Blogmania is Here! Welcome to Blog # 83!

WELCOME TO BLOGMANIA !

My Blog is 83 of 123

You’ve arrived at exactly the right time to explore lots of new blogs, all of which, ARE GIVING AWAY A VERY SPECIAL BLOGMANIA GIVEAWAY (For One Day Only – April 30th) .
We’ve done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing. Each blog will have a number and each new blog link will have a number. These numbers will allow you to keep track of which blogs you’ve visited and how many are left to visit. Why not take a moment to make a list of blog numbers 1-123 and check off the blogs as you go.

I know you’ll want to visit as many blogs today as you can. So, if you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, why not bookmark that site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all its fabulous treasures.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!

MY GIVEAWAY and RULES:

For your reading pleasure I have an autographed copy of the Last Track: A Mike Brody Novel by Sam Hilliard

Chasing The Devil (A real life crime story)

Some "survival equipment" and a book light to keep you reading even in the dark!

Enter:

It's super simple to enter: become a follower and leave a comment that you did so. (please state if US/Canada/International entry) (If your already a follower then just let me know that) Leave your email so I can contact you if you win!

Prize Pack to US residents only

$10.00 Gift Card (your choice of book place) to Canadian/International residents

(I'm poor so I can't afford a ton of shipping....please keep in mind though that I have tons of giveaways on the blog that are publisher sponsored and open to Canadian residents! Stop by after Blogmania is over and enter some of those!)

(at the bottom of this post you can find links to more Blogmania participants to visit!)

The Prize Pack:

Here's more about my Blogmania featured author:

About The Last Track:

(from Pub's Website)

Imagine if being late meant a child disappeared forever. That is the fear that drives Mike Brody—the man you want, when the one you love is missing. Mike is more than just a master tracker. An ex-Special Forces operative, Smoke jumper, and now extreme adventure tour guide, he also possesses a unique ability to tap into the memory and emotional state of those he pursues.In The Last Track, a police detective recruits Mike to help find an asthmatic boy lost in the dense woods surrounding a dude ranch in Montana. An unwitting murder witness, the boy burrows ever deeper into the rugged terrain, fearful of being found. As Mike and a local officer search for the boy, the killer follows them. While the investigation expands, Mike’s ex-wife, a well-connected journalist, uses her contacts to unravel the truth behind the murder.Her discoveries threaten to snare them all in a treacherous conspiracy . . .

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Q&A with author Sam Hilliard:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

For starters, I can tell you that I’m delighted to be interviewed by the Cajun Book Lady! Thanks to review blogs like yours, not only do readers have a means to find new voices, they have the power to influence other readers in ways never before possible. Kudos to you for being at the forefront.

But to your question. The short version is by day I work at a private all-girls boarding school as the head of technology so I know world class drama first-hand. When I’m not getting roughed up by students who want the Internet turned back on now, I’m writing late into the night.

The long version involves a childhood spent moving around a lot. At some point in college I discovered I liked to write. I promptly drank some more beer and forgot about that for several more years. I graduated. I worked a bunch of jobs, got married and divorced. Now I live outside of NYC with my girlfriend and four cats, which is one feline under the legal limit. To relax I study Krav Maga, and at some point, I’ll finish my skydiving license.

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Have you always been a "writer" or was 'The Last Track' an idea that just came to you and you knew you wanted to write?

Lots of people can write, and many of them are really good at it, but what makes them writers is finishing the manuscripts they start and then doing whatever is necessary to get those manuscripts to readers. I always liked to write, it just took hitting a real low to get me to do something about it.

The idea for The Last Track began during a hike many years before the first word hit the page. Something about being among miles of pines got me thinking about how easy it would be to disappear. And for some reason the possibility of it seemed really intriguing, and I said something like, “I’m going to write books about a guy who finds missing people in the woods.” Even though I had the insight to consider it important, I lacked the motivation and time to do anything about it.

Flash ahead to three days after my honeymoon. My employer at the time decided he was tired of ripping the keyboard out of my hand. I also decided I was tired of him ripping the keyboard out of my hand. Suddenly I had some free time and lots of reasons to drink gin. That’s when Mike Brody found his way onto the page.

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Can you tell us a little about how it was working on this one...writer's block? What kept you inspired?

The hard part was the rewriting. The seemingly never ending struggle to recognize and polish what worked, and discard what did not. That meant lots of drafts. I had to balance a lot of different voices in addition to the ones in my head, and resolve what I wanted to do with what was actually on the page. It meant several go-rounds with reader groups. Eventually the revisions meant bringing in two professionals—an editor and a copyeditor—who took the pages down to the woodshed and beat the manuscript within an inch of its life. Somehow the pages survived.

Along the way, what kept me inspired was the project itself. I think what I always liked about Mike Brody, even from the earliest drafts, was that no matter how bad the odds looked, he just kept going.

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I have a question about Mike Brody! Do you consider his ability more of a paranormal thing or more of a psychic ability?

Interesting! Usually the question is whether his ability is paranormal or the product of training, in which case my answer is that it’s both. Being able to see what other people might overlook at a crime scene isn’t necessarily paranormal, but knowing whether a missing person is still alive definitely is. Navigating through dense woods for days on end with very little gear when the clock is ticking, takes a certain amount of training and discipline, and will certainly help make a good tracker a better one—but it can be practiced and more importantly, explained.

Not everything can be explained about some exceptional abilities, including Mike Brody’s.

For instance, I’ve seen a seventy-three year old man, who walks with great difficulty, strike an opponent twice his size and half his age and send his opponent six feet from the point of impact with a movement that looks no more intense than a waiter presenting a bill to a customer.

So this is why I liken Mike Brody’s ability to that of a classic martial artist. Real mastery in the martial arts takes decades, even a lifetime. The greats often begin training as children. Among the true grand masters, there is a certain flow and emotion to their movements that defy any conventional explanation. But for those of us who have witnessed the effects, there’s no denying its existence.

Yes, SERE training and Ranger School and all the experiences in the military he had made Mike Brody a better tracker. But Mike can do more than what his training would explain. He can tap into the emotional charge that people leave in their tracks and channel it in ways that allow him to find the missing when no one else can. He has always had this gift; it’s the reason he survived his own abduction as a boy, the circumstances of which haunt him to this day.

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Will we be seeing more 'Mike Brody' novels anytime soon?

The publisher strongly suggested I have the next Mike Brody book done by June 2011. Given their lean structure and no nonsense tactics, if I make that deadline, they will have the book ready in time for the 2011 holiday season.

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Last but Not Least....Where can we keep up with you and your work? Twitter? Web Sites? Fan Pages?

I post at three places pretty regularly:
Website: http://samhilliard.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/samhilliard
Facebook: http://facebook.com/thelasttrack

You can see the book trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDFWmJOtIE

And of course there is also the publisher’s website: http://www.buddhapussink.com/

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And here are your next BlogMania stops:

(Blog- 1 – HOST OF BLOGMANIA) Between The Pages - http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/

(Blog -2 – CO-HOST OF BLOGMANIA) The Black Sheep Dances - http://www.theblacksheepdances.blogspot.com/

(Blog-43 - CO-HOST OF BLOGMANIA) Books, Books Everywhere - http://bookywooks.blogspot.com/

(Blog-42) Information Central - http://blog.stephaniesuesansmith.com/

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(Blog-76) Under The Boardwalk - http://nisefunpages.blogspot.com/

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