Trick or Treat with Abbi Lee!

Hi, readers, writers, and treasure-hunters, too! Ever heard of or participated in geocaching? Wait until you hear more about Abbi Lee and her debut treasure-hunting MG book, complete with a ghost town, treasure hunting, adventure, and geocaches. In Ghost Town Treasure Hunt, Layton and Sherry team up and look for a geocaches that have popped up in a Kansas City ghost town. Can Layton and Sherry solve a 100-year-old mystery and clear a dead man's name? Want to know more about Abbi, her thrilling new book, PLUS want to know if she's passing out a trick or a treat? Read on if you dare...

Q:  Hi, Abbi! Thanks so much for joining us - we’re thrilled to have you Trick-or-Treat with us and hear all about your debut MG book, Ghost Town Treasure Hunt. Can you share a little about yourself with our readers?

A: Sure! I was born and raised in Kansas and I’ve been published in children’s and regional magazines. My debut middle-grade novel, Ghost Town Treasure Hunt, was published this month and it has been such a fun journey to publication. I actually started out writing picture books and had multiple manuscripts that I submitted to agents and editors. While opening rejection after rejection in my email, I kept receiving the same feedback… my voice was more suited for middle-grade. So, I finally had an idea I thought would be better for a middle-grade audience and that’s how my debut novel came to be. Since then, my focus has been planted firmly in the middle-grade genre, though I have a few chapter book ideas swirling around in my brain that I hope to get to sooner than later. 

Readers, check out this interview with Abbi, too!

Q: In Ghost Town Treasure Hunt, Layton’s best friend moves away. He wonders if he’ll ever have a new adventure when he meets Sherry. Sherry introduces him to geocaching which leads the two of them to an abandoned ghost town. 

This is SO cool! Can you tell us more about the book? Do you have geocaching experience? What was the inspiration behind the story & why is this an excellent read during spooky season?

A: Like you said, Ghost Town Treasure Hunt features an eleven-year-old named Layton Clark. After his best friend moves away, he meets Sherry and she introduces him to the treasure-hunting world of geocaching. Their thirst for adventure eventually sends them hunting for mysterious geocaches in an abandoned Kansas ghost town. As they become more entangled in the town’s history, Layton and Sherry must work together to unlock the clues in the strange geocaches, solve a 100-year-old mystery to clear a dead man’s name, and convince Layton’s archaeologist dad that the town is worth studying further so his family doesn’t have to move. Ghost Town Treasure Hunt takes place during the autumn season and is filled with creepy cemeteries, boarded-up shacks, and geocaches that send a shiver up your spine. It’s the perfect book to curl up with on a spooky, October day.

For any of your readers that may be unfamiliar with geocaching (and haven’t Googled it yet), it’s the use of GPS coordinates to find a container or item called a geocache that was hidden by another geocacher. When you find the geocache, you sign the log to show that you found it. I’ve been on multiple geocache hunts, some solo and some with my daughters, and it truly feels like a treasure hunt every time. Especially when you find a geocache that has trinkets inside that you can take and replace with a small treasure of your own. It’s amazing the things you’ll find.

As for the inspiration behind the story… during my first year of teaching high school, I was talking with another teacher and she told me about Forrest Fenn. If you haven’t heard of him, here’s the short and sweet version: In 2010, Forrest Fenn hid an actual treasure chest somewhere in the Rocky Mountains that was said to contain gold and other valuables worth at least a million dollars. Afterwards, he published a memoir which included a poem that held clues for people to find the treasure. I was captivated by the story and I even did some research of my own to try and solve the mystery. Spoiler alert: I didn’t find it. But years later, I learned about geocaching and something just clicked between those two worlds. I began to wonder what would happen if a geocache hunt led to a real-life treasure hunt. Now we can find out through Layton and Sherry! 

Q: How many books are in your geocaching series and what’s next for Layton and Sherry? 

A: Ghost Town Treasure Hunt is the first installment in the Geocache Club trilogy. I’m currently working on the second book in the series and it follows Layton and his friends as they form their school's first geocaching club. They create geocaches of their own to hide and Layton and Sherry hit a pretty rough patch in their friendship. Oh, and there may or may not be a geocache going to space! 🚀

Geocaching in space? Cout me in!

