Welcome to the author interview with S.A. Schneider as he shares with us about his book Embracing the Magic, the first in the Town Magician series, a middle-grade fantasy!
Blurb:
Young Samual longs to perform magic of his own. And what’s worse, he can’t seem to convince anyone that their beloved Town Magician is a trickster without an enchanted bone in his body. When a wicked wizard challenges the pretender to a duel, Samual vows to keep his village safe by forcing the fraudster to rise to the challenge.
Determined to prevent disaster, he secretly shadows the phony protector during his training with the Grand Wizard. And when they barely escape an vicous attack, Samual realizes he must partner up with his bitter rival. But keeping the truth hidden any longer may not help them outwit a powerful sorcerer.
With his town in grave danger, can Samual protect the ones he loves from the forces of evil?
Embracing the Magic is the enchanting first story in the Town Magician middle grade fantasy series. If you enjoy unlikely heroes, coming-of-age adventures, and spellbinding creatures, then you’ll love S.A. Schneider’s fantastical tale.
In the book, you also get:
– background information on Town Magicians
– Words to Know to learn new words
– Create your own adventure stories – suggestions to help kids create their own stories
Teachers and Parents: visit sa-schneider.com for educational resources and free short stories set within the Town Magician world. You can also get a copy of the study guide for teaching use.
Ready to learn more about Embracing the Magic and the author behind it? Keep reading for our interview with S.A. Schneider!
Hello, author Schneider! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions regarding your book – Embracing the Magic!
Author Schneider, you start off your book – Embracing the Magic: Town Magician with a teaser of what’s to come in your book. Why did you decide to do this? Was the intent to pique readers interest in what’s looming on the horizon for the characters?
Author Schneider: It’s only in the print book, and it’s something they used to do in books. A quick, exciting scene to pique interest of anyone flipping through the book and deciding to buy. It gives them something to read other than some random page, which may not be as interesting.
Ah! Okay! So, dear readers, this teaser we’re alluding to won’t be found in the digital book, but if it’s something you want to check out it is available in the print, so grab a copy!
In the first chapter of Embracing the Magic readers are immediately brought face to face with the tail end of a battle. What made you decide to start the story off this way?
Author Schneider: It’s like that hook at the beginning of a lot of TV shows, especially cop dramas. See the crime and then want to watch until the end to see your hero team solve it. Here we see the bad guy fighting a Town Magician and defeating him. And Morzul is plain mean. Then we meet Samual and Rory and know they are going to conflict with that evil wizard.
In this first chapter we get our first introduction to Morzul, a dark magician. He’s on a quest for power and control. Does he seek to eventually rule the world so to speak? What prompted him to go on this “quest” so to speak for more power?
Author Schneider: Oh, yes, he definitely wants to rule his world. He wants to be the most powerful magician – the Grand Wizard. He’s defeating as many Town Magician’s as he can, and gaining more power. The problem is, in the Town Magician world, there isn’t an opening for a Town Magician, so his only recourse is to challenge them for amulets. He exploits a loop hole and fights more and more Town Magicians, he isn’t happy with just one.
Since this is a middle grade book, we can imagine that you wished to keep from scaring young readers too much. Is that why you keep Morzul from being overly vicious and violent?
Author Schneider: Yeah, exactly. The end battle I had to adjust to give it some excitement, but not be too vicious and violent. And how to let Samual win without actually killing Morzul …. Of course, that led to another story coming out where something happens and Morzul escapes – but Samual doesn’t exactly stop him.
Wow! Sounds like readers will have a lot to look forward to when it comes to the Town Magician series!
Rory is an interesting character so to speak. LOL! He’s apparently a trickster from the way that Embracing the Magic plays out. He uses slight of hand (rather poorly), so my question would have to be – do the village people choose not to acknowledge his lies? Or do they just truly not see him for the fraud that he is?
Author Schneider: He’s really good, so they mostly don’t see it. Like any magician in our world, it looks real, even when its not. But in their world, they trust their Town Magician and can’t imagine he’s not real. They don’t want it to not be real, because their town wasn’t doing well without a Town Magician. So there’s a little lying to themselves and some seeing what looks like real magic, so they just accept it. This type of thing happens in our world often, just not with magic. That you know of.
Okay! That totally makes sense!
(a) So, was the previous town magician just as weak to where they could only perform minor feats of magic and thus giving Rory the opportunity to perform his tricks unchallenged?
Author Schneider: Town Magician’s are typically powerful, and its accepted that Rory is young and will get better with age. There’s more a question of why he and his father wanted to fool people like this. There are hints in Embracing the Magic and Transgression of Magic – but the full story will have to wait until Book 4.
Awesome! We can’t wait to find out what happens next and we’re sure that readers who pick up this book will feel the same way!
So, we have to ask: What is the story behind Samual and his dad, Joseph? Samual craves magic, but his dad appears to hate it. Why? Did magic negatively impact him, Joseph, in the past that went on to spark his despise-ale of it?
