About Amanda

Amanda Preisler grew up in the woods of Minnesota, reading books, writing stories in the playhouse, and searching for doors to other worlds. Because of her younger brother, she looked for books that had characters with Down syndrome, but they seemed to be missing, so she started a journey to write some herself. Alongside that, she’s on an adventure teaching fourth grade near St. Paul, Minnesota. She aims to share book enthusiasm and a love for people with Down syndrome wherever she goes.

Ask the Author!
Do you have a question I didn't answer? Let me know! The response might end up here!

What gave you the idea for this story? And how long did it take you to write it?

A dream and a story starter.
Many summers ago, I gave some students their daily writing exercise. I always wrote alongside them because…more fun. I added one of my dreams to the story starter and voila! But I only wrote a couple pages, and it was shelved until the next year. After a few summers of picking it up just to add another page or two, the story wouldn’t leave me alone and I couldn’t keep stuffing it in a drawer. So, I took some classes to figure out how to untangle the story mess I’d made. Countless rough drafts later I had a final working version of the story. is extremely different from that initial scribbling, but that’s still its origin. All-in-all it took me around 8-10 years to bring it into print. It was pretty fun.

Do you have a favorite character?
Sam.

Then Charles and Happy.

Are your characters based on real people in your life?

No. None of the characters are meant to represent real people in real life. When I first created the characters, they were pretty flat. I had to “spend time” with them and “get to know” them before they started to resemble realistic people. I’ve also been asked if Brenna is meant to be me—No. But I do root for her!

Is your brother just like Sam?

No. My brother is actually pretty shy. Once he warms up to you, though, watch out! You’ll be laughing and having a great time. It’s true that many aspects of Sam are similar to my brother, but that’s also true to the other people I know with Down syndrome. Sam is his own person.

What authors or books have influenced you in your own writing?

Such a great question! I could fill many pages with my responses.

The Chronicles of Narnia—they are the most magical books on the planet to me. I’ve been enamored with them since I was a little kid. My parents have a tall pine tree grove on their property, and I really wanted to walk through them and end up in Narnia. I also love the deeper meaning in these books. C.S. Lewis was amazing!
Roald Dahl books—so creative and so fun!
Kate DiCamillo—She is such a great writer. I didn’t always appreciate her when I was younger, but now that I’ve learned a lot more about writing…wow. She can say a lot in few words and draw you deeply into her characters.
Bill Peet books—Yes, these are picture books, but I love them. I would make a beeline to the Bill Peet books at the library and sit and smell them. I loved his colored pencil drawings and longer stories. Cowardly Clyde is a favorite.
Alice in Wonderland & The Wizard of Oz—My mom read these to me when I was quite little, and I was hooked by the idea that other places might exist! This, along with Narnia, is where my affinity for portal-to-another-world books started.
Many, many more!

Will there be a sequel to Darkness Over Daerland?

I don’t know. Should there be?