J. A. Scheffer

J. A. Scheffer committed to studying Humanities at age 19 and he spent the next 15 years mixing college work with traveling to Europe and then living 9 months in Kenya and 2 years in South Korea as both a teacher and student. Eventually, he earned his MA in English from Stony Brook University, where he now teaches writing and rhetoric. Since he has been a lifelong student of classical and medieval literature, Scheffer’s intention for The Sage of the Oak was to integrate Eastern concepts and archetypes of Western fantasy without appealing mainly to children, something he felt was the case with the genre since Tolkien. His respect for the pure poetry of Virgil’s Aeneid inspired his work on The Sage of the Oak and also convinced him that great works of literature can be perennial sellers.