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

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

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

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

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!

Developing Your Voice: Novel Writers Workshop #TBSU

Seumas Gallacher wrote about voice this morning on his wonderful blog, and his words reminded me of Voice Recognition Day at the Novel Writers Workshop, which I taught for several years through the Auburn University Outreach Program. Here are some thoughts and exercises on Voice.

Your Unique Voice!

Your voice is what makes you unique as a writer. As Albert Zuckerman says in Writing the Blockbuster Novel, “a distinctive voice… must grow out of your own special affinity for the English language, out of the rhythms, tones and nuances you hear and weave into your own mind of people’s speech, out of your own highly personal and somewhat skewed vision of the world.” BTW Zuckerman's book is the best guide I've found for practical, straightforward novel writing advice.

Does developing a voice sound like an impossible task? Don’t despair! When you write authentically, write for yourself, write what you like, your unique voice will emerge automatically. 

Two bothersome sidetracks 

Beware these two distractions that can snare the unwary.

Advice! Don’t take advice too seriously. [That includes mine!] Writers who are pushed and pulled by everyone’s opinion of their work may find it harder to find their own voice.

The market! Don’t try to write strictly for the market. If you’re writing only to please everyone else and not yourself, it's harder to find your authentic unique voice.

This warning doesn’t mean you should ignore the reader or ignore all advice, only that you need to remember what gives you pleasure in your work. 

Can you match the sample with the author?

Just for fun, let’s look at a few writers who have developed a distinctive voice. Can you recognize the author from the brief passage??

Number One
“And if I did, (which, however, I am far from allowing,) I should not feel that I had done wrong. Mr. Martin is a very respectable young man, but I cannot admit him to be Harriet’s equal; and am rather surprised indeed that he should have ventured to address her.”

Number Two
“Ain’t it a life?” Jack says.
Hogan brought in a quart of liquor and two glasses.
“Want some ginger ale?”

Number Three
At once I began to talk to her. I cannot remember precisely what I said. I was so flustered that I didn’t know what I should say to explain my appearance there, and very slowly I sensed danger just as surely as I had sensed it with Cortland years ago. 

Number Four
He walked on a dozen steps, then could hold it no longer. He leaned a forearm against a telephone pole, pressed his mouth to his arm, and laughed as quietly as he could – laughed until tears poured down his cheeks. When the fit (and that was what it really felt like; a kind of hysterical seizure) had passed, Ralph raised his head and looked around with attentive, curious, slightly teary eyes. He saw nothing that anyone else couldn’t see as well, and that was a relief.

Don't Peek!

Have you made your guesses? Okay, now you can look. The passages are from

Emma, by Jane Austen
“Fifty Grand”, a short story by Ernest Hemingway
The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice
Insomnia, by Stephen King

Click on the links to buy the books. Thank you, master authors. You can step down now.

Voice Self-Quiz

As a start to recognizing your own voice, place your writing on the following scales:
[Arggg! The scales looked perfect on the preview! Sorry!]

short sentences        1 2 3 4 5 long sentences

more action       1 2 3 4 5 more description

one telling detail       1 2 3 4 5 accumulation of detail

short words       1 2 3 4 5 long words

rational               1 2 3 4 5 emotional

short paragraphs       1 2 3 4 5 long paragraphs

plot               1 2 3 4 5 character

short time span        1 2 3 4 5 long time span


If ten writers place themselves on these scales, I guarantee the circles will fall in ten different patterns. Your writing is unique! 

For fun, if you want, scale the authors above on the items you can pick out from the brief samples. Interesting, isn't it?!

Conscious Writing

As with everything else about writing, when you make conscious choices from awareness, your writing becomes a clear expression of your unique self. For example, you can choose to break a grammatical rule because it suits your purpose. But first, you need a good grasp of the rules!  

If you've never thought much about voice, think about it now. What is your voice? How do you honor it in your writing? Cultivate your strengths as a writer, and let your voice shine!

Let's continue the conversation in the comments, shall we? What are your thoughts on voice? Did the self-analysis exercise help you recognize the quirks and habits in your writing that make you uniquely YOU? Are there other writing topics you'd like to explore here on the blog? I'm all ears! (*grin* Yes, we'll do a day on clichés!)

Check out these related posts:

• Publish or Perish vs the Law of Attraction

• Wait! Change! It's the Law of Attraction!

