Arts & Entertainment Community

Gig Harbor author Matt Dinniman made a quick crawl up the bestseller list

Posted on May 11th, 2026 By: Julie Warrick Ammann

Matt Dinniman is killing it, quite literally.

What started as a darkly comic cult favorite has become something much bigger. The Gig Harbor author behind Dungeon Crawler Carl is now charting across nearly every major fiction format, from hardcover and paperback to e-books and audio, putting the sci-fi storyteller shoulder-to-shoulder with household names like James Patterson and John Grisham. His eighth installment in the popular series, “A Parade of Horribles” drops Tuesday, May 12.

Invitation Bookshop in Gig Harbor is holding a sold-out release party with books ready to roll out at the stroke of midnight. Event attire? Heart-patterned boxers will not be out of place.

That’s the kind of fandom surrounding Matt Dinniman’s wildly successful Dungeon Crawler Carl series. It follows Carl, a Coast Guardsman thrown into an apocalyptic dungeon wearing only boxer shorts, a leather coat, and his Crocs, along with Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend’s diva show cat.

In the story, an alien invasion destroys every structure on Earth, erasing most of humanity. Survival is televised, a kind of galaxy-wide reality show where viewers vote on outcomes. The series falls into what was once a fringe genre, litRPG, or Literary Role-Playing Game. If you’re dropped into a video game world and forced to fight to survive and level up, you’re in a litRPG.

Dinniman has built a series that walks a line between absurdist comedy and brutality, where readers laugh and cringe in equal parts.

With almost 8 million books sold, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood came knocking on Dinniman’s door. Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy, and Universal International Studios will bring the series to television.

Gig Harbor author Matt Dinniman speaks with Douglass Wilbert of Silverdale during an event at CryptiCon in Seattle. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann

Literary leveling-up

Like his character Carl, Dinniman has had his own leveling-up journey to get to this moment of literary success.

“I was always trying to be a writer since I was a little kid,” said Dinniman, a self-described “military brat,” who read Harriet the Spy “dozens of times” as a child. G.I. Joe characters were among his earliest inspirations for fan fiction. “We moved around a lot so books are all I had.”

The latest book in Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler series drops on Tuesday, May 12.

Though he graduated from the University of Arizona, creative writing classes at Pima Community College hooked him on the craft. One course, in particular, he took up to seven times. He credits the group critiques as a crucial part of his development as a writer.

A job at a newspaper in Yakima soon set Dinniman on an unexpected creative path. Hired to write obituaries, he told his employers he knew Adobe Photoshop, even though he didn’t. After learning the program, he discovered a new skill set, creating cat and dog drawings he later sold at Artist Alley booths. “I could draw silly cat pictures,” he said.

Dinniman found success with his pet art, launching an Etsy store and selling his work at shows. A Cat Fanciers’ Association event became creative fuel, thanks to the judgmental stare of a flat-faced Persian cat. That piercing glare, along with the Dinniman family’s own cats, inspired Princess Donut, the attention-loving feline phenomenon of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Dinniman settled in the PNW because he felt it offered more opportunities for working artists.

“It didn’t pay fantastic, but it paid enough,” he said. “The Pacific Northwest really lends itself to creativity. There were more art shows, and (it is) a much more pleasant environment.”

From kitty art to litRPG

After a year on Bainbridge Island, the Dinniman family moved to Gig Harbor in 2013. He with his wife, Meredyth, raised their four children, all whom graduated from Peninsula High School.

A lucrative business of pet art was moving along until it wasn’t. In 2020, the pandemic shut down public events; there were no more cat shows and shipping Etsy art was deemed non-essential. Dinniman’s income disappeared overnight.

By then, Dinniman had self-published a few books through micro-presses and discovered a lesser-known genre called litRPG.

“I saw this burgeoning online community of litRPG,” he said. “It was a really interesting community.”

A gamer himself, he was drawn to the genre’s video game mechanics and table-top role-playing. Dinniman consumed everything he could find, even poorly translated Russian novels in the genre.

“In 2017, when I first started writing the genre, almost all the readers were in Royal Road and a few Facebook groups, and Discord.” Royal Road is a website with free web novels and fan fiction.

