By Kristen Hunter
News-Sentinel correspondent
HARRISVILLE –
If the Knight family had a Coat of Arms, the motto would be “Never give up.” Wendy Knight always dreamed of becoming a writer. In her own way, 3-year-old Cali contributed to her mother’s motivation when she was just a newborn because Wendy started writing her book when Cali couldn’t sleep. Wendy couldn’t watch television – the noise disturbed the baby. She couldn’t read – the light woke Cali up. All Wendy could do was daydream in the dark. “She still doesn’t sleep,” she said about Cali.
When Wendy thought she couldn’t go on with her project, her husband, Blair Knight, wouldn’t let her give up. Wendy’s 10-year-old daughter, Sienna, then kept her going with her expectation that her mother already was a writer. So, Wendy wrote down her story every evening after her husband, Blair Knight, came home from his job as an electrician, made dinner and watched their three children Sienna and Cali, and a 6-year-old son, Carson.
“I have the best husband ever,” Wendy said. “I said I was going to quit, and my husband was like ‘No, how can you tell our kids to chase their dreams if you don’t?’”
Two years after she daydreamed in the dark, she also had a book. Wendy’s eBook, Feudlings, is now sixth on Amazon’s list for “hot new releases,” 46th for teen fantasy and 76th for teen romance.
The book is “a young adult urban fantasy about two high school sorcerers who are supposed to kill each other in order to end a 300-year war, but fall in love instead,” she said.
For those who don’t know, urban fantasy is a type of fantasy fiction usually set in the modern world and often contains supernatural aspects. There may be aliens, but most stories are about mythological beings such as werewolves and vampires—or sorcerers— like Wendy created.
When it came time to find a publisher, Wendy did not give up then, either. She kept her principles even after publishing companies said she should insert swearing, graphic violence or sex into the novel. She found Astraea Press, a publisher who did not insist on those changes. “I wanted it to be appropriate for my daughter to read,” Wendy said.
Because the female protagonist had dark hair streaked with red, Wendy’s writing friends added their own encouragement when they vowed to streak their own hair if her eBook made 50th on the Amazon bestseller list. Her book has passed that mark and is still climbing. “That’s going to be a lot of hair dye,” she said.
Her next goal is to make the New York Times Bestseller List – which because of her support from family and friends, is no longer an impossible dream.
Wendy has still not given up. Feudlings will be released as a paperback next month. The sequel, Feudlings in Flames, will be out on Kindle at the same time.
It would be easy to let a challenge like lack of time and the near chaos of three children get in the way of writing, but Wendy is staying with her dream. “I carry my laptop with me when I’m chasing kids,” she said. “That’s when I’m usually editing.”
