Anthony Sarnelle, a local resident, recently wrote a children’s book called Trenton and the Flying Bike: Attack of the Ninja Robots. The story is about a child in a wheelchair who builds a flying bike and becomes a superhero. Curious about the plot, his inspirations and future career, we interviewed Sarnelle to discuss all the aspects of being an author.
His most recent story is centered on the “powers” of Trenton and his flying bike against the rise of an evil bank robber named Dr. Mean; a man whose main goal is to steal the Statue of Liberty and melt it into pennies. When asked about his inspirations for writing the book, Sarnelle replied, “There is a large population of students with disabilities in this country and I feel that they are often forgotten about, especially in main-stream media, such as superheroes. Trenton represents these children.” In fact, writing a children’s book was not originally Sarnelle’s plan as an author. His main goal as a writer is adult novels, but chose to focus on this story because it seemed the easiest to market at the moment. Once he gets the story published, he is planning on publishing an entire series involving Trenton and his amazing flying bike.
As a fellow ‘Stamfordite,’ we asked Sarnelle what advice he had to future writers in Stamford Public Schools, and what was his hardest obstacle in writing a story? “The hard part is staying motivated, and staying buoyant above the self-doubt that prevents the story from actually getting finished,” he claimed. Knowing there aren’t any tricks or formulas, Sarnelle advocated, “aspiring writers need to read and write. That’s it. The more you read and write the better your craft of both will become.”
