitations are in the mail. The wedding is even being filmed by my other new partner, T. N. Mohan, the producer who just optioned my Twelve Nights baby for her own movie!

 And yet, I have the jitters. The problem is that tomorrow morning when I wake up, my new partner is going to give me a by-the-numbers evaluation of my performance. I don’t know if I can stand it! 

 Seumas, I need a hug!

He Said....


…Seumas here, Carole… settle down, m’Lady.. it’ll be all right on the night… mega-hugs aplenty to you… just don’t wanna make your new KDP beau jealous…
…to all you wunnerful Lads and Lassies of the Blog Land out there, your support for Carole’s virgin traipse into Freebie territory will be much appreciated…
…the promo starts on Monday morning, April 29th,  00.01 am Pacific Time and here’s the links… 
Given the international audience for this blog—thank you! thank you!—I've expanded the list with links to all the Amazon pages.
If you'd like to chat with me or Seumas, drop us a comment! We'd love to hear from you!

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Twelve Nights Optioned as Independent Romantic Comedy Feature Film! #TBSU

Wow! What a day! This morning we finalized the deal, and Twelve Nights is now officially optioned as a feature length romantic comedy film!




Producer T. N. Mohan is best known for his film Hanged on a Twisted Cross, "a gripping documentary, narrated by Ed Asner, that captures the life, times, and thought of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer." Eight feature films directed and/or produced by Mohan are displayed on his Amazon page.

Mohan has been teaching for the last three years, and has chosen Twelve Nights as the vehicle to jump start his return to active film making.

 Here are Mohan's words on why he selected Twelve Nights.
I've had my eye on Twelve Nights since it was originally published. When I found it again on Amazon, I was thrilled. Perfect project, perfect timing for me. I see the movie as Shakespeare meets Bollywood meets Valentine's Day.  The novel is mainly in dialogue, which makes it easier to translate to the screen. The story is lively and the characters are well-developed. As Carole Remy says, Twelve Nights is a sexy fun romance. For our film, we're taking out the graphic part, but the movie is going to be a solid hour and a half of sexy fun.

An International Movie!


 The production of Twelve Nights (BTW the title may change) will be truly an international effort. The screenwriter and director will probably be Canadian. Then again, Jimmy's home location may move to Scotland! I could see him as Scottish, couldn't you? Who knows? The movie could be set in Toronto or Montreal, or even London, Frankfurt, New York, or Madrid! As you can see from his previous movies, Mohan has produced and directed all over North America and Europe. What an adventure!

 Yesterday was a day of amazing, emotional, super-charged positive energy. The Law of Attraction says that you attract more of what you already have, and boy, has that proven true today! I am filled to the brim with gratitude, and you can imagine how eager I am for tomorrow!

 Join us for a conversation in the comments. Who do you see as Jimmy and Richard? How do you imagine them? Who should play Aggie and Angela? One actress or two? What about Danny, and Monica? So many actors! So many choices! Names, people, names! 

 If you have questions, suggestions, or comments for T. N. Mohan, he'll be stopping by to chat too. Take advantage of this opportunity to ask a movie producer all the behind the scenes questions you've been curious about for years!

 It's a party! Join the happy dance!

Check out these related posts:


Two great blogs, presented here in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU 
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