…Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli… stringed Maestros…

…there are musicians whose talented gifts surpass JONGGR… in these modern days where we quill-scrapers hear so much about ‘writing in the proper JONGGR,‘ p’raps a wee lesson is to be had listening to these exponents in another field of the artistic arts… if yeez play, sing, write, or perform wonderfully at whatever yeez do, to hell with the JONGGR, I say… Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli graced the WURLD with their expertise with their different styles of violin playing… but whomever yeez listened to of the pair, they were outstanding…

…listen first to this clip, where the two were thrown together for the first time… magical… and the distinctive ‘Voices’ of each of their playing comes triumphantly to the ear…

…now, enjoy Master Menuhin’s talent…

…and compare that of Master Grappelli…

…back in the day, when the rock and roll, beat, and hippy-hippy-shake tsunamis were bouncing across the airwaves on television and endless radio music channels, these virtuosi still commanded a rightful place and more than held their own in enrapturing national and international audiences… this kinda playing is everlasting… thank you gentlemen for being alive and playing when I could still listen to yeez both… see yeez all later… LUV YEEZ!…

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…Robert Burns and Sir Winston Churchill… iconic maverick role models…

….hadn’t noticed the date proximity before… Robert Burns was born on January 25th, 1759… 206 years later, all but a day, Sir Winston Churchill died on January 24th, 1965… by any measure, two monumental figures on the stages of their respective WURLDS… Burns, a poor poet farmer who is revered, particularly in Scotland, but also remembered annually at Burns Supper dinners all around the planet has left an ageless literary legacy… this ol’ Jurassic was privileged last night to deliver the keynote Immortal Memory Toast on Burns at a supper in Bahrain… and this afternoon, I watched on television the memorial service taking place in London of the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Churchill… arguably the greatest statesman ever, making many of us of a certain age hanker for more of his ilk and status to replace the slates of political charlatans posing in so many national governments today… I have been a lifelong idoliser of Sir Winston Churchill, as many of yeez Lads and Lassies who follow my blog may recall, and wanted to meet the great man (I’ll defer that get-together for as long as I can now, Mabel)… and lest it be forgotten, in 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his remarkable four-volume, A History of the English Speaking Peoples… Nobel Prizes were first presented in 1895, but I’ve no doubt that if they had been around in the days of Burns, he too, would have been a worthy and deserving recipient… further links between these men are easy to identify… Burns has great allure for his fundamental premise that all men are created equal, and his hope that one day, ‘man to man the world o’er, will brithers be for ‘a that’… Churchill’s more recent crusade in the last century to ensure the freedom of all peoples are well documented… these men are conjoined in essence in their railing against the separate tyrannies they saw in their lifetimes—Burns against the poverty of the common man, Churchill for the right of all men to be free… it occurs to me that p’raps I’m not alone in having as hero figures those who tend not to follow the absolute norms… both these greats had their detractors, and sometimes with good reason, for their personal lives’ activities and principles (Burns fathered more than a dozen children by five different women… Churchill erred massively in his treatment of the Irish and in his First World War decision at Gallipoli)… regardless, two more pronounced examples are hard to find… Robert Burns and Sir Winston Churchill… iconic maverick role models… would that we had more of their kind around today… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

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…one day in the life of a virtual online book launch party… a helluva buzz…

…yeez may have heard the phrase before, ‘when was the last time yeez did sum’thing for the first time?’… for this ol’ Jurassic, it was yesterday… my heretofore five-year journey on the self-publishing odyssey has recently been augmented by joining forces with Edinburgh-based publishing house, Crooked Cat Publishing… after several weeks of preparation, they have re-launched one of my Jack Calder crime thriller masterpieces, SAVAGE PAYBACK…

…as part of the ‘drum-beat’ for this auspicious occasion (no, Mabel, not ‘suspicious’, —‘auspicious’) an online virtual ‘launch party’ was organised… and yours truly, of course, with more than a vested interest, being the Author, acted as principal administrator for the event… frankly, I’d no idea what to expect, but approached it with my usual solution for such things… crossed my fingers and jumped straight in… take it as it comes, and see what happens… and what a buzz it turned out to be… for any of the rest of yeez Lads and Lassies of Blog Land out there contemplating a similar track… just do it… it’s great fun… here’s how it spun and Master Gallacher’s journal of the occasion :

January 27th…

6.15 a.m.

…rose, abluted, scoffed some well-burnt toast, and poured a cold Diet Coke (breakfast drink of Champions, in the absence of Irn Bru)…

7.00 a.m.

