My Home Away From Home - The Kingdome

Kingdome under construction- mid '70's

You've heard of a home away from home? Well, I had one of those. It was the largest freestanding concrete structure in the world at the time—the Kingdome, built in 1976.

My family moved to Seattle from Florida in 1975. There are two things I remember most about arriving in the Pacific Northwest. The first was driving through Snoqualmie Pass and seeing real mountains for the first time. The twin sister volcanoes, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier greeted us as we approached the Cascade Range. This Florida flat-lander was 14 at the time and the mountains served promise of new adventures. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. Thank you for your support throughout the year.



You have made this a special time in my life with the launch of my debut novel, The Card. It's been a roller coaster ride since April when the paper edition was launched. Shortly thereafter, the Kindle edition hit the online bookstores.

By July, The Card moved up to #15 on the Kindle bestseller list in its category. I have been amazed at the success we've had up to this point. July also marked the launch of the Nook, Sony, and iStore editions of the Van Stone novel.

As the year closes, I look forward to completing the next installment in the ongoing series in 2012. Thank you again for all your support, encouragement and great reviews.

Guest Interview at Book Blather Blog

A big thank you to Marilee Brothers for my guest interview on the Book Blather Blog. Marilee's blog is a place where people  come together to share comments, opinions and reviews about the books they are reading. 

How did I get involved? 

Well, you can read it straight from her perspective ... "As a writer of young adult fiction, I try to keep an eye on the market. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the majority of YA authors are women writing books about and for girls. When I met Jim Devitt on LinkedIn, I knew I wanted him to do a guest blog. Not only is Jim a man writing young adult fiction, his baseball theme and protagonist, Van Stone in The Card are a winning combination for young male readers who have been largely overlooked in the marketplace."

Check out the full interview and her other comments here.

If you would like to support a fellow author from the Pacific Northwest, you can check out her Young Adult novels on her site.

Bookmark event at the Seattle Mariners Opener

We had a great day out at Safeco handing out bookmarks for The Card. Thanks to Jill, Meli, Christy and Gavin for all the help. We've already seen the impact as The Card has gone from a 96,000 ranking in Amazon (out of over 5 million books) to a new ranking of 22,177 as of 5 pm tonight, not even 24 hours after the event. Thanks to everyone who is supporting The Card! Click the links on the sidebar to get your copy of The Card on either Amazon (Kindle or hardcopy) or Smashwords (Nook, iStore, and other ebook versions.)