Letter from a Librarian ...

Charles Reed Bishop Learning Center

Wow, I just received an email from a librarian at the Charles Reed Bishop Learning Center at the Kamehameha Schools in Hawai`i. I was so thrilled about the email, that I have to share it here.

Aloha Mr. Devitt ,

I am the middle school librarian at a private school for Hawaiian children on the island of Hawai`i.  I first purchased your book TheCard at the recommendation of one of our students who told me it was a great book.  It has been constantly checked out by boys who love baseball.  In fact, I haven’t had a chance to read it myself!  Today, one of our students, who had been placed in remedial reading class, came up to me with your book in hand and asked me if I had the next book in the series!   I told him that if there is another in the series, I would get it for him right away.  Unfortunately, I was not able to find any information about any other book in the Van Stone series.  Therefore, I’m writing to you directly to get an answer so I can let him know.  Hope your answer will be, “It’ll be out next month!”

Sincerely,

Crystella Kauka

Librarian

Charles Reed Bishop Learning Center

Kamehameha Schools Hawai`i

16-714 Volcano Road

Kea`au, HI 96749

Thanks a ton to Crystella and her students for making my day!

Feedback on the ABNA from a fan!

I had to share this comment from a fan of The Card which appeared on Goodreads.com in response to my last blog post on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. You can see the original post that she was referring to at this link.

Pasted directly from Goodreads 

... by Moira:

I did not find myself distracted by cliches, and I definitely didn't find the characters to be stereotypes, so in that sense I disagree with the reviewers. I think you may have been hindered by the fact that they only read an excerpt, because I think the character development, particularly Van's discovery of his own internal strength, is the strongest aspect of the book, though it may be more subtle. Regardless of the outcome, congrats on your strong reviews and the consideration for this award, not too shabby for your first book! I am really looking forward to the sequel! 

With fans like these, who needs contests? Thanks so much for your feedback Moira.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Quarterfinals

My run in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is over. Am I disappointed? Not really. I knew going in that the judging criteria for this part was my weakest link. 

The “Excerpt” portion was limited to just 5,000 words and with The Card that included the development of the characters for an ongoing series. No excuses, it should have—and could have—been better. I went into this with eyes-wide-open knowing that I should have done a better job with this portion. I was hopeful that I might squeak by, but alas, it didn’t happen. 

 “Amazon Expert Reviewers” conducted the judging, which included one Amazon editor and one Amazon “Expert” reviewer. The Amazon “Expert” Reviewer is a status achieved by writing reviews for books listed on Amazon. 

After reading the reviews, I was:

1) Really encouraged at the response

2) Wondering what it took to get into the quarterfinals.