Tyler Snure was just 15 years old when he set about writing what he thought would be a short story.
But like the Eveready Bunny, he kept going, and going and it wasn’t all that long before he was well on his way to writing what would become the first book of his Jewels of Fate trilogy. By 2019, the St. Catharines native had finished that first book but he wasn’t sure how to go about getting it into the hands of the young adult audience he wrote the book for.
Enter the provincial Summer Company Program, where young student entrepreneurs can access funds to start their own business.
“It was recommended to me by my high school business teacher, Mrs. (Holly) Etherington, at Eden High School,” Snure said. “So, I applied, and I got in, and that summer was when I edited my first novel and I learned how to publish and market and put it out there.”
Since then, Snure, 19, who is now studying creative writing at Brock University, has published the second novel in the series – The Sword of Sorenth – and is currently in the editing stage for the third and final book of the trilogy. He expects that work will hit the shelves around September.
As one can tell by the titles, The Jewels of Fate books are fantasy novels, featuring lots of magic. Snure has recognized that his books do bear some similarities to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and he is not shy about it.
“My books stand out as on their own, but in my marketing, I say they're most similar to books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson (a book series by Rick Riordan). There's a little bit of Hunger Games in there, too. Stories like that.”
The trilogy tells the story of a boy from New York City named Chuck Kingsley who finds out his school life is a lie. When teenagers start disappearing all over the city, Chuck learns that magic is real and there's a world called Acanesia. He is summoned there by the Queen of the mysterious kingdom to carry out a secret mission. Chuck is joined by Caylene Casselle, the reluctant Princess of Acanesia. Together, the pair set out to save the kingdom with the help of other teens handpicked by the Queen.
The upcoming book finishes out the trilogy, but Snure hasn’t ruled out revisiting them in the future. For now, though, his next written work will be something different.
“I'm also a screenwriter and I have one screenplay written, and then I'm just starting another one,” he said.
Neither have any connection to his book series, however.
“It’s something completely different. Eventually, I will write a screenplay based on my books,” Snure said. “But for now, this one, my first screenplay is a murder mystery comedy set at a high school.”
He said the work has drawn “some interest” from producers in the past couple of years. This was during some difficult times for Hollywood between the COVID-19 pandemic and a writers' strike last year.
“But now that it's 2025, and the industry is kind of picked back up after the holidays — I'm actively pursuing that as well,” Snure said.
The first two books in the trilogy are available online at amazon.com — $19.99 for paperback editions and $4.99 for the Kindle version. A link to purchase the books, as well as more information about Snure and his writing can be found at snurestories.com.
