As a kid, my brother and I used to listen to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Sunday mornings on WPGC. Whether we heard the entire broadcast depended upon if our parents dragged us to the 8:00 mass, insuring that we were home in time for the 10:00 start time. Somewhere in my house are cassette tape copies of shows I recorded by placing a Radio Shack microphone next to the speaker of my Motorola AM/FM radio. Included among those tapes, undoubtedly, is the four-week stretch that Tony Orlando and Dawn’s Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree topped the charts in 1973. My brother and I kept waiting week after week for that song to be dethroned, unappreciative, as we were at the time, of that song’s brilliance.
Since then, I have had a thing for lists, whether they be ranking the top ten presidents of the United States or to the top 10 portable dehumidifiers (thank you Consumer Reports). So imagine my surprise when I learned today that after just one week in publication, Deadball was ranked (as of 12/1/11 at 4:00 pm EST) number 10 on Amazon.com’s list of “Hot New Releases In Sports Fiction.” Not sure how that happened, but I’ll take it.
The Screen Grab Goes To 11, But Deadball Is No. 10
It’s far too early to say where making this list ultimately will rank in my “Top 100 Deadball Moments,” but early indications suggest it is shooting up the charts, with a bullet.
DBS
Hello All:
The story told in Deadball first came into focus the winter of 2003, during a drive from Chicago’s Midway Airport to Rock Island, Illinois. Working then for the Department of Justice, I was on my way to review Department of the Army documents for a case being litigated in the United States Court of Federal Claims. My traveling companion, agency counsel for the Army, was kind enough to listen to my concept for the book as we drove along I-88.
After leaving DOJ in October 2006 to be a stay-at-home dad (SAHD), I began work full time on the novel. By the spring of 2007, I had a first draft, the ending of the book having come to me the previous fall while waiting in the parking lot for my youngest son to finish soccer practice.
By the spring of 2010, many drafts and rewrites later, Deadball was, I felt, ready to publish. I was wrong, and for the next year, with the book continually crowning at about 9 cm, I labored to deliver the book for publication.
On November 23, 2011, Deadball arrived. I hope you will buy a copy of the book and read it. I encourage you to post a comment on this website, or a review on Amazon.com.
Please check back here for more blog postings.
DBS
