Casey Rislov spent many days riding horses and attending rodeos as a child growing up in Casper. But she never imagined she would create a children’s book series about a feisty female horsefly who did both.

For Rislov, education seemed the logical career path. Her father, Ronnie, taught drafting and engineering at Casper College; her mother, Randy, taught sixth grade at Fairdale Elementary. As a biology major at the University of Wyoming, Rislov flirted with becoming a physician assistant but ultimately earned a master’s degree in elementary education from Montana State University, which led her to the front of the classroom, where she read a lot of children’s books

Laura Redmond’s house is more crowded these days. Two of her five children—Josette, 22, and Easton, 19—moved back into their Casper home in the wake of high gas prices and soaring inflation. Redmond, 44, recently picked up a second job while trimming the family budget to keep them out of debt.