• Synopsis Day at the Novel Writers Workshop #TBSU

• Creating Guidelines for Writers' Critique Groups #TBSU

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

• The Creative Penn 

• Caffeine's not a crime 

• Seumas Gallacher 

• Ahmad Darkside's Musings (thoughtful guest post on getting started as a writer by Bernadette Marie)

Thriving on the Roller Coaster of Life #TBSU

Many people these days feel like they are riding a roller coaster of emotions. Among others, Law of Attraction bloggers and my (generally non-blogging!) Mexican shaman friends agree that 

♫♪♫  The times, they are a changin'.  ♫♪♫

As my friend Seumas Gallacher so eloquently put it in his blog post today,

... the highs and lows in any walk of life are a matter of fact… zoning in on Writers/Authors/Quill-Scrapers in general, prob’ly more so… the joy, blood, sweat and tears of producing the masterpiece… the angst of waiting to see how it fares in the Big Bad World of Publishing... the despair when even one bad review gets registered… the ecstasy when it’s praised by sumb’dy ye don’t even know… there’s the ultimate in roller-coasting emotions… 

A Taoist Perspective

So here we are as writers, in a profession that offers perhaps even more opportunity than most for higher highs and lower lows. And here we are as human beings, in a time of rising global vibration, which brings with it a natural resistance to change = major tension!

Looked at from a Taoist perspective, events in our lives rise and fall. In an earlier post I recounted the story of the Taoist farmer. If life is an river, we can learn to float, which doesn’t mean living a superficial life, but rather being adaptable and accepting, even enjoying, each variation. Huck Finn is an exemplary Taoist!!

It's easy to feel alone when we're in a trough. 

Here are Seumas' words on the mingling of laughter and pathos.

… years ago, an English comic genius, Norman Wisdom, had a signature song, ‘Don’t Laugh at Me, ‘Coz I’m a Fool’… the switch from the laughter to the pathos evoked with the song made it all the more poignant for me, and it still does… looking back over the decades, I’m struck by how strongly the chord still resonates with me… the humanity, and the humility, all wrapped into a few minutes of music from a man who made millions laugh for his living… the life lesson is there for all to learn… (my word, Mabel, this sounds serious, eh?)… no matter how any of us is generally perceived by our fellows,  there’s usually at least more than one facet to our individual personalities… 

And my response...

Pondering these words about perception and personality (uh oh, danger, thinking!), the metaphor that comes to mind is the ocean. Aspects of who we are rise and fall like waves, but the reality is more vast and complex than even we can perceive. Others mostly see only a peak here and there.

Can we view each other as beautifully complex, even fractal? Can we acknowledge and relish the fact that what we see is only one facet of an immensely rich sea? Even further, perhaps we can sense that just as you are an ocean and I am an ocean, we are actually the same ocean? Whew! There's a thought exercise!

Seumas wouldn't be Seumas if he didn't have an uplifting conclusion.

... hark back to yer man, the incomparable Norman Wisdom… his technique encapsulated  the ability to laugh at himself… and THERE’S the lesson… I suggest we should correctly take our work, our profession, our craft seriously, but never, ever take OURSELVES too seriously… humour is a wonderful release from all sorts of daily stresses.. and MY easiest target for it?… Master Gallacher himself... oh, and you can laugh at me too, if yeez want

Humor = Laughter = Joy!

Not taking ourselves too seriously. Laughing a lot. Realizing that today's mountain is tomorrow's molehill. This is the simple formula for navigating the ups and downs, for floating on the river, for adapting to the world's rising energy with glee rather than despair.

Going back to the ocean metaphor, while complex and profound, we are also simplicity itself. Just as the ocean is water, we are joy. As Seumas points out, humor is the linchpin. The humility of a drop of salt water, the fun of dancing in a spring shower—that’s us!

Introducing Norman Wisdom

... click on here to hear the maestro :

Thank you to Seumas Gallacher for his kind permission to interweave his post and my reaction! I hope you've enjoyed our shared thoughts. How do you navigate the ups and downs of life? Are you feeling like 2013 is a roller coaster of a year? Where do you find everyday joy? Please join the conversation in the comments. 

Check out these related posts:

• KDP Free Days Wedding Night Jitters! He Said, She Said, He Said! #TBSU
• Encouraging Words from Seumas Gallacher #TBSU

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

• Tao Te Ching Daily (all things Tao)
• Deliberate Receiving (all things Law of Attraction)
• Seumas Gallacher (all things life)

Beautiful Blogger Award! #TBSU

Thank you, Sir Seumas Gallacher, for nominating me for the awesome Beautiful Blogger Award!

The Rules:

1.  Copy and place the Beautiful Blogger Award in your post.

2.  Thank the person that nominated you and link back to their blog

3.  Tell 7 things about yourself.

4.  Nominate 7 fellow Bloggers, tell them by posting a comment on their Blog.

Hmmm... 7 interesting things... That's a lot... 

