Thomas Kingsley Troupe was born in Minneapolis, MN, and grew up pretty much afraid of everything. Noises, monsters, mannequins, puppets .... A movie that haunted him for a long time was a made-for-TV movie called Night of the Scarecrow. He didn't make it to the end of the movie and still hasn't watched the whole thing. Maybe he's still afraid?

As Thomas got a little older, he wanted to write and learn about creepy things?maybe to get over his fears.

So, he did!

He wrote horror stories in high school and filmed short scary movies. He decided he wanted to grow up to write horror novels like his hero Stephen King. Thomas was pretty sure they'd get to hang out and swap story ideas once he became a "famous author."

For him, the paranormal became a constant topic of conversation, and Thomas sought out true tales of creepiness. He visited haunted locations, taking tours and lots of photos, hoping to catch something supernatural on camera.

When he was about 17, he and his girlfriend were sitting behind his parent's house one night and looking up at the stars, and they both noticed something strange. Hovering above his neighbor's house was a triangular shape. It had bright circular lights at each of the triangle's points. Thomas looked at his girlfriend, unsure if she was seeing it too. She was looking at the sky in amazement. When he looked back, the object silently rose up and flew up into the sky. To this day he believes it was a UFO.

He did some digging on the internet and found out that others had seen the very same flying object, described and illustrated exactly like what he and his girlfriend saw. The UFO never came back for another visit.

Thomas's first short story was published in a literary journal called Fresh Tracks. It featured a ton of poems about nature, animals, feelings, colors, and his story "The Legend of Jake Hade" about a guy who digs up a grave to dispel a local legend. It stuck out like a sore thumb.

Despite wanting to write creepy books, his first published book was one for really little kids called Patrick's Super Socks. It set him on a different path, writing for kids. Since then he's written over 300 books for young readers. Some of them are even a little creepy like his Hair-Raiser series.