About

Who am I?

My name is Carie Juettner (pronounced YOOT-ner). I’m an author, a poet, a reader, a coffee drinker, a pet wrangler, and a wildlife volunteer, among other things. I also make a lot of lists. My books are for children (but adults are allowed to enjoy them, too) and my poems and short stories are for various audiences, from kids to adults. Some are funny. Some are scary. Some are both. Some are neither.

Before I started writing full-time, I was a seventh grade English teacher. My favorite parts of the job were recommending books to students, teaching The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (which I’ve read over sixty times), introducing kids to new types of poetry, and wearing my eyeball glasses on test days.

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Where did I come from?

I was born on Halloween, which people say explains a lot. I grew up in Richardson, Texas, with my mom, dad, and older brother in a house with a huge backyard and lots of pets. I liked making up adventures for my toy horses, playing “school” with my stuffed animals, and listening to ghost stories around the campfire.

I went to college at the University of Texas in Austin and then lived there for over twenty years, enjoying the city’s nature trails, delicious tacos, and wonderful weirdness. Now my husband and I live in Richardson again, close to my family and the big backyard where I grew up.

What makes me happy?

So many things. Reading a book with a cat on my lap or in the hammock on my back porch. Seeing a fox or raccoon run across my backyard. The way I feel after a great yoga class. Waking up in the middle of the night with an idea for a story and scribbling it on a sticky note. Sharing a laugh with a friend or a stranger. Eating a really good pastry.

These are some of my favorite books. The list is constantly out of date because I am constantly reading.

What scares me?

Is an author who writes horror stories really scared by anything? Yes. Yes, she is. I get extremely anxious going to the dentist, and I’m afraid of flying stinging insects, specifically red wasps because they like to attack me for absolutely no reason.

Also, I love tarantulas, but I’m not a fan of the ones who sneak up on me, like the one waiting on the edge of the bathtub when I was a toddler, or the one that fell (or jumped?) off the screen door onto my shoulder when I was in the seventh grade, or the one that somehow climbed onto the ceiling of our hallway a few months ago. (Also, why are tarantulas stalking me???)

Why do I write?

I have stories inside me. If I didn’t write them, where would they go? Mostly, I write to entertain myself and hope that others will be entertained, too. I like to make my readers laugh, and sometimes I like to give them the shivers and make them turn on the lights and check their closets. I like it when I share a poem at a poetry reading and the audience gives a little hum of recognition afterward, like my words connected with them.

When I was a kid, my parents read me books like Bunnicula and Hank the Cowdog. When I was a teacher, I enjoyed helping my students find a book they would love. My goal as an author is to write those kinds of books, the ones that make families laugh together, the ones teachers will recommend to kids looking for a good story.