‘BookTok’ Star and Elon University Student Works Toward Getting First Book Published
Meet Campbell Stenson, an Elon student, novelist, and ‘booktok’ creator. Photo provided by Campbell Stenson.
Elon University sophomore Campbell Stenson has always enjoyed creative and narrative writing. She wrote her first book when she was in Kindergarten riding to school on the bus every day and in middle school would fill composition notebooks full of handwritten books and short stories. But most recently, Stensoln has finished writing her first official book, with the hopes of getting it published in the near future.
She came up with the idea for the book while picking up an online order at Target, and immediately “hey siri-ed” the plot into her phone. Stenson started writing the novel in late December, and completed the first draft in mid- March.
The book titled ‘Chains of Wrath’ follows the journey of a young woman in a fantasy world. Here is a brief summary from the author:
“Magically bound to The Guild of Keepers, Emryn must obey her master’s every order. Each month brings a new task to aid The Guild’s efforts against The Crown, and if Emryn does not succeed, the curse will take her life as retribution. Torture, stealing, killing - Emryn has been forced to do it all, but now she receives an assignment that nobody has been able to complete: to kill The Royal Family.
When Emryn unknowingly saves The Princess’s life from an attempted assassination, she is invited to the palace in thanks, and The King - politically desperate for their son’s betrothal - offers Emryn to The Crown Prince as a wife. With a miracle placed at her feet, Emryn plans the Royals’ demise. But as she gets to know her fiance and his family, becoming the monster becomes a lot harder, and Emryn is faced with a decision like never before.
Twenty eight days is all it takes for Emryn to lose her life, and now, she has twenty eight days to decide if her life is worth that of a kingdoms.”
Stenson has big hopes for her book and would love to write a sequel in the near future. The goal is to get the novel traditionally published and sold throughout the world, but for now she is working tirelessly, editing the first draft so she can send it to publishers.
“I’ve always wanted to write a book because of how much reading has done for me as a person,” she said.
Stenson says she has always been a big reader but after being bullied in middle school for her love of the written word suppressed it and didn’t really start reading again until the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the last year, Stenson says she has read over 100 books, and her collection just continues to grow.
Her favorite kind of book? Fantasy.
“It takes you out of this world,” she says. “Puts you somewhere else.”
During the pandemic, Stenson also created a TikTok account dedicated to her love of reading and books, which to her surprise has skyrocketed over the last few months. Although she had no intention of getting a large following the ‘booktok’ (or the book and writing side of TikTok) community has been incredibly supportive and helped her reach over 17,000 followers.
Stenson’s account mainly focuses on the fantasy genre of reading, but she is open to sharing all kinds of content for her loyal followers. Through her account she wants to create an open and accepting space for anyone who loves to read as much as she does.
“I just want people to not feel ashamed of reading and that it’s something people do for fun,” Stenson says. “Read what you want to read.”