Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Nicholas
Fillmore and his new book, “Smuggler”!
For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click
on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Nicholas
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Smuggler
by Nicholas Fillmore
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GENRE: Memoir/True Crime
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BLURB:
When
twenty-something post-grad Nick Fillmore discovers the zine he’s been recruited
to edit is a front for drug profits, he begins a dangerous flirtation with an
international heroin smuggling operation and in a matter of months finds
himself on a fast ride he doesn’t know how to get off of.
After
a bag goes missing in an airport transit lounge he is summoned to West Africa
to take a voodoo oath with Nigerian mafia. Bound to drug boss Alhaji, he
returns to Europe to put the job right, but in Chicago O’Hare customs agents
“blitz” the plane and a courier is arrested.
Thus
begins a harried yearlong effort to elude the Feds, prison and a looming
existential dead end…. Smuggler relates the real events behind OITNB.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT ONE:
At
the other end of the terminal was another set of steel doors—simple double
doors leading right out to the street, daylight and fresh air strobing through
each time someone exited; cabs lined up and waiting, freedom lingering out
there.
I
hoisted my bag over my shoulder, bypassing the baggage carousels where a cop
was walking around with a dog, and headed towards the doors. A single Customs
Agent was perched on a stool to the far right, reading a magazine. As I got
about a third of the way there, he seemed to stir. I changed direction ever so
slightly.
He
roused himself. A small group was moving toward him from the right, but he
seemed to ignore them.
I
looked out the corner of my eyes for someone, anyone I could fall in behind,
but everyone seemed blissfully out of reach—and I imagined this is what it must
feel like to drown: to take one last desperate look at help swimming strongly
away.
Then
the agent sauntered ever so slowly out into the middle of the room. My heart
raced. Then he looked up. I saw it coming, could feel it coming. Oblivious to
the rest of the herd, he’d singled me out; and for a second I felt I might just
swoon right there. Then some sort of instinct kicked in. I resigned myself to
being questioned and headed right at him.
For
some seconds he hung back as I did my best to play the part of the unassuming
traveler.
“Where
are you coming from, sir?” he asked, at an angle.
“Paris,”
I said.
“Can
I see your ticket?”
I
handed him my ticket.
“How
long were you in Paris?”
“A
week.”
“What
were you doing there?”
“Business.”
“What
kind of business.”
“Magazine.
Publishing.”
“What
magazine?”
And
here I faltered. Nun Civa Orcus. What the hell was that? My mind raced for all
sorts of explanations. For a second I considered making something up. But that
would only mean trouble. You tend to say stupid things when you veer from the
script like that. Someone might ask your name, for instance, and under duress
you might say Peter Rabbit or Dick Nixon, who the hell knew? Had he detected my
hesitation? I had to speak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Five Reasons You Should Read My Book
(1) It’s real. The
character’s joy and suffering is real. Not to sell the imagination short, but I
get the feeling sometimes that the novel is merely voyeuristic, cannibalizing
other people’s lives and emotions, or else contriving to order its own
experience in such a way as to make easy sense of it … rather than fully
grappling with the profound ambiguity of our lives. I don’t mean this in a
post-structuralist sense; I still believe in meaning.
(2) It’s
relevant to you.
Smuggler struggles with timeless personal contradictions: the need to reconcile
oneself with one’s friends, family and peers, while suspecting all along that
society is a conspiracy against the individual. You don’t have to go to jail to
learn this. (It helps.) As such, I think that it brings together emotions and
the intellect in the best possible way.
(3) It’s fast
and scary and cool.
(4) You travel
around the world:
West African rhythms with French je ne sais quoi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
Nicholas Fillmore attended
the graduate writing program at University of New Hampshire. He was a finalist
for the Juniper Prize in poetry and co-founded and published SQUiD magazine in
Provincetown, MA. He is currently at work on Sins of Our Fathers, a family
romance and works as a reporter and lecturer in English. He lives on windward
Oahu with his wife, his daughter and three dogs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH NICHOLAS:
Website:
Blog:
Email:
nfillmore@hawaii.rr.com
Facebook:
Twitter:
Pinterest:
Instagram:
YouTube:
Google+:
LinkedIn:
BookBub Author Page:
BookBub Book Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
Publisher’s Website:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle eBook:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
Kobo eBook:
The Book Depository Paperback:
BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFO:
Nicholas will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC
to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this
blog. This does not cost you anything,
it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this intro of a new-to-me author!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteDo you have any ideas for a sequel? Congrats on the release. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDelete