After leaving the teaching profession to become a stay-at-home mom in 2010, Casie decided it was time to chase a dream she’d long had: writing professionally. Following the old adage, write what you know, she opted to focus on horses and found her first break writing for The Horse. Around this time, she also began her blog, The Naturally Healthy Horse. She’s since gone on to contribute for other publications such as Natural Horse Magazine, Country Extra, Horse Network, and Oklahoma Horses Magazine. She even expanded her horizons to write an article about a bull named Fidel No Castro and a tear drop camper built by her husband.
Casie’s primary writing goal, however, has always been to use the traditional route for publishing a young adult fiction novel, and after years of hard work (and four completed manuscripts), she finally achieved that goal when her debut novel, Not Our Summer, released in May of 2021 from Running Press Teen/Hachette. She’s now working toward publishing a second young adult novel.
When not writing or shuffling her two children to school or activities, Casie can often be found outdoors, hanging out with her kids and/or animals. She has a fondness for rescue animals and currently has eight cats, two dogs, three horses, and two goats.
Casie was once a competitive barrel racer, but now only rides for pleasure. You’ll be more likely to find her cleaning stalls, trimming hooves, or petting her horses than actually riding these days. When it’s too cold or rainy to be outside, she enjoys curling up with a mug of hot tea in order to read or watch movies. Naturally, she has a penchant for young adult books and loves to compare the book to the movie, but she enjoys reading adult fiction and non-fiction as well. She religiously watches Dancing with the Stars, no matter the weather.
Some of Casie’s all-time favorite books include: The Giver by Lois Lowry, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver, Half-Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl, Lady Long Rider by Bernice Ende, and The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.