I’m Sam.  I live in Maryland near Washington, DC with my family.  I am the proud father of 6 awesome boys.  I studied graphic design and illustration at Pensacola Junior College and the University of South Alabama.  I have over 23 years of experience in the jewelry fashion industry and over 5 years of experience as an independent publisher at Metal Lunchbox Publishing. I design book covers, logos, comic books, coloring pages, etc. and write and illustrate Karate Dottie.

Why Karate Dottie?

The storyline in Karate Dottie and the Treacherous Treehouse initially started out as a bedtime story I made up for my boys one night.  I knew I had a hit when they asked me to retell the story over and over (especially when they had friends over for a sleepover). Kayce, my beautiful wife, encouraged me to write it down and the rest is history. Karate Dottie is a strong temperamental female lead character who is passionate (and sometimes misguided) about helping others. Her best friend, Gordo, does his best to keep her out of trouble but often fails. I wanted to have a character who had asthma who was a strong role model and not the stereotypical weakling so often portrayed in the media.  I struggled with asthma growing up and it is deeply personal to me.  Although it is purposefully not a major part of her first story, it is a part of her life and plays a bigger role in the second story arc.

Feel free to contact me directly at sfvarney@metallunchboxpublishing.com or connect with me on LinkedIn or on Twitter. I always enjoy meeting new people.  Please take a moment to sign up to our email list so you can always be up to date with the latest news from Karate Dottie.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.  If you know someone else who would enjoy Karate Dottie, please introduce them to her.

All the best!

SF (Sam) Varney