Ascending from the Dungeon

As a writing exercise, Dinniman decided to try the genre himself with what he called “a silly story” featuring a talking, sassy, diva-like cat and a Coast Guard veteran who takes everything dead serious.

In 2019, he posted Dungeon Crawler Carl for free on Royal Road, steadily increasing engagement and growing his fan base.

When the pandemic hit, he asked readers to follow him to Patreon. Monthly memberships, ranging from $3 to $30, offer closer access to the writer, along with more perks, merch, and interaction. Top tier, “Dungeon God,” is sold out.

“Patreon has exploded,” he said. Today, he has more than 20,000 patrons. “Patreon people vote on what things happen to characters.” The author polls his readers, and their input can influence the direction of stories and characters. “Anything can work as long as you make the characters realistic,” said Dinniman.

“By the end of 2023, I’d sold 100,000 copies,” of Dungeon Crawler Carl, said Dinniman. A print-only deal with ACE Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, followed in 2024. More than 100,000 copies have been sold by the publisher.

“Every month, the sales have gotten better than before,” said Dinniman. “I never imagined in a million years Carl would be successful.”

Growing fandom

The world of Carl continues to expand. A graphic novel arrives May 19, joining action figures, branded merchandise (Princess Donut mugs), and an immersive audio adaptation, in addition to the bestselling audiobook series narrated by Jeff Hays.

The growth is also reshaping Dinniman’s audience. “My stats have shifted,” from a mostly male audience, he said. Now, it’s “sixty percent female.”

“I laughed, I cried,” said Waleska Rios Derrick of University Place, adding, “I considered my humanity,” as her eyes welled up with tears.

Waleska and her husband Mac Derrick listened to the series on audio during weekly drives to Seattle for cancer-related treatments.

Waleska Rios Derrick and her husband, Mac, check out a Dungeon Crawler Carl display at Seattle ComicCon. Derrick listened to audio books of the series while commuting to Seattle for cancer treatments. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann

“Gentrification, politics, all these problems we have; he makes it humorous. There’s a lot of resiliency in it too,” she said. “I’ve read all of them about six times”.

The couple named their cat “Prince Donut Ferdinand the 3rd,” and Waleska’s nails are painted with references to Princess Donut.

Tanya and her husband, Aaron Even, traveled seven hours from Boise to Seattle to meet Dinniman at CryptiCon. It was their first sci-fi horror convention.

To surprise his wife with the trip to CryptiCon, Douglass Wilbert of Silverdale ordered two mannequin feet off Amazon, a nod to the AI character with a foot fetish in the series. The night before the convention, Wilbert revealed the surprise. “I don’t know what we’re doing with feet,” his wife said at first. Once he revealed the plan, she was in. “She’s always wanted to meet him,” Wilbert said.

The Derricks named their cat “Prince Donut Ferdinand the 3rd,” and Waleska painted her nails with references to Princess Donut. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann

The Gig Harbor coffeeshop circuit

Dinniman describes himself as having a “Gen X attitude” (what he calls an “everything sucks zone”), but his work carries an undercurrent of hope. Like the characters in his novels, he has to remind himself there is hope.

“These survivors are refusing to allow the darkness to overcome them,” he said. “One of the main themes is: You will not break me.”

For Waleska, listening during treatment made cancer feel “less traumatic.” She is in now in remission.

Beyond the public appearances, Dinniman builds big worlds from small-town coffee shops in Gig Harbor: Cutters, The Davenport, Kimball Coffee, Panera, or the library. A bona fide PNW writer, he jokes, “I drink too much coffee. That’s a problem.”

As a “pantser,” he writes without planning ahead. His ADHD means he rarely works in the same place two days in a row. Head phones on, heavy metal up. When he’s not writing or on the road promoting his books, you might find him in a Tacoma bar playing bass with his band.

Reflecting on his success, Dinniman said simply: “It’s insane. It’s truly insane.”

The Dungeon Crawler series, by author Matt Dinniman of Gig Harbor, has sold almost 8 million copies and will become a television series. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann