Bestselling author Eliza Knight has released her 99th book and is reflecting on the journey that it took to get there.
TAMPA – After publishing her 99th book, a bestselling author continues to write stories that she is passionate about while hosting her own podcast, navigating motherhood, and reflecting on the stories and journey that brought her to her career today.
Going by many names for her different genres and titles, Eliza Knight, or Michelle Brandon, has had a long journey to get to where she is today.
“I had my first story published when I was in third grade in a charity anthology, and that kind of got me rolling on loving short stories,” Knight said.
Knight started her journey as a journalism major throughout college and quickly realized that sticking to the facts wasn’t for her. She butted heads with one of her professors over adding descriptive detail and going deeper into the story instead of writing for a journalism class.
It is hard to build a career as an author and publish books, so she didn’t realize that it would be an option for her. Knight said she originally wanted to write for a newspaper or magazine, but the factual writing wasn’t for her. She wanted to tell stories and write the characters’ emotions, feelings, sights, and tastes and dive deeper into these worlds that lived in her brain.
“I love living in different worlds and exploring different people. I’ve written thrillers, I’ve written romance, and I’ve written biographical fiction and regular historical fiction. I think the thing that draws me the most is actual stories, conflict, and people’s personalities,” Knight said.
After realizing journalism wasn’t going to be her career path, Knight started to write on the side. She sent stories to friends and magazines until 2006, when she decided that she would start writing novels. Knight said her first novel is in a drawer that no one would ever read.
The contests that Knight submitted her first novel to gave her feedback that wasn’t the greatest to hear for her first story. Knight said that at the time, as a baby writer, she took it too much to heart. “As a writer, you really have to be able to take criticism and feedback with a grain of salt,” Knight said.
“I think one of the biggest challenges for me early on was probably exposure. It’s a tough business to get into, and it’s a lot of gate-keeping,” Knight said.
In the author business, you have to have an agent to submit to a publisher, but you also have to be accepted to have an agent. She said that it is a lot about the right time and the right place and that there are many obstacles to get through. When Knight first started writing, she had little kids, so finding the time to sit down was hard.
Knight also said that it is hard to be taken seriously in this industry because if you tell people that you are a writer, they will first assume that it is a hobby. It was hard for her to be seen as an author and to get her foot in the door.
“Right now, the most difficult thing for me is time again, but it’s mostly because when you’re a writer the actual writing part is maybe 25 percent of the job and the rest is promotional things that you have to do, which takes up so much time,” Knight said.
Knight has just finished her book tour in Europe, where she went to Edinburgh and Scotland to take classes, talk to fans, and other writers to discuss the past few books she has released, such as “Lost in the Summer of ’69,” which is a historical fiction novel about a woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s who hits the road to experience the music festivals of 1969.
To keep promoting the books that she releases, Knight also has a podcast called “History, Books and Wine,” where she chats about books and historical facts with special guests each episode. The podcast is produced by her daughter, Danielle Inglesby, who is a film major at the University of South Florida.
“She has been really supportive and motivating because I am an arts major and everything, so I go into film. Sometimes parents aren’t very supportive, but because she is in a more creative field, she has been able to support me a lot,” Inglesby said.
Inglesby has also said that it has been very amazing to see the way that her mother’s books touch readers of all different ages.
Hitting the bestseller list and finishing a book is always very exciting for Knight, but she said that the best part is when she gets to meet a reader who really loved her book and felt something when they read it.
“Recently, I was at a launch event for ‘Lost in the Summer of ’69,’ and a woman came up to me afterwards and said that she had loved this book so much that it made her call her daughter, who she’d kind of been estranged from. Being able to touch people’s lives is for me the most accomplishing thing of being a writer,” Knight said.
Each genre of Knight’s stories has a different purpose, whether it is to give them a heartwarming feeling, entertain them, or make them feel a sense of love. However, the takeaway from all of them is hope.