Today I’m going to set aside my pen (or I should say my typing fingers) and turn over my blog to an author friend of mine. I met Seumus Gallacher online several years ago as we both struggled to promote our writing and became part of an international author support group called ASMSG that encouraged and promoted writers and their work. 

One of Seumus’s recent blogs tugged at my heartstrings as he described an interesting experience in Hong Kong that evolved into a lesson in kindness and mindful behavior. Any introduction to his blog would certainly fall short of actually reading his words. So without further delay, let me repost this wonderful blog for you.

SEUMUS GALLACHER . . .

“…the trouble with short, fleeting visits to anywhere with a time zone difference of five hours is the dreaded jet lag… local time in Hong Kong touched 11.00 p.m. when this ol’ Jurassic tried to get some slumber… sure enuff, within minutes, out like a light I went… heavy duty ZZZZZZZZZs… then, bolt upright, owl-eyed, fast awake… the clock had advanced to only 2.20 a.m….the next two hours was an exercise in attempts at every sleeping position known to Mankind and hibernating animals… all to no avail… 5.00 a.m. arrived, and still dark outside the hotel window… and the stomach rumbles demanded food of some sort… NUTHIN to do but get out of the room, clad in typical wannabe-iconic-author-gear of T-shirt, floppy cotton basketball shorts and flip-flops… the accommodation is one-o’-them joints with no restaurant, so where to go?… easy… the ubiquitous open-all-night McDonald’s, not fifty feet away from the hotel front door… a deserted street, save for a couple of mewing cats  and a handful of night-watchmen-looking types on their way homeward… in the Golden Arches premises, nobody in the downstairs dispensing area apart from the server… I ordered the McSausage and Egg and took the tray to the restaurant’s upstairs level… and there, to my surprise I found it almost full of people…only about four tables out of twenty or so were vacant… each of the occupied tables had only a single person sitting at them… and NOT ONE had anything to eat or drink in front of them… some were slumped asleep on their folded arms, leaning forward onto the tables… others sat in bundled clothing in the corner sites, propping themselves up behind hoodies and wrapped assortment of jackets… it felt like a trailer for a Zombie movie… I’ve known rough times of hardship in my life, as prob’ly most of you Lads and Lassies of Blog Land also have, and instantly I felt the connection… these good folks were homeless… and I said a quiet prayer of thanks for the generosity of the McD’s serving staff for allowing a few hours of warmth and comparative comfort to the folks in there… nobody hassled me… nobody panhandled… and nobody really gave me a second look… and I was reminded immediately of sum’thing I’ve repeated several times on this ‘ere Blog over the past few years… EVERYBODY you meet… EVERYBODY… is fighting some sort of battle we know NUTHIN about… be gentle, good people… be kind… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…”

For the full experience of Seumus’s Gallagher’s Blog (including an interesting video) and to see what other wonderfulness Seumus is up to, please click here!

SEUMAS GALLACHER escaped from the world of finance five years ago, after a career spanning three continents and five decades.

As the self-professed ‘oldest computer Jurassic on the planet’ his headlong immersion into the dizzy world of eBook publishing opened his eyes, mind, and pleasure to the joys of self-publishing. As a former businessman, he rapidly understood the concept of a writer’s need to ‘build the platform’, and from a standing start began to develop a social networking outreach, which now tops 15,000 direct contacts.

His first two crime-thrillers, THE VIOLIN MAN’S LEGACY and VENGEANCE WEARS BLACK blew his mind with more than 75,000 e-link downloads/sales to date. The third in what has become the ‘Jack Calder’ series, SAVAGE PAYBACK, was launched late 2013.

He started a humorous, informative, self-publishers blog less than two years ago, never having heard of a ‘blog’ prior to that, was voted ‘Blogger of the Year 2013’ and now has a loyal blog following on his networks. He says the novels contain his ‘Author’s Voice’, while the blog carries his ‘Author’s Brand’. And he’s LUVVIN IT!

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Thoughts? Comments? I’d love to hear them!