Meet C.L. Stump: Author of The Night Child Saga

Writer: Chris Stump4 min read

C.L. Stump is the author of The Night Child Saga, a historical dark-fantasy series combining vampires, faith, family, romance, danger, and the consequences of immortality.

Behind the pen name is Christopher L. Stump—an author whose journey began long before the first book was prepared for publication. The earliest version of the story was written while Chris was still in high school. Although life carried him in other directions for many years, the characters and the world he created never truly left him.

Now, with the support of his wife, Kristin, that early story has grown into an ambitious saga spanning generations.

A Story That Refused to Be Forgotten

Some stories begin with a publishing contract or a carefully planned career. The Night Child began with an idea that stayed alive for decades.

Chris first wrote a shorter version of the story in high school. After reading it, a woman named Meg—who would later become his mother-in-law—told her husband that Chris was an amazing writer who could do well with his stories. She also helped inspire the title that the series carries today.

Meg passed away in 1996, but her belief in Chris’s writing was never forgotten. Her encouragement became part of the story behind the author as well as the growing publishing dream Chris now shares with Kristin.

Years later, Chris returned to the characters and began expanding the original story into something much larger. What started as a youthful idea became a detailed historical fantasy filled with interconnected mysteries, emotional relationships, supernatural lore, and a timeline capable of reaching from the nineteenth century into the modern world.

Enter the World of The Night Child

The story begins with James Ailing, a boy born near London in 1833. At five years old, James receives a silver cross from his father shortly before tragedy changes his family forever.

James, his mother, and his brother Chad eventually leave England for America, hoping to begin a new life. However, the past has followed them across the ocean—and the cross around James’s neck is far more important than he understands.

As James grows older, he begins to discover that he and Chad are not ordinary children. Their strength, senses, and ability to heal set them apart, while an unexplained hunger threatens the humanity within them. The silver cross helps James control that darkness, but it also connects him to secrets his father never had the chance—or perhaps never intended—to explain.

James’s friendship with Anna Davis soon becomes central to his life. Their connection grows into something that neither of them could have anticipated, binding their memories, their futures, and eventually their immortality together.

More Than a Vampire Story

Although vampires and supernatural powers play an important role, The Night Child Saga is not simply a story about monsters.

At its heart, it is about people.

The books explore what it means to love someone when time itself becomes an enemy. They examine the bonds between parents and children, brothers, friends, and lifelong partners. They also ask what a person might sacrifice to protect a soul—and whether immortality should be considered a gift at all.

Identity and Self-Control

James must come to terms with what he is without surrendering the person he wants to be. His struggle is not only against outside enemies. It is also a battle against the hunger and power within himself.

Love and Belonging

James and Anna’s relationship becomes an emotional foundation for the saga. Their bond gives James a reason to hold on to his humanity, even when the years and losses become almost unbearable.

Faith and the Soul

The silver cross is more than protection from evil. It suppresses James’s hunger and helps preserve his soul. Its origins connect the story’s supernatural world with ancient knowledge, faith, sacrifice, and a tiny spark of light existing beyond ordinary time.

The Price of Immortality

Living forever may sound like a blessing, but the saga treats immortality as something far more complicated. James can survive injuries and remain physically young, but he still carries every memory and every loss. The longer he lives, the more he understands that an endless life can carry an endless weight.

A Historical World Filled With Mystery

The opening of the saga takes place during the 1840s, allowing readers to experience a young America through James’s eyes.

Country churches, winter storms, rural communities, dangerous forests, and long journeys create the backdrop for the supernatural events unfolding around him. Historical locations and period details help ground the fantasy, making James’s world feel like a place that might truly have existed just beyond the pages of recorded history.

As the saga expands, its mysteries reach across generations. Events that appear small in James’s childhood may have consequences more than a century later.

The story is told through the memories of James himself. Although his body stopped aging when he was a young man, he has lived for more than 150 years. When an elderly descendant asks James to share the truth about the family—and requests a life-changing gift—James must finally tell the story he has carried for generations.

Writing as a Partnership

While C.L. Stump is the author’s name on the cover, bringing The Night Child Saga to life has become a partnership between Chris and Kristin.

Chris writes his stories longhand, while Kristin helps transcribe them and serves as his first reader. She has known Chris for decades and often recognizes the meaning behind his ideas even before every detail has made it onto the page.

Their collaboration has helped the story grow while preserving the heart of the original tale.

Together, they are developing more than a single novel. Plans for the world include additional books, audiobooks, illustrated editions, videos, and merchandise. The completed audiobook of the first story runs approximately seven and a half hours, giving listeners another way to enter James and Anna’s world.

Looking Toward the Future

The Night Child Saga is only the beginning.

Chris has already developed multiple books within the series and intends to carry its characters forward through history. Beyond The Night Child, Chris and Kristin have ideas for many additional stories, while other members of their family are also working on books of their own.

The larger dream is to build a family publishing company capable of producing novels, audiobooks, illustrated stories, videos, and merchandise—and eventually helping other authors bring their own stories into the world.

It is an ambitious goal, but The Night Child itself is proof that a story can survive for decades while waiting for the right moment to emerge.

Meet C.L. Stump

C.L. Stump is more than a name printed on a book cover. He is a storyteller finally giving life to characters who have remained with him since high school.

The Night Child Saga invites readers into a world where history and legend overlap, love can cross the boundaries of time, and the greatest struggle is not always defeating the darkness—it is preventing that darkness from taking away who you are.

For readers who enjoy historical fantasy, supernatural mystery, family secrets, emotional romance, and characters whose choices echo across generations, James Ailing’s journey is waiting to begin.

Enter the world of The Night Child Saga and discover how one silver cross, one family secret, and one extraordinary bond can change the course of countless lives.