Q:  You have written for magazines and now a MG book - Plus you write for a marketing firm! What’s something for authors to keep in mind when they are looking to expand the format/age range they write in? What tips would you offer them? 

A: I would encourage them to just try it! 

Over two years ago, when I was approached by the president of the marketing agency I currently work at, I had ZERO marketing experience. I was completely honest with her and told her I didn’t have a clue about half the stuff she was telling me would be within my responsibilities as a copywriter. (What is SEO? How do you write a press release? What the heck is a copywriter??) She responded that as long as I could write well, she and the team could teach me the rest. 

And that’s exactly what happened. I took a chance and opened myself up to learning an entirely new industry, one that I knew would be helpful once I was published. Now, I use my author brain in conjunction with my marketing brain to create more influential and effective content for our agency’s clients. I’m also able to use all the marketing knowledge I’ve gained to better market my book and myself as an author. 

So, if you have a story idea that isn’t in the age range or genre that you typically write in, then take some time for the idea to marinate. Do some research on writing within that genre or age group. If the idea just won’t leave you alone, then it’s time to take a chance and get it down on paper!

Q: What’s one question you wish we would have asked you about yourself, this series, being a #kidlit author, etc? 

A: This is a tough one because you asked such great questions! I guess I’d just like to share with fellow authors how important it is to find people who support your writing and will help you improve it. I’m incredibly blessed to have a supportive husband and family who cheer me on whole-heartedly, but the critique group I had when I was first writing picture books helped make me a better writer and also helped build up my confidence that I could write a good story. Rejection is so constant in the publishing industry and sometimes you need the push and healthy peer pressure that comes from fellow writers who know your work and can already envision holding it in their hands at the bookstore.

Bonus question: What’s your favorite Halloween Candy? OR What was your favorite costume as a kid? 

A: Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bar. Bonus: they are also used to make one of my all-time favorite fall snacks… s’mores!

Thanks again for joining us, Abbi! We loved hearing more about you and your book!

Readers, want to hear what we thought of Abbi's book? Check out our Peek-a-Boo review here

Our reviews are also on Amazon and Goodreads.

Q: Would you like to leave a Trick or a Treat for our readers?

A: A TREAT! I’d love to send a copy of Ghost Town Treasure Hunt, along with some book swag, to a lucky reader!

Wow, thanks for such a totally ghoul treat!

Giveaway Details: Readers, to enter to win this sweet treat 1) share this post on social media and 2) leave a comment below to thank Abbi for stopping by! Treasure-hunting GIFs are totally welcomed.

Winners for the Trick-or-Treat event will be drawn on or about 10/22!

*Books will be shipped in the US only.*

Note: Those who leave a comment on all posts will be eligible to win one (1) of ten (5) Rate Your Story Speed Passes, perfect for quick MS feedback, provided by Agent Mentee Lynne Marie & Author Heather Macht.

About Abbi Lee

(PS, Abbi totally wins the most adorable costume contest!)

Abbi Lee has always found joy within the world of a book. In grade school, she remembers regularly riding her bike to the small town library to check out the next book in the A to Z Mysteries series. With a passion for learning, Abbi pursued her degrees in Secondary Education in Social Studies and English and after teaching for a few years, she decided to stay at home with her daughters. From an early age, her girls loved to read so it wasn't long before ideas started working themselves into words on a page. Abbi is passionate about creating stories and embraces the challenge that comes with writing realistic contemporary books for kids. She also works as a part-time copywriter and is an active volunteer within the PTO at her daughters' school.Outside of reading and writing, Abbi also enjoys making (and eating) no-bake cookies, perusing her Julia Child cookbook, and going on adventures with her family. She doesn't like to exercise, but makes time for it anyway... sometimes. Abbi was born and raised in Kansas and has no intention of ever moving away from the state she calls home.

For more about Abbi, check out the below links:

Twitter: @abbileebooks

Website: abbileebooks.wordpress.com

To purchase Abbi's book on Amazon, or to leave a review for it, click here.

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A special thanks to David Rodriguez Lorenzo for the amazing custom-signatures!