Will Wight: America’s Next Big Author?

In Orlando, Fla., there is a new favorite author amongst fantasy readers, and his name is Will Wight. 

Will is an accomplished self-published author who graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2013 with a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He wrote his first novel, “House of Blades,” while he was working on his Master’s thesis and hasn’t stopped writing since. 

Will talked about the benefits of getting his degree and how it helped him become the writer he is today on the podcast “Creative Writing Career” by Justin Sloan. When he was ready to publish his first novel, he had decided to go with Kindle Direct Publishers, Amazon’s self-publishing service, after doing some research. To his delight, his unique take on fantasy caught the eyes of many. Today, Wight is a number one Kindle Best Selling author for his “Traveler’s Gate” trilogy, the “Elder Empire Cycle,” and the “Cradle” series.

He published “House of Blades” under Hidden Gnome Publishing, though at the time it was just a name. After his other series had taken off, Hidden Gnome Publishing became a small business run by his family and friends. 

When Wight isn’t writing and being the “Florida Man” of news, he often posts on the blog on his website talking about a wide range of topics. In addition to his website, Wight has been known to frequent different conventions like Dragon Con. He has a Twitch channel that he streams on close to release dates for anticipated novels, and after the release to discuss the novels with fans.

In November 2021, “Reaper,” the tenth book in the “Cradle” series, was released. Wight hasn’t given much information on what he plans to do after he writes the last two books of this series. Many hope for him to continue with what he’s been doing, but in various live-streams and podcasts he has expressed how he has many ideas and is eager to try them. Regardless of what he chooses his next project to be, many are eager to see what he has in store.