In “The Tilting House” strange things happen. The floors tilt precisely three degrees inward, and mysterious formulas are scribbled all over the walls. Things disappear, and things get bigger. And the Peshik family is going to find out why.

The Tacoma-based children’s novel released last month by local author and artist Tom Llewellyn takes the Peshik family on a mysterious adventure as they attempt to uncover the secrets of their new home.

“The Tilting House” is Llewellyn’s first published book, which makes him part of a small handful of other novelists who call Tacoma home.

Llewellyn, who has lived in the North End for the past 17 years, drew immense inspiration for the stories, characters and anecdotes in his book from his own backyard - Tacoma.

Growing up in the Federal Way area, Llewellyn admits he used to refer to Tacoma as the “armpit of Washington.”

Now he feels quite differently, embracing the “armpit” for all its charm.

“Tacoma is just right for me. There’s lots of character. It’s scrappy, it’s got a chip on its shoulder. It’s easy to get connected here. And Tacoma has a real sense of place,” he said.

A sense of place, belonging and a connection to home is what Llewellyn views as an overriding theme in his novel.

In “The Tilting House” the Peshiks move into an odd, mysterious old house on Tacoma’s imagined Holly Street. At first they are skeptical of what secrets lie behind the walls and underneath the tilted floors, but over time they grow to love their home, and the house returns the favor.

“Tacoma is that same way - if you love it, it loves you back.”

As a lifelong writer, Llewellyn has always had a mind to be an author. He graduated with a degree in English and creative writing from the University of Washington.

After college, his pursuits of becoming a novelist were put on hold while he started a family and picked up a full-time job, first as a journalist, now as a copywriter.

In addition to raising four children over the last 17 years, Llewellyn is also a partner in the independent letterpress printmaking duo Beautiful Angle, which has installed its thoughtful art prints around the city for the past seven years.

After about a decade hiatus, Llewellyn decided it was time to begin creative writing again.

“Life got complicated and I didn’t do anything for about 10 years,” he said. “Then I thought: I have to go back to that thing that I always wanted to do.”

In 2005 he began putting together “The Tilting House,” which intermixes several of his short stories into the storyline inspired by his own old Victorian-style house with tilting floors.

The 160-page children’s chapter book has received acclaim from Llewellyn’s own children, as well as many of the students at his children’s school, Washington Hoyt Elementary, where the book was shared in fourth- and fifth-grade classes for several years.

“That was a great way to do it - I got a lot of feedback from the students.”

Llewellyn has also gotten positive feedback from children’s book reviewers at Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly, and less than a month after its first pressing, “The Tilting House” has already sold 3,600 copies.

While he doesn’t see quitting his day job anytime soon, 45-year-old Llewellyn hopes to someday realize his dream of being a full-time author, and is already in the process of wrapping up his second adolescent novel “Letter Off Dead,” which should see release sometime in 2011.

“Being a good writer is really hard,” he said. “I’ve been writing in one way or another every day of my professional life. It’s taken me this long to get good enough.”

Llewellyn’s novel can be picked up at all major bookstores locally, including King’s Books at 218 Saint Helens Ave. Find out more about the book at www.thetiltinghouse.com.