Bigfoot, Alaska And Evil: Wyoming Author Channels Depression Into A Wild Trilogy

Caitee Cooper grew up in the Wyoming outdoors, which she draws on to build her fantasy novels inspired by bigfoot, Alaska, and a pretty wild imagination.

Growing up in Laramie planted deep roots in the West, and 10 days spent on the Alaska coast gave her inspiration. But it was her depression that gave Cooper the courage to start writing. 

Cooper writes as she talks, in awe of the beauty of the natural world and excited for the next adventure. An avid outdoorswoman, she shares this love in her fantasy novels that she describes as a little bit Hitchcock, a little bit Hallmark.

Thanks to the support of her fans and partnerships with other Wyoming artists, Cooper is getting ready to release the third and final installment in her Portlock fantasy series. 

“My books have elements of mystery, romance, suspense and a little bit of fantasy,” Cooper said. “I would describe them overall as a supernatural fantasy with some romance.”

Her trilogy opens with a dramatic scene of a dying man, a bloody beach and an evil his people had just destroyed. 

She then fast-forwards to the modern world where her main character has pieces of Cooper herself — from her familiarity with hunting to her vivid imagination.

As Cooper wraps up her last book in the series, she is already at work on her next project. 

“The next one will be a little bit of a spin-off from the first series, and it's going to take place up in Yellowstone, so that'll be fun,” Cooper said. “It's also going to be a contemporary fantasy.”

Inspired By Spooky Stories 

Cooper’s fiction has been rattling around in her head since she was a teenager. After graduating high school in Laramie, she spent ten days in a commercial fishing camp with friends of her family who owned it. While there, she was told a spooky story that caught her imagination.

“I heard this ghost story of this town in Alaska that had been abandoned because of an aggressive, Bigfoot-like creature,” Cooper said. “There was another ghost story that went along with that of a lady in black that was a banshee type creature that would come out and haunt the townspeople.”

These supernatural creatures, according to legend, scared the whole town away. 

“It's now just a ghost town that's over in the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska,” Cooper said. “I came home and I started writing this story idea that had come to me. But I was 17, going to college and life got busy. I went on a mission and there were boys.” 

Her story idea was shelved and Cooper got to work as an SEO copywriter.

The Catalyst Of Depression

“There wasn't a lot of room for extra creativity in there,” Cooper said. “Fast forward about eight or nine years and I had really bad postpartum depression after having my son.”

She said she fought through the depression and was doing better when she found out she was pregnant again, less than a year after having her first baby.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do because I was afraid the depression would come back,” Cooper said. “I was going to have two under two.”

Unable to sleep, Cooper said the idea hit her like lightning. 

“It was kind of just fully formed with characters and a plot,” Cooper said. “I got up the next morning and I told my husband that I'm going to write a book.”

Cooper didn’t intend to publish her story and the writing was strictly to keep her healthy while she dealt with motherhood. It took her over a year to write the first novel which she describes as a “bad book.” 

“I was a decent writer because I had done a lot of writing work, but I didn't know how to write a novel,” she said. “I was writing to just keep me sane and keep my brain working.” 

Unique Path

Cooper took her ‘bad book’ and, with the help of editors and beta readers, was able to turn it into a book that agents were interested in. However, she realized that if she went the traditional route, with agents and the big four publishing companies, she would not have the control over her book that she wanted. 

“In Wyoming, we are grassroots folks,” Cooper said. “We don't need New York or California to get behind us. We can do this ourselves with our good little communities that we have here.” 

Cooper decided to go the independent route and teamed up with local businesses to promote both her Wyoming-made book and their Wyoming products. 

“Wyoming instilled an independent spirit in me,” Cooper said. “We're known for our rugged independence and indie publishing is in the same spirit as this pioneering attitude.” 

As Cooper worked with a team of editors, book designers and others to turn her book into a novel she could be proud of, she also looked around for other ways to make her novels stand out. One of her first partners was Altitude Soaps who designed soap customized to her book.

“The books take place partially up in Alaska so we're doing a really crisp, forest scented soap that has mountain silhouettes in the soap bar itself,” Cooper said. “It's so pretty. I don't know how anyone's ever actually going to use it.”

She also teamed up with Wind and Sage to create customized candles that would resonate with the cozy vibe of her books.

“One of the things I really wanted to do was bring in other Wyoming creators and have them sell their stuff,” Cooper said. “It's created a local and proud vibe because that's Wyoming.”

As Cooper promotes these Wyoming artisans, she also got her fans involved with her books by starting a Kickstarter campaign which was selected by Kickstarter as a “project we love.” 

Her fans could select the custom-made Wyoming products and a trip to Alaska, to visit the fishing camp where her writing journey began. For Cooper, writing the books is the true adventure.

“I have a new fantasy, cooking up in the back of my brain,” she said. “We'll see where I take that. That'll be fun.”

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.