…switched on the computer, and did my usual lap of honour when it actually lit up, and thus began the party…

…pals started to come streaming online with an abundance of well wishes and congratulations… from all over the WURLD and many other places… some asked where the food and drink was… they were promptly directed to the virtual table, groaning with goodies…

…haggis sandwiches, Scottish shortbread biscuits, Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, square-sliced sausages, Forfar bridies, and the centrepiece-de-non-resistance –Fried Mars Bars–, tons of yeez brought online cakes, chocolate, cream, more chocolate, crepes… name it, and it was duly available, and duly scarfed… and for those inclined to indulge other than the aforementioned Irn Bru,

 

malt whisky flew like honey dew, and honey dew flew like malt whisky… a caseload of wines from South Africa appeared and were quaffed… Baileys Cream and assorted liqueur-fortified coffees were drained in gallons… and all of a sudden the clock showed:

3.00 p.m.

… where did those eight hours disappear to?… in came the next wave, and the next after that, with connections flying in from all over Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the early risers in the Americas contributing their presence… the interaction was constant, and for me, fabulous fun… so many friends, and then more friends… this, yes this, is what the scribbling family is all about… and along the way, we threw in some musicians who came to the party through the excellent auspices of the You Tube clippage… it wouldn’t have been a Master Gallacher gig without the Massed Pipes and Drums along with Andre Rieu’s Orchestra kicking in with ‘Amazing Grace’… there wasn’t a dry eye on the Web… then Runrig’s ‘An Ubhal As Airde’ (The Highest Apple), just to temper a wee bit of Celtic Gaeldom for yeez… terrific pal, Susan Toy pre-worked the virtual room on my behalf with a surprise You Tube video clip she’d made about this old quill-scraper in his kilt, and showing the cover page for the book… superbly classy, m’Lady, and she also sent over the Happy Song from the sun-blessed beaches of the Caribbean… there are so many names and buddies who came to the party, it would take pages and pages to highlight them all… suffice to say, yeez have all made a happy man very old!… then , equally all of another sudden, the time had sped on to:

2.00 a.m.

…after nineteen hours straight at the keyboard, fatigue had caught up a tad by then, and despite the desire to keep tapping away on the laptop, the hammock beckoned and I think I was fast asleep by:

2.01 a.m.

…result?… apart from a mammoth load of pleasure, it was fabulous to crack open the computer again this morning to see the Great God Amazon UK rankings with the wee baby at #10 in the crime thriller list… way to go, yeez marvellous people…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!… here’s the links:

Amazon

UK amzn.to/1CHhw01

US amzn.to/15zUsD9

Canada amzn.to/1yXWRli

Australia bit.ly/1yGJ5ok

Smashwords

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/514352

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Interview with Seumas Gallacher

…thanks , Tricia Drammeh for carrying this on the relaunch date for SAVAGE PAYBACK… LUVZYA! 🙂

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…look what my great pal, Susan Toy, has produced for the SAVAGE PAYBACK re-launch… what a Lady!

…my, my, my, Mabel… super Lady, Susan Toy, Author of the terrific ‘Island in the Clouds’, has taken my breath away today with this unexpected You Tube clip about the re-launch by Crooked Cat Publishing for my Jack Calder crime thriller masterpiece, SAVAGE PAYBACK… just have a wee peek at this :

…I’ve said it so many times before and this underscores it… the fabulous Diaspora that constitutes the global quill-scapers family is simply THE BEST…

…tomorrow, January 27th, is the re-launch date, and here’s where it’s appearing on the Great God Amazon links…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

UK amzn.to/1CHhw01

US amzn.to/15zUsD9

Canada amzn.to/1yXWRli

Australia bit.ly/1yGJ5ok

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The Sunday Show – Defining Moments with Author Seumas Gallacher

…my dear friend, Sally Cronin has made me leak a few not-so-well-known facts about my background, and I’m delighted with the result… the Lady has another career if she wishes in Interrogation Techniques :):)

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Make a Difference in the Writing Community

…a must ‘re-blog’…great post from m’Lady, Tricia Drammeh…

All I Have to Say

Most authors at one time or another have dreamed of taking the writing world by storm with a breakout bestselling novel. I’m sure most of us still harbor hope this will happen. Regardless of sales or monetary success, we can still make a difference in the writing community. Whether you’re published or still writing your first novel, you can make a huge impact. Here’s how:

1. Make connections. I recently read an excellent blog post by Susan Toy that discusses online connections and engagement. When it comes to Twitter and blog followers, some people mistake quantity for quality. Would you rather have 100 followers who regularly visit and comment on your blog, or 1000 followers you never hear from again? A huge number of Twitter followers or Facebook Page likes might look good on paper, but what does it really mean if you aren’t making connections with people? Visit blogs and leave…

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…POSITIONS VACANT… don’t all rush, now…

…THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS to RE-LAUNCH DAY for SAVAGE PAYBACK

…4 days hence, on January 27th, it hits the web-waves..

