J.J. Singleton’s fantasy Chronicles of a Spell Caster

J.J. Singleton is an author who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a Master’s Degree in Ancient Studies. Throughout his life, he has dealt with Dyslexia. So books were never a source of entertainment for him when he was younger. With the difficulties he had with reading and writing, he never dreamed he would one day write a book. He always had a vivid imagination. When he was a young child, he was always pretending that he was the main character in the imaginary stories he created in his mind. Remembering the worlds and characters he created and combining his creative thoughts with historical themes and ideas he learned from his academic career, he has created his first novel Chronicles of a Spell Caster.

When not writing, he likes to play tennis, travel, and watch various tv series, his favorite are historical dramas. His favorite trip was to Greece, one of the many places he studied. He plans to continue his travels to a variety of locations around the globe. His goal is to see many of the historical places he studied and gather inspiration for future projects.

Here’s an interview with Jonathan on his new Chronicles of a Spell Caster series.

Your story focuses on young students who complete courses online. Was this novel inspired by coronavirus in any way? If not, what was your inspiration?

I actually started writing this story, almost five years ago, so coronavirus was not an inspiration for this story. As we look at the online nature of the world now, the aspect of virtual reality in my novel really does fit. Students nowadays are taking classes over various video calling applications and, in my book, it takes that a step further where the student characters can interact in this virtual world. How cool would that be if that could happen now! But the real inspiration for this novel was my childhood imagination. A lot of what is going on in the book was cooked up when I was younger, running around pretending to fight villains, transporting myself to a different world, and being the hero that is seen in Cartoons, Anime, and movies.

What makes this novel unique?

I think there are a few unique things about this novel, most of the uniqueness surrounds the characters. Even though they have abilities and could shrug off getting hit by a car and go about their day, the things that they go through are very relatable. The reader may say, hey, I went through that while I was in college or I had to deal with that feeling once or twice before.

There’s a rivalry among students about who’s the strongest. What does it mean to be ‘strong’ in this world? Physical strength? Magic powers?

In this world, strength is measured in terms of what you think of right away, Physical strength, and the degree of one’s power or abilities. But going deeper into the pages of the story, you will find that the real strength among the students. Which is shown by them stand up and for what they believe in and being vocal when they feel something is wrong or unjust.

Who are some of your favorite authors, and why?

Ellen Hopkins and Michelle Moran are two of my favorite authors. I have dyslexia and reading and writing in my past were always enormous obstacles for me. So those two things were never really that much fun to me, and I would never willingly go and pick up a book and read. But Ellen Hopkin’s book Crank was one of the first books I remember not wanting to put down. With the powerful topic of her story and unique way of telling the story, through her books, I found a joy in reading. A few years later, Michelle Moran wrote a book about my favorite queen, Nefertiti, titled Nefertiti. And since I enjoy history, I was intrigued. After the first few pages, I fell in love with how she wove the story together and created a beautiful picture of ancient Egypt and brought the historical characters to life, which made me want to read more. Individually these are some key reasons why these two authors are my favorites. But together, these two authors gave me something more than a great book; they both helped me find my love of reading and books.

How do the characters grow and change throughout the book?

For this book, I think growth and change are two different categories. The growth of the characters in the book is focused on a sense of discovery and finding one’s place or creating that space for oneself as they go through college. But on the topic of change, some characters may surprise you in how completely different they turn out to be at the end of the book.

J.J Singleton’s Chronicles of a Spell Caster is available through his website.