1. I was born on Christmas Day. The nuns were singing Christmas carols in the lobby of the hospital, and hence my name, Carole. Thanks, Mom and Dad! 
2. My twin sisters were born on Mothers' Day. We're a holiday sort of family. I was six at the time, making doll clothes with a friend on her porch, when I heard the news. The moment is indelible in my memory. In a happy synchronicity, today is their birthday! Happy Birthday, Maggee and Patricia!
3. When I was ten, I played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. My long braids no doubt got me the part.
4. I started college as a physics major. When I found out that all my classes were with truly rowdy engineering students, and that I was the only girl, I transferred to the calmer but still geeky mathematics department, where there was actually one other girl!
5. I'm a nomad. I've never lived in the same place for more than three years, mostly way less, except from age 11 to 17 in my parents' house. And I've never been in the military! Last count, something like 40 homes, 7 states, 3 countries. Yup. I'm a nomad.
6. If you get me started talking about education, prepare yourself for a long, passionate rant. I've taught high school and university in the US and Canada for enough years to have strong opinions. Give me free rein and a big whack of money, and I'll fix things, US Department of Education! Watch out.
7. My soul mate has four paws and a heart bigger than the sun! Gemma has been my companion for twelve years. She guards me, nourishes me, and keeps me sane! Well, mostly sane.

Here Are the 7 Awesome Bloggers Whom I Hereby Nominate

Nathalie Thompson of Vibe Shifting

Erzabet Bishop of Erzabet's Enchantments

Saph of Sapphyria's Steamy Book Reviews

Gretchen Galway

Anita Philmar

Jane Daugherty of Jane Daugherty Writes

Kevin Hanrahan

Head over to these great blogs while you're waiting for their seven interesting things. Every post on each of these blogs is interesting, often provocative, and fun to read.

Dear Readers, Please! Tell me your seven interesting things, or even one! I'm all ears, and waiting somewhat impatiently for your comments! Hope everyone out there in the global community is having a wonderful day!

Check out these sorta, kinda related posts:

• Encouraging Words from Aubrianna Hunter 
• Encouraging Words from Nathalie Thompson
• Encouraging Words from Kevin Hanrahan
• Encouraging Words from Seumas Gallacher

Encouraging Words from Seumas Gallacher! #TBSU

It's a huge pleasure to present a guest post of Encouraging Words from my friend Seumas Gallacher, author and blogger extraordinaire! His blogging style is unique, and earned him Blogger of the Year for 2013 from skellat.com. Congratulations, Seumas! And you, my dear readers, get to bask his enthusiastic glow today!

I'll post links to Seumas' terrific novels at the end of this post, but first, let's enjoy his words as he reminds us of just how much 'bluddy fun' being a novelist can be! By the way, Mabel is the Matron of the asylum where Seumas the Blogger resides.

.. it just keeps getting more betterer and betterer, Mabel… 

… through the mists of time, echoing words from my old Grannie resonate every now and then… among them  the pithy, “ye can have too much of a good thing, y’ know…”..that may well be the case, but I’m discov’ring there’s some stuff that seems cast with limitless pleasure … most of yeez who follow my blog will know by this time I’m a self-confessed tenant of a massive ‘feelgood’ cloud… the euphoria kicked in shortly after banging my first novel on to Amazon Kindle a couple of years ago… then came the revelatory daily-renewable gratification of immersion in the SOSYAL NETWURKIN community… the whirl of literary guest-speaking events around Abu Dhabi… the splendidly generous magazine and newspaper pieces on this ol’ Jurassic and his work… recently, the Abu Dhabi Book Fair saw fit to permit me to do a couple of book signings, a self-publishing panel slot with my great writing buddy, Author Jody. J. Ballard (she of the incredibly good debut novel, THE SMELL OF MUD), and a mind-boggling, author’s ego-stroking, interview Q and A session by invitation to the Royal Stand at the Fair… all this would start to creep into Granny’s “too much of a good thing, etc…”… except IT DOESN’T STOP there… yesterday was a tad different… an Arts and Crafts Fair event filled a local Mall Atrium where all sorts of goodies were on display… artists’ offerings, toys, handicrafts… and signed copies of novels by Master Gallacher... the whole affair ran for 12 hours (yes, 12 hours)… net result on copies sold amounted to 20 books… doesn’t sound very much does it?… but I ask myself.. in a normal day’s book shop sales, how many would be bought?… certainly nothing like that … placed against the download totals on Amazon, also inconsequential, perhaps.. BUT NOT TO THIS AUTHOR!!!.. the joy of signing yer own work and handing it to a reader who actually pays ye real hard cash money (oh, the ecstasy to a Scotsman… real cash money, Mabel)… and better still, to have live, face-to-face conversations with them about yer trip through the book’s genesis is FABULOUS… if I had even sold just ONE copy and had that sort of discussion, my day would have been complete … by the end of the event, my derriere was numb from sitting at the sales table… a small price in exchange for what we quill-scrapers seek most.. SUMB’DY WHO LIKES OUR BOOKS … I don’t even care that Matron’s here with that bluudy syringe… see yeez later ….

