1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?

When my daughter was younger, I was her girl scout leader. I noticed most of the girls read, but they were reading books with male protagonists and I wanted to create a book with a female hero. Now there are quite a few books with girl hero’s.

2) What inspired you to write your book?

What inspired me to write Transgression of Magic, book 2 in the Town Magician series? Book 1. Seriously, this book couldn’t have been written without book 1 being before it.

I originally wanted to write a short story about wizards and magic for a local Wizarding World fest at Kent State. That grew into the Town Magician series. the first story started about 7,500 words and now I  have 4 books planned and several short stories.

3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?

For book 2, Transgression of Magic, its about kids dealing with their parents mistakes. Even parents mess up and don’t make the right choice at times, and Samual has had to deal with that. It was something I thought about after book 1, Embracing the Magic, and needed to figure out what happened between Samual and his father after he became Town Magician.

4) What drew you into this particular genre?

I’ve always loved fantasy and read fantasy. It was a natural fit for me and I can picture wizards fighting goblins and dire wolves better than I can picture a murder mystery or action thriller.

5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?

Maybe Toby, the Grand Wizard. It’s a bit bumbling, like a cross between Fizban from Dragonlance and Merlin from Disney’s Sword in the Stone. If not Toby, Cat. There is a lot more to Cat than we know, but its been hinted at. What is really going on with this animal? Hard to say.

6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?

I’m on Facebook mostly and reach out to parents and teachers. I also have an Instagram and YouTube and am working on more videos for parents and teachers. While I write middle grade, I try to offer information and educational aids to the teachers and home school parents.

7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?

Write. Tomorrow, write. Then write some more. Make up stories and get them on paper or some online document or even dictated in audio. Just tell stories. Forget about spelling and grammar. That stuff will come and you can work on it once you’ve written. But we don’t have our kids really write stories much. We teach them spelling and grammar and sentence diagrams and what a verb and noun are, and then we move on. we never have them write much and it’s backwards. They would get so much more out of the lessons if they already had experienced some writing. Forget that stuff until 4th or 5th grade. Just get the younger ones telling stories.

8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?

Well, book 3 is planned out and being worked on. More exciting is my Oddish Questor series about a group of sibling investigators that explore Bigfoot and other cryptids. Think Scooby-Doo meets the X-files.

I’m finishing up my video game series also that focuses on video game storytelling.

About the Author

S.A. Schneider has a wolf, so of course he writes middle grade fantasy, wouldn’t you? Since his Lego and action figure days, he’s crafted worlds and stories within those worlds. This pursuit continues into his middle grade fantasies.

He doesn’t stop with inspiring kids to write linear stories. Oh no, no. S.A. shows kids how storytelling in video games work and how they can learn to write those . He wants others to join him and delve into creating fantastical worlds.

Enjoy the Adventure!

https://www.sa-schneider.com/