A.J. Vanderhorst's Blog

Hey,

By this time I expected to be telling you our first audiobook was done or that I’d started writing Casey Grimes #5.

Instead…I’m giving you a surprise look into the life of an indie author. Yeah, you guessed it. That author is me. 

If you’ve been on our secret mailing list a while, you may be familiar with the story behind the Casey Grimes books. If not, let’s catch you up: I’m a dad and author who started writing novels a decade ago. My goal was to write books my kids would love readin...

Lots of readers find Casey Grimes on social media, so loads of questions are constantly being asked about the books...hundreds, if not thousands. Luckily for me, they are usually the same questions. Here are the answers I post most often, loosely ranked in order of popularity. Since this is my author site instead of Faceb—ahem, a social platform that censors what I write—I'm a little more forthright in my answers. Don't see what you're looking for? Feel free to send me a note or comment. I'll ...

Note: This originally appeared in the March, 2023 edition of The Sylvan Spy , a secret message ring devoted to all things Casey Grimes.

And now, onto The Ghost of CreepCat…my most controversial story.

Unfortunately, it’s gonna be hard to discuss this one without spoilers, so while I won’t spell out plot points, I’d recommend reading the novella before you read this.

Don’t worry, it’s a quick read.

Come back in half an hour. I’ll be waiting.

Of course, if you haven’t read The Mostly Invisibl...

No, they are not. I am allergic to wokeness. And that is an understatement.

If you arrived here from Facebook, hello and welcome. FB penalizes accounts that discuss the woke agenda—I know from experience. Since I don’t like losing money, we’ll talk about it here instead.

You aren’t looking for long definitions, so we’ll define wokeness as a species of Marxism. For example, if the Marxist family tree is Creep, Arctic Creep could be the woke species. Or Whining Creep, or Outraged Creep, whateve...

** UPDATE: Crooked Castle, the book I talk about below, has been published! If you'd like to receive these notes when I write them instead of on the blog after the fact, be sure to sign up for my author newsletter. **

I’m back.

That’s right, we survived our Ozark vacation. We did all the water stuff: kayaks, paddle boards, a pontoon, river rafts, jet skis, tubes, lots of wild tricks off the swimming dock and in the pool. One time as I walked down the beach at dusk, a voracious Spider-Squid at...

Hey there,

In my debut novel, The Mostly Invisible Boy, I describe a household where everything is out of whack. Appliances stacked on armchairs, a blender in the bathroom, exhausted, disoriented parents and kids with visibility issues.

Now and then a reader (always an adult) doesn't pick up on the general weirdness in the opening chapters and complains about someone in the Grimes family—usually the parents—acting strangely. But maybe I should've seen this coming, because by the time you're ...

In my May update, I said I’d announce publication plans for my next book this month! Crazy, right? The choice was a tough one. It came down to two manuscripts: DARK SKY’S ASHES and CROOKED CASTLE for a pub date in…drumroll…August of this year.

The decision was impossible. Thinking about it, I tossed and turned. I barely ate, barely slept. One title would emerge as the clear favorite, then the other. But at last, I’ve realized what I have to do.

And now we’ve reached the moment you’ve been wait...

Allow me to ask you a question, dear reader.

You know that feeling you get when something good takes place that you really, really hoped would happen but deep down you doubted ever would? (I hope you do.) Well, that’s what I’m feeling right now!

I’ve spared you the details about my dysfunctional small press (who will not be named), but things finally came to a head last week. Here’s what happened.

Hello, and beware. Be very beware.

The Ghost of CreepCat has entered the world.

In other words, my new Sylvan Woods short story has been published and is available for purchase—starting today!

Ghost of CreepCat takes place in the Casey Grimes universe and includes a familiar character—as well as a brand new one. It features a solvable mystery (some would say two) and in terms of content, it’s on par with the full-length Casey books, with some scariness and mild gore. No cuts no guts no glory.

Happy new year!—and maybe more to the point, here's hoping you've enjoyed some pleasant distractions lately. A few recent favs at our house: Cajun food, mystery puzzles and sled gladiating.

In case you missed it, Casey Grimes #2, Trickery School, was released right before Christmas. Feliz Navidad! I never know how many industry details to include in these updates, but I’ll be honest: Getting that second book published during the pandemic was rough.

Various parts of the process—cover design, in...