Thomas Kingsley Troupe easily remembers one of the first stories he ever created. He was in second grade when his Northeast Minneapolis school hosted a writing competition. “We would go around the class, say our ideas and every one would get excited,” the Woodbury resident recalls. “There were stories about grandma [and] puppies … I created Stick Man’s First Voyage Into the Black Hole. I was convinced it would win.” Although it didn’t win—it received an award equivalent to a participation trophy—that story kickstarted a love of writing for the young Kingsley Troupe.
Inspired by authors like Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume and Stephen King, Kingsley Troupe began honing his craft in high school, where he took writing classes, worked for the school magazine and penned horror stories—one of which was published in a five-state area literary magazine. His journey from horror to children’s tales is a story in itself.
Thomas Kingsley Troupe. Photo: Krizia Studios
Kingsley Troupe never stopped writing, having submitted several books to publishers. “I had a lot of rejection letters,” he says. Then, he saw an article callout for short stories. He sent in his 300-word story, Patrick’s Super Socks; the publisher wanted to publish it on its own. “My high school version of me would say, ‘Are you serious? What a sellout,’” he says. “When I first held Patrick’s Super Socks, I was getting teary-eyed looking at the alligator on the cover.”
Nearly two decades later, Kingsley Troupe has found immense success in the written world, having penned more than 400 children’s books. He doesn’t take a single one for granted, knowing that each book he’s written has fulfilled his childhood dream. “I get super excited and emotional all these years later,” he says.
How does such a successful author get started on a new idea? “My process starts with [a sheet of paper titled] ‘Wouldn’t It Be Cool if …’” Kingsley Troupe says. “I drop everything in an idea pit, [and] I list all of the things I think I want to have happen. As I’m doing that, I can sort of imagine which characters might be a good fit for this or that.”
The entire writing process from idea pit to completion is a creative outlet for Kingsley Troupe, who works full time at HealthPartners and is also a paranormal investigator with the Twin Cities Paranormal Society. “When I do school visits, I try not to mention that because then they don’t want to talk about books; they want to talk about ghosts,” he says, laughing.
Kingsley Troupe has managed to meld his two worlds together, having written several paranormal stories, starting with his first series, Furry and Flo, which features six books published from 2013–15. “It’s about a girl who moves into a cruddy, old apartment building in the middle of the city, and across the hall lives a third grade werewolf. They go on adventures and get into trouble together,” he says. Now, he’s working on two separate paranormal series, one of which is based on a supposedly haunted hotel in Wabasha, Minnesota.
When young children listen to or read any of his stories, Kingsley Troupe wants them to feel a sense of encouragement. “I hope it inspires them to read more; that was a huge thing for me. My parents read to me a ton,” he says. “And I hope it inspires them to want to write [their own stories] … I hear kids say, ‘I can’t write. I’m not creative. I don’t have good ideas’ … and that’s not true at all. Anyone can write.”
At the end of the day, Kingsley Troupe says having written hundreds of books and sharing his work at schools around North America is better than he ever imagined. “It’s a cool feeling and makes you want to do it forever,” Kingsley Troupe says. “I genuinely feel this way. I always say, ‘This is what I want to do when I grow up.’”
