The Search and Rescue Dog Series shares heartfelt stories of hope, centered around a loyal dog dedicated to bringing people home. Author Scott Hammond talks to Book Glow about the series.

Describe the series in one sentence.

Being lost and being found is the bedrock of the human condition and the story of our lives.

What led you to write it?

Search and rescue missions are full of raw emotion and average people doing heroic things. I have been a K-9 handler and search and rescue volunteer for twenty years and seen people on the worst day of their lives rise to the occasion and reach out to find, comfort, and rescue. For example:

On an October night, the warm before the storm deceived an older cyclist into a solo mountain bike ride to a high point. He planned to be gone for two hours up familiar trails, so he only took water and left extra clothes and his cell phone at home. But after five hours, he had not returned. Frantic, his wife called search and rescue. As luck would have it, I was first to arrive on the scene and was confronted by a scared woman who demanded that I move quickly up the trail with my search dog and find her husband. I told her that I had been assigned to set up a landing zone for the helicopters and that within 20 minutes we would have 50 plus searchers, two helicopters, and a group of skilled motorcycle riders who would quickly cover the trails. I told her, “We will all do everything we can to bring him home tonight.”

About 2 AM the man was found safe. My teammate who found him told me his bike had broken down. He had tried to walk out in the dark. His shoes were for cycling and not hiking, and so he was moving slowly when the cold first winds of winter hit. As he became cold, he made a bad decision to try a short cut. Then he lost the trail and found himself in a gully, on the moonless night, not knowing which way to go. My colleague on the “single track” motorcycle team said they found him by riding up the trail. Stopping. Turning their engines off. And calling his name. Then listening. It turns out he was just a hundred feet off the trail in the dark. The man was warmed, assessed for medical issues, fed calories, given a headlamp and walked down the trail. As the twinkling lights of the city came into view, he began to weep. “What’s wrong?” the worried SAR colleagues asked? The secondhand quote was something like this:

“I was in the dark. Cold. Scared. Then I heard someone call me by my name. A stranger. You called me, warmed me, gave me food and comfort. Then you walked with me and led me to the light. This beautiful light.”

Which authors or books most influenced your voice and why?

There are two authors who influence my writing. The first is Gary Paulsen who wrote Hatchet, Guts, Gone to the Woods, and a whole series of outdoor books for boys and young men. At first glance these seem to be “gee whiz” survival stories. But they are actually search and rescue stories. Paulsen grew up in a difficult time and had little support from his parents. Many people, including a librarian who invited him in from the cold when he was homeless rescued him. He writes eloquently about self-sufficiency and rescue in simple stories that go directly to your heart.

My second choice would be Norman Mclean, who has to be credited as one of the greatest writers in American history, though he only published two books. His noveletta A River Runs Through It is about a failed rescue. It is about how he and his father tried to change the trajectory of their brother’s life to no avail. “It is those we live with and love that we understand least. But we still reach out to them.”

How do you organize your writing day—do you have rituals or routines?

I need nature to write. I often retreat to our cabin in the Uinta Mountains in a place called Christmas Meadows. I build a fire, and watch the sandhill cranes nesting across the river in the half light of the evening. As the sun dips below the mountain, and the air chills, I pull a blanket over my knees and write until after midnight.

What does your research process look like (for historical settings, technical details, etc.)?

I write what I know. In the summers, sometimes two or three times a week, I am called out on a search and rescue mission. Most of the time there is a happy ending and a modest story. But there are also epic stories and heroic acts that I witness. It is not hard to recall those, but I change some of the facts and the locations, and the names to ensure that confidence is not violated. I don’t want someone to think that if they call search and rescue they will end up on a book cover.

Which character in your book was the most fun (or challenging) to write, and what made them so?

I really love Kwayah in Finding the North Wind. She is a strong Ute Tribal member who is not unlike the strong women that I know from that tribe. She prevails in the worst situation. It has been delightful to read how reviewers have reacted to her, and seen things that I did not see at first. When they describe her it reminds me that storytelling and authoring is always a partnership with the reader.

What themes or questions are you most interested in exploring through your work?

I believe that we all get lost. At work. In life. In the wilderness. Everyone has been lost, and everyone has a story of being rescued. These are bedrock stories in our lives. I think we all want to know that when we are lost, a caring person, maybe even a stranger, will reach out.

Several years ago I was involved in a search for a missing teen in a wilderness area. The young man had fled from his wilderness therapy program with no shoes. On the first day about 20 searchers, including me and my dog, tried to find him. By day four there were 400 searchers and two helicopters.

When they found the young man, they put him on the back of a horse and brought him down the trail and through the camp where all the searchers were gathering up their gear and getting ready to go home. You could see the worry on this young man’s face as heads turned and we got to see the person we had been searching for. But instead of being angry and critical, the searchers cheered. They shook his hand and patted him on the back. The young man later told me, “That was the first time in my life anyone cheered for me.”

Is there any one thing that especially frustrates you about the writing process?

How long it takes to get before the reader. I started in broadcasting, and you think about it, write about it, and broadcast it all in one day. Before you go to bed your words are traveling on a radio wave past Saturn and into the universe. Books take longer. Sometimes years. But there is nothing more rewarding than getting an email where someone says your words changed their life.

What’s the toughest hurdle you’ve faced during your writing career, and how did you overcome it?

Finding a publisher. Hands down. If you write a manuscript that is good, and you have no history of success or selling books, they don’t even bother to send you a rejection letter. Meanwhile you are swimming in a sea of pirates who want to sell you phoney opportunities that are expensive and hollow.  Thank you to Reagan Rothe at Black Rose Writing who has created a community and a publishing house that has blessed me and others.

Any advice for novice writers?

Lots of people think they can write. Lots can. But you are a writer if you cannot not write. If every day you have to put something on paper.  I have been writing my whole life. First for television and radio. Then a few magazine articles. Then academic writing. Textbooks. Training manuals. Finally a non-fiction book (Lesson of the Lost: Finding Hope and Resilience in Work, Life, and the Wilderness.) More textbooks. Then my three fiction books and a new non fiction (Highly Reliable Teams: When Failure is NOT and Option.)

If you cannot not write, you are a writer. If you want to write, then you are a wannabe. If you are looking to fill a publisher’s need, you are an author.

What do you hope readers take away from your book?

The best words about my books were given to me by a reviewer. My book is about “good people doing hard things in a difficult situation.”

What’s next?

My readers want more of Caleb’s adventures with Boo. In the next book the pair get caught in front of a moving wind driven fire. It’s based on the several fire evacuations I have been a part of with my search and rescue team.

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