…and today, I’m holding virtual interviews for the lofty and vital positions of GALLACHER’S BANTERERS… …did I hear a mutter of ’WTF?‘ back there? …any self-respecting novel’s relaunch requires a posse of individuals prepared to put their names and reputations on the line as ASSOCIATES AT LARGE… here’s what’s involved— on the day of the launch, or even starting right now if yeez are really keen… Master Gallacher will be beating the drum all round the WURLD and many other places about his Jack Calder crime thriller masterpiece, SAVAGE PAYBACK…

…having GALLACHER’S BANTERERS alongside keeps him from getting too lonely, frustrated, feeling melancholy, ignored, and all the other sundry, dreadful, imaginary evils that impact an Author’s head when a launch is in full flow… this is the time to count my pals… if I get above two, I shall consider myself well-blessed… QUALIFICATIONS TO BE INCLUDED IN GALLACHER’S BANTERERS (a) yeez must be alive (or near enuff), (b) yeez must have access to the internet (or near enuff), (c) yeez must possess an I.Q, sum’where between 5 and 235 (or near enuff)… being as I am, Scottish by birth, there will be no negotiations entered into about monetary reward... yeez’ll get yer kudos in Literary Heaven (or near enuff)… so, let’s be having yer applications… don’t all rush at once now… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

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…I could teach that Gordon Ramsay chef fellow a thing or three…

…it all happened a lo-o-o-ong time ago… in the town of Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre (which made Paul McCartney famous before Kanye West thought of helping the poor wee Liverpudlian into the limelight)…. so far back, indeed that even McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken hadn’t yet added to the Fried Mars Bars menu choices for Scots everywhere… and therein lies part of the thing… at the time, this ol’ Jurassic was a bachelor in his early twenties… a period of much apprenticeship in the fine art of alcohol imbibement… striving to acquire my Black Belt in ’Getting Pished’… the lodgings in Campbeltown were shared with three other lads, equally in the same pursuit of large quantities of the Electric Soup… the other guys were pretty adept at throwing together a meal for the four of us, and took it in rotation to do so… I’d long since claimed absolute ignorance of anything to do with cuisinery propensity, and contributed my dish-washing skills instead to compensate for that… one weekend, communal madness seemed to overtake our quartet and I was given free rein to ’try to cook dinner’ for us all… I’m certain a drink or more had been taken in the making of that decision… the money contribution was handed over in the morning, and the rest of the fellows went about their Saturday activities in expectation of Master Gallacher’s gastronomic grandeur in the evening… I decided they deserved a good Cabbage Soup followed by Fried Rice… the ingredients were purchased accordingly, and the process began… this next passage should prob’ly invoke an editorial drawing across of a curtain… things didn’t go exactly as the Michelin Star people might have looked for… it seems if yeez boil a lettuce for three hours, it doesn’t produce cabbage soup…

…similarly, if yeez pour dry rice straight from the packet into a frying pan with just a tad of cooking oil, it forms the most impressive doily pattern… but it also, rather churlishly I feel, resembles a burnt, scarred, kinda pitiful, thick, papery biscuit…

…the boys were so impressed with my efforts, I was sent to purchase four orders of fish and chips from the local chippie… and as a direct consequence of my kitchen success, the dishwashing became my sole domain for the balance of my stay there… have I ever told yeez I heat up a mean sausage roll?… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

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…here’s how we Scots do ‘office’…

…I’m sure the good folks who made the video clip here won’t mind it getting an airing on my wee blog… it’s not often I watch one of these, among the gazillions that populate the internet daily, but after seeing this I wanted to stand up and applaud… it’s the epitome of great advertising… getting yer message across through humour that neither hurts nor mocks, and sees the ’wee guy’ prosper in the end… LUVVED IT!… enjoy… I’m off to give my kilt another airing… slainte mhath!… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

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