Thank you, Seumas! I feel ready to conquer the world! How about the rest of you? Please join us for what is sure to be a lively conversation in the comments!

Click HERE to buy on Amazon US!

If you enjoyed this guest post, you know you did!, indulge yourself in a whole book full of wit and wisdom!

Seumas Gallacher Novels

Seumas Gallacher's two best-selling thriller novels, replete with black ops, triads, international crime, and intricate cross-border investigations, are available for purchase on Amazon Kindle.

Click here to buy on Amazon US!

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

Click here to buy on Amazon US.

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 Calder and the ISP team a chance to use their black operations skills to wreak a ruthless retaliation against the drug lords. The pursuit spins across Europe, Turkey and North Africa before a final reckoning.

#TBSU

Last but far from least, in the tradition of friendship and generosity, Seumas began The Blog Scratchers' Union, an open group of bloggers who support each other on Twitter and by honoring a few compatriots at the end of each blog post. If you'd like to join, just add #TBSU to your tweets of posts, watch for and RT others #TBSU posts, and acknowledge great blogs, including your own! Here are Seumas' #TBSU bloggers for today.

http://blog.cathymansell.com

http://misswishlade.wordpress.com

http://www.seumasgallacher.wordpress.com

http://claudedancourt.webs.com

http://thegrumblinggargoyle.blogspot.co.uk

Check out these related posts:

• Encouraging Words from Aubrianna Hunter 
• Encouraging Words from Nathalie Thompson
• Encouraging Words from Kevin Hanrahan

Beauty of the Beast Unleashed! Now on Amazon Kindle! #TBSU

The Release Day Blitz has arrived! Tomorrow, May 7, is the official release day for Beauty of the Beast.

But...!!

Dear loyal readers, you get a chance to meet Beauty ahead of the pack! Beauty of the Beast  is available TODAY for only $3.99 on Amazon Kindle worldwide!

Click HERE to buy in the US!

Here's the Story

Mary Jane Andrews is what Texans call a pistol. She thinks fast, acts faster, and takes the consequences with a laugh. The year is 1950. Young reporter Mary Jane isn’t sure what SM is, but she’s heard that it’s going on outside Austin, and she’s determined to investigate. Once she meets the Master, she’s both enthralled and scared spitless.

What’s a Master to do when his hotter-than-sin sexual soul mate shows up at the door of his highly illegal sex house? Don’t worry, he has lots of ideas...

Trouble is, Mary Jane wants the story. And the Master won’t spend the rest of his natural life in jail. The sex is explosive, inventive, and addictive, both ways. Will it be bend or break for the insatiable Beauty and the masterful Beast?

Buy Beauty of the Beast Here!

In honor of the international following of Carole Remy's earlier novels, here's a list of Amazon sites where you can buy Beauty of the Beast around the world.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

Amazon France

Amazon Italy

Amazon Spain

Amazon Japan

Amazon Brazil

Tomorrow is the Release Day Blitz!

Beauty of the Beast is being featured on over twenty book blogs around the blogosphere!

Thank you to Roxanne Rhoads at Bewitching Book Tours, and thank you to all my blogging friends for getting Mary Jane and the Master's story off to a roaring start!

Check out these related posts:

• KDP Free Days Wedding Night Jitters! He Said, She Said, He Said! #TBSU
• Amazon Best Seller! Has a Nice Ring! #TBSU
• New Sexy Fun Erotic Romance Book Covers

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

• Molly Ann Wishlade
• Seumas Gallacher

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??

Check out these related posts:

• KDP Free Days Wedding Night Jitters! He Said, She Said, He Said! #TBSU
• Amazon Best Seller! Has a Nice Ring! #TBSU
• Wait! Change! It's the Law of Attraction!

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

• Sapphyria's Steamy Book Reviews
• Erzabet's Enchantments
• Adventure into Romance with Shelley Munro

Vengeance Wears Black is FREE! #TBSU

Vengeance Wears Black, the second novel in a thriller series by my friend Seumas Gallacher, begins five days of free Kindle downloading tonight at midnight, PST! 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.

