The Mostly Invisible Newsletter

The bear disappeared. The raccoons are winning. The Spy is back.

Writing Casey Grimes #5, The Beastly Scheme, took a little more out of me than I realized. Maybe you’ve noticed. The Spy has gone through a quiet stretch. Didn’t notice? Also fine—we all get too much email.

After the big push late last year to get Beastly edited, printed, and stocked, I was ready for a writing break. And that break has just…continued.

I’ve been doing a lot of things, including cutting trails through our eight acres of woods, planting over 300 tree seedlings, and battling raccoons who raid our bird feeders. Right now, the dirty thieving raccoons are winning. Like my daughter Gwen said, they wear those masks for a reason.

Another thing I did was just miss seeing a black bear saunter across our property in broad daylight, visible through the trees for five seconds. I went out and searched for him, but like Robert Pierce or the Spy for the last six months, he’d disappeared.

We’ve also taken some more hikes. Played basketball, pickleball, and I’ve started to get into disc golf with my boys. First Aidan, my oldest, had a winning streak. Then Asher, my second boy, took the top spot. Then I had a short run of triumph. Now Asher is back in front. Ezra and Miles haven’t won yet, but they are motivated and sometimes full of rage.

Myself, I’m feeling a bit angry just thinking about my last round. What a maddening sport. If any of you know how to throw a disc for distance, you’ve gotta let me know. I need to get back to winning. Naturally I know how to throw a bladed disc or “blisc” with great accuracy and speed—research for the books—but I haven’t mastered the plastic ones. Not yet.

Flannery and I went fishing. Nothing happened. You know, the usual.

My wife Lindsay sidesteps most of the sports but she did voluntarily play spikeball with all of us, to our surprise and delight. To be fair, she also plays pickleball, hikes, and she’s said she is going to start jogging—definitely, this time, for real.

So what’s going on with Casey Grimes?

Well, I haven’t just been running my chainsaw and doing sports. Most of my book work has been on the marketing side of things. I’m trying to raise Casey Grimes’ public profile, which has meant putting a lot of time in on Amazon. Blurbs, covers, keywords, author content, reviews, ads…

New book one cover designed to stop the scroll on Amz.

An ironic thing about selling so many books directly to fans like you—around 200,000 copies at last count—is that those sales remain invisible to the average kids’ fantasy reader clicking around.

So while Casey Grimes is a thing…it’s not a very visible thing.

Which seems kind of fitting, right? But a little too on the nose. A book about a Mostly Invisible Boy should start out blurry around the edges and get more and more obvious as people keep reading it. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish with the Amazon marketing, but it’s a process.

By the way, I’ve noticed reviews trickling in for the new book. If you left one, thanks. And if you’d like to help Casey Grimes get more visible, an Amazon review is a quick and easy way. Something like—“What a magnificent, magical kids’ fantasy. Step aside, Harry Potter. The best story I’ve ever read. Indeed, perhaps the best of all time”—is very much appreciated. Star-only reviews are fine too and take just a few seconds.

If you’d like to give it a try, here’s the review page for book one. (Hint: I have seven books.)

In other book news, I received this terrifying sketch from talented superfan Caralee. Most fan art draws from earlier books, so seeing something from #3.5 was a surprise. The malevolence just oozes out of Dark Sky here, fresh from a jailbreak. My favorite detail? The nasty backwards angle of those lower fangs. Yikes.

Moving forward, I’ll be answering any questions you send me about writing, characters, books, chainsaw mastery, you name it. If you asked me a question previously and I didn’t answer, it may have slipped through the cracks, so feel free to send another note.

I’ll also be posting a series of Insider’s Guides, one for each book, with special backstory and possibly some discussion questions. Getting my kids to help with the questions is part of the plan, assuming I can bribe them or get them on the losing end of a disc golf bet. Of course, if you have a Very Important Question for a book that you think should be discussed, feel free to send that along.

I’ve started outlining Casey Grimes #8. No manuscript yet but I’m, you know, getting mentally ready.