Welcome to WOLF NOTES, where interview questions stray from the rest of the pack. It’s nice to know the usual stuff like where an author gets their inspiration and why they write, but sometimes we need a little fun in our lives.

A lover of literary adventure and notorious breaker of writing rules, Katika Schneider’s been an obsessive writer for most of her life. She started out writing for herself before surrendering to her characters’ demands, and began pursuing publication in 2014. She’s a firm believer that everyone has a story to tell.

Holding her degree in Animal Science, Kat planned on attending veterinary school until incisions started making her faint. Today, her non-writing hobbies include classical horsemanship, collecting garden gnomes, customizing toy horses, binge watching anime, and rolling around on the floor making stupid noises with her awesome dog. She lives with her husband and their abundant family of critters.

Wolf: Thanks for stopping by for this interview, Katika. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Katika: A tank. Absolutely, 100% a tank. My husband used to tell me he wanted me to either learn how to use throwing axes or get me a shotgun because “nobody would want to cross a woman who ran at them, screaming, wielding either of those,” but I’m pretty sure a tank would work better. It’d also provide the benefits of a mode of transportation, armor of sorts, and I’m pretty sure people would be less likely to cut me off in traffic or run red lights in front of me.

Wolf: I’d pick another road to drive on. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Katika: I consider writing a sacred duty in that my characters only exist in my mind until I make the effort to record their adventures. I do my best to listen to my characters, to let them make their own choices, and to record their lives as authentically as I can so that they can continue to live in my readers’ minds. I’d like to think that’s a pretty nice thing to do for my characters.

Wolf: Absolutely. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Katika: I’ll preface this one by saying that I’ve got five cats and one dog, and I love them all dearly. I can’t imagine a quality life without either of them, and they both have different qualities that make them The Best, but dogs always seem a bit more genuine to me. And you can’t really sing howling songs with cats.

Wolf: Very true. There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?

Katika: Roll Knowledge Dungeoneering to see if I can figure out what it could be. Either way, I’m probably searching for traps and preparing to pick the lock to investigate.

Just kidding. Real Katika probably would blink and say, “Why am I in a dark, damp corridor? This isn’t where I belong!” and high tail it out of there.

Wolf: Spoken like a true gamer. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

Katika: I’m taking the liberty of claiming that people and animals don’t count as “items.”
1. Some way to record my thoughts that does not rely on electric or battery power. Some people would want a lifetime supply of bullets or canned food—I’d want a lifetime supply of ink.
2. My tank from question one. Even if I ran out of fuel for it, it’d still offer me durable protection from the elements and any antagonistic forces lurking about.
3. A knife. The bushwhacking kind that I could use for multiple purposes.
4. A whetstone to keep said knife in working order.
5. A toothbrush.

 Wolf: Good choices. What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)

Katika: While I am a notorious puddle jumper, I love creeks and streams. I’m sure part of this is due to nostalgia, as I grew up in rural Missouri, but they’re so soothing. Except, of course, when they’re flooding.

Wolf: Flooding is a big problem. (There is a pretty significant one in Star Touched.) What story are you working on now?

Katika: I’m currently working on Defiance, book 4 of the Tale of the Fallen. As I’m responding to these questions, it’s about 2/3 of the way through its second draft. I’m also gearing up to help co-author a portal fantasy, though I don’t have a set timeline for it yet.

Wolf: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Katika: When I’m not writing (or doing other activities related to it), I’m either playing with my dog, riding my horses, binge watching anime, or participating in some type of gaming. On my actual days fully away from work, I like to go antiquing and visiting hokey tourist traps (bonus points if they’ve got life-size statues of dinosaurs)

Wolf: Sounds like fun.

Conect with Katika through these links.
Website: http://katikaschneider.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatikaSchneider/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatikaSchneider
Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01DAG9UBA
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15142056.Katika_Schneider