Author Schneider: Oh, great question. That was what I asked myself, which led to Book 2 – Transgression of Magic. Let me say – all those questions are answered in that book.
Frequently throughout the book, Rory mistreats Samual and degrades him at every chance he gets. Why doesn’t Samual push back? Samual wants to be viewed differently, yet he is always quick to avoid confrontation. Why?
Author Schneider: It’s an interesting relationship. Rory feels a bit unsettled about lying as Town Magician. He was ok with it when he just performed. But now that he’s been challenged and he knows he can’t channel magic, he’s worried. And Samual has been saying all along that Rory is a fake – so it makes him uncomfortable that this kid knows the secret. And Samual has been the outcast his entire life. No mother. A drunk father. No friends. Everyone in town disregards him because he’s the local drunk’s kid. He lacks self-confidence. This inhibits his internal powers – as we come to see by the end of the book.
Huh. That makes a lot of sense when you put it like that. It’ll be interesting to see how the relationship between these two boys evolves as the series progresses.
The Grand Wizard is quite the character when he makes an appearance. What was your inspiration for his character? Was it your original intent to have him be so eccentric?
Author Schneider: Oh yeah, totally wanted him quirky. Started out as a combination of Fizban from the Dragonlance series and Merlin from the Disney Sword in the Stone. He has some conflicts of his own and knows a bit more than Rory, Samual or the reader. By the end of book 2, we learn more of the issues the Grand Wizard is dealing with himself, which leads us directly into book 3.
Well! It sounds like book two is going to have a lot to look forward to! Revelations about the Grand Wizards and the secrets he’s keeping, and the further development of Rory and Samual’s friendship!
Grand Wizard Toby appears to have some secrets that he’s keeping. How long will readers have to wait before we get to discover what it is that he’s hiding?
Author Schneider: We know what’s going on by the end of book 2, but the fallout will be something our heroes have to deal with through book 4.
Ooooh! Sounds a bit ominous! But we’re that things won’t get too dark. LOL! Just thrills and excitement to come!
When it comes to the characters themselves, you leave their physical descriptions and ages vague and undefined. Did you do this intentionally? If so, why?
Author Schneider: Yes I did. Some description, but I wanted kids to picture each character how they imagine. Maybe not the recommended, but I also encourage kids (and their teachers and parents) to write stories based on these characters. Or draw pictures. Or make a comic book. Or the best – make a video game. I want them to show me what they imagine.
Oh okay! That totally makes sense! This way readers, especially the kids, are more engaged in the story and add a sense of personalization! So cool!
Embracing the Magic is your first book. What inspired you to write this story and create these characters?
Author Schneider: At Kent State, which is near me, there is a Wizarding World festival each year. I wanted to setup an author table, but didn’t have any books about wizards and magic. I came up with an idea for a short story that had a young boy wanting magic because other people in his world can channel magic. This led to the thought that magicians were the most powerful people and not the warriors. Something I thought the kids I can relate to could understand. Samual’s essentially the band kid while the warriors would be the football players.
But from there, I kept asking more questions and the history and stories grew. Must be my Dungeons and Dragons background coming out. So right now there are 4 books planned in the series, with some accompanying short stories. Though, I have one short story that has grown to its own book and I have a couple short stories that are outside Samual’s time period. There is also the possibility of the original story of how the magic came into the world with Zardonis.
Wow! Inspiration really struck in such an interesting way!
Do you see Samual embarking on many adventures in the future? If so, how many books do you think this series will encompass?
Author Schneider: As mentioned, there are 4 books in this series – kind of like the original Star Wars trilogy. Some other adventures to fill in (like the books, comics, and video games with Star Wars). But the world is pretty open and rich, so there is quite a bit of room for other stories.
Sounds promising! Guess we’ll see how far the series goes, but for now we know for sure that there are four books!
What was your favorite part about writing Embracing the Magic?
Author Schneider: Getting it done to where it felt like a good story. As I continued to get better with my writing during this time, some things did change. Is it a perfect book? No, but as perfect as I could at the time. And the feedback has been great. Kids enjoy it because they can relate to Samual. Now that book 2 is coming out, I’ve heard that they can’t wait for book 3.
That’s great to know that the kids especially are enjoying the series and eagerly anticipating the next in the series!
What are you looking forward to most regarding a Town Magician series moving forward?
Author Schneider: Continuing the story with the hints in the previous books. There are some parts of Embracing the Magic and Transgression of Magic that are going to lead directly to book 3 and 4. I enjoy the interwoven stories and the direction I can take these stories.
Fantastic! Thank you so much author Schneider for taking time to speak with us here at Scribbles about your book! We look forward to seeing what you write next!
Author Schneider: You are so welcome! It’s been fun talking about these stories.
We here at Scribbles Worth sincerely thank author S.A. Schneider for taking the time out of his day to answer our questions about his book.
We enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to read and review Embracing the Magic, and you can check out the review here.
About Author Schneider:
Author Bio 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!
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