Interview with Middle Grade Author Courtenay Kasper

Happy to have  Courtenay Kasper on the blog today! She's a  middle grade author and her love of the genre really shines through as you'll see below! 

Tell us about your work.

Thank you so much! I write primarily middle-grade fiction. I haven’t always stayed with one genre so I write steampunk, fantasy, dystopian, and one western even!
 
What made you want to write middle grade books?

I started writing stories when I was 8 and won a lunch with a local author. From that point on I wanted to write stories. I have always enjoyed speculative fiction most and frequently refer to myself as being stuck in “Middle-Earth.” I like the YA genre, but my heart belongs to the fantastical, whimsical, and vibrant storylines in Middle-Grade Literature.
 
What was your favorite book when you were growing up?

That is a tough one! I think it is a tie between The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster) and The Secret World of OG (Pierre Burton). Both had these fantastical worlds with excellent word play and interesting side characters.
 
I always reread my favorite books when I was a preteen. Did you reread books and if so, which one(s) have you reread?

Absolutely! I re-read my favourites over and over. I have read The Chronicles of Narnia dozens of times. My favourite is a Horse and his Boy. If I can tell one story half as well as that, I will be thrilled.
 
Who are some of your favorite middle grade and/or YA authors?

Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, Suzanne Collins Gregor the Overlander, Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan, Christopher Paolini’s Eragon. S.D. Smith’s Green Ember, Catherynne M. Valente’s Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making.  All fantastic. There are so many.
 
A lot of creatives (artists, writers, musicians) have talked about how the pandemic has impacted their creativity. How has it been for you?

To start with my creativity was struggling when the pandemic hit because I had also torn out my shoulder, so typing wasn’t happening. It took several months before I could write anything again. I used the time to do a ton of reading and listening to audiobooks and came out of that with even more book ideas.
 
What are you working on now?

I am working on the sequel to Here There Be Griffins – The Cartografist’s Map. This book is more focused on a secondary character’s journey to becoming an Atlantian Map Maker and bringing back the fallen city. I am also helping one of my daughters with the graphic novel she is working on which is challenging my digital art skills in a great way.
 
Follow the author here: 
https://www.facebook.com/clkasper  my FB Author Page
https://courtenaykasper.wordpress.com/ my Blog
https://www.goodreads.com/courtenaykasper Goodreads
 
Here There Be Griffins
 
When 12-year-old Molybdenum McTavish finds a griffin’s egg in her grampa’s towing yard she is thrown into a whirlwind adventure that takes her beyond the north wind and off her own map. Moly must find out who she is and who she can trust before the last of the griffins is brutally murdered and the people of Hyperborea made slaves. Can a girl and her newly-hatched Tiger griffin take down a horde of one-eyed Arim before it’s too late? 

Find the book here at Amazon:
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