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 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.
During my first year of teaching, I was chatting 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. Afterward, he published a memoir that 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 someone else did in 2020. Then, 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 developed into a real-life treasure hunt. Now we can find out through Layton and Sherry!
I tend to find story ideas at random and unintentionally. They hit me when I’m chatting with my kids, staring out a window, or even reading a book or magazine article. If I’m thinking about it for longer than five minutes, I open Google Drive on my phone and stick the idea in a spreadsheet. At this moment, I have more ideas than I could ever write about, but it comes in handy when I start brainstorming for the next story. It allows me to recall interesting facts or cool settings I have come across and layer them into a more interesting story.
When my oldest was born, I stopped teaching so I could stay at home with her. She loved to read, so we would go through picture book after picture book. When I was pregnant with our second and youngest, I had an idea for a story. Looking back, the story was horrible. There wasn’t a plot, it was very episodic, and it was way too long. Despite all that, the endeavor sparked my interest in becoming an author. That was in 2017 and ever since I've been jotting down story ideas as they come to me, researching agents and editors I'd like to work with, and writing in any spare moment I can find.
From idea to publication, my author journey has taken about 7 years. During this time, I wrote 11 polished picture book manuscripts and a novel. The picture books received almost 200 agent rejections and right under 300 rejections from publishing houses. While opening rejection after rejection, I kept receiving the same feedback… my writing 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. After I wrote (and rewrote) the story, I queried it to 131 agents and then to 23 publishing houses before it was finally picked up by Chicken Scratch Books. It wasn't an easy or quick process, but it was well worth the perseverance.
Find people who support your writing and help you improve it. I’m blessed to have a supportive husband, family and friends who cheer me on wholeheartedly, but my first critique group helped make me a better writer and built 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 are growing alongside you.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a set writing routine, but my daily goal is to do something writing-related before I have to pick up my daughters from school. I work full-time for a marketing agency and my workload varies each day, so if I have a particularly busy day for work, I’ll try to spend some time doing something for my author career that evening. Some days I’m not in the mood or don’t have the energy to draft or revise my current WIP so I’ll work on emails, write out social, update my website, or do one of the dozens of items on my to-do list. With school functions, my daughters in extra-curriculars, and just life itself, sometimes the time to write just isn’t there. Ultimately, I fit writing in as much as I can, but I give myself grace when it doesn’t happen.
Ghost Town Treasure Hunt is the first installment in the Geocache Club trilogy so I’m currently working on the sequel, which is slated to be released in February 2026. It follows Layton and his friends as they form the school's first geocaching club. They create geocaches of their own to hide, and some tension develops that threatens Layton and Sherry's friendship. There may or may not be a geocache heading into space.
Abbi Lee taught high school English and Social Studies before turning her full attention to writing. She now works for a marketing agency, has been published in multiple magazines, and is proud of her debut novel, Ghost Town Treasure Hunt, the first book in her lower middle-grade series, Geocache Club.
Publisher: Chicken Scratch Books
Release date: October 1, 2024
Website: https://abbileebooks.wordpress.com/