Here's Seumas's own Introduction to the Free Days.

…it’s deja vu, all over again, Mabel…the repetitive efficacy of Kindle Free Promo Days…#TBSU…

… they say one of the clearest signs of madness is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a DIFFERENT result… flawless logic to me… it should therefore follow, you Einsteinian Logicians out there will readily agree I’m sure, that doing the same thing over and over again expecting the SAME result makes bundles of sense… ever since this ol’ Jurassic stumbled into the self-publishing Amazon Kindle Empire, tricks of the trade have presented themselves with comforting frequency… the mechanism on the KINDLE SELECT PROGRAM permits any author to make his novel(s) free for any five days in EVERY  three month period... it may not work for all of you Lads and Lassies in BlogLand, but it has proved a boon to me… especially having more than one tome to offer… rotating each Free Promo period, whilst having yer other masterpieces as‘live’ and ‘paid down-loadables’ , ye can quickly grasp the ‘buy one, get a different one free’ attraction… this week, I launch (yet again)VENGEANCE WEARS BLACK from Friday morning, May 3rd, 00.01 am West Pacific Coast time for 5 days... but, I hear ye mutter, “ye’ve done that title a couple of times already, Master Gallacher” …  indeed I have, and with gratifying download success… but here’s the thing,  the followingSTILL GROWS when ye immerse yerself in the SOSYAL NETWURKINuniverse…new pals… new buddies in Laptop Nirvana.. new people come on daily… new potential readers… new opportunities to broaden yer plank as ye BUILD THE PLATFORM… so if ye’ve downloaded before…thanks for yer immense support… if ye haven’t… well, what are ye waiting for ??…

Where to Download 

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

The Violin Man's Legacy

You may want to download Vengeance is Black for free, and buy the first book in the popular series, The Violin Man's Legacy. That way you can read them in order.

Click here to buy 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.




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


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! 

Amazon Best Seller! Has a Nice Ring! #TBSU

Update!

Wow! What a day this has been, what a rare mood I'm in!  ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

No wait, it's not love, it's Amazon rankings!!

Thanks to YOU, my wonderful friends and readers, Twelve Nights climbed to the #3 ranking on Amazon Kindle Erotica today.

And in Germany? #1!! Danke sehr sehr sehr viel!

Two days ago, Twelve Nights was a relative unknown in the Amazon Erotica World, lowly enough that it wasn't even ranked. I actually thought of the free days promo as a lead in to the launch of Beauty of the Beast. Today? Well, the words stunned, gob smacked, elated, thrilled, and GRATEFUL all have new meaning.

Gratitude and Appreciation!

The greatest of these freshly defined words is Grateful! I'd like to publicly thank some mentors and friends, without whom... wait a minute... this isn't an Oscar speech. Okay, huge thank yous (buy their books, read their blogs, everyone!) to

• Suzanne Johnson aka Susannah Sandlin, who held my hand when I dipped my toe into the Amazon stream

• Molly Ann Wishlade, one of my first Twitter friends who makes every day brighter and is a tremendous RTer!

• Melody Fletcher, Law of Attraction genius and very funny lady

• Nathalie Thompson, who suggested we mentor each other back before any of this started for either of us and has been a steady friend ever since

• Seumas Gallacher, whose support and enthusiasm make all things possible. #TBSU!

Greatest thanks of all goes to the people that I've met and become friends with through the energy waves of the Internet, and especially to the amazing readers of this blog. 

Beauty of the Beast

The fun isn't over, folks! Twelve Nights is still FREE on Amazon through Thursday. And in just seven days, Mary Jane Andrews of Beauty of the Beast makes her bow as the newest Carole Remy heroine. Like Aggie, Angela, and Lucy, Mary Jane is smoking hot, smart, and independent, more than a match for the man of her dreams. Especially when it turns out that she's been the woman of his sexy dreams for quite awhile!

Mark your calendar! Mary Jane is about to unleash the Beauty of the Beast!

If you have a blog and would like to participate in the Release Day Blitz, let me know and I'll send you a press kit with everything you need. The Blitz has been organized by Roxanne Rhoads, owner of Bewitching Book Tours and another great supporter of my novels! Everyone, feel free to download, copy, and distribute this badge (created by the ever amazing Marissa) in any way you wish!

As always, I look forward to your thoughts and comments! Once things settle a little, I'll think about how all this relates to the Law of Attraction. What do you think? Best manifestation ever, right! Happy dance!

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