Asleep: A New Fantasy Novel About African American Teen Superheroes

This increasing demand is for a broader range of relatable African American titles. The demand is fueled by parents as well as teens and young adults themselves. Interests in African American stories goes beyond the familiar poetry, biographies, and street lit narratives that have been popular for some time and is now expanding to include more genres like fantasy.

ASLEEP is book one in a trilogy that chronicles the adventures of Adisa Summers’ introduction to the world of super beings but the book works as a stand-alone title as well. The author, Wendy Raven McNair, was inspired to write the novel for very personal reasons.

“My teenaged daughter enjoys this type of story but I couldn’t find any that were age appropriate with characters who reflected what she looks like in the starring roles. There aren’t very many fantasy books with African American female leads and I saw this as an opportunity to create characters that resembled her and other girls like her."

Wendy is a participating author in Houston’s annual National Black Book Festival (www.nationalblackbookfestival.com ) which presents authors from a variety of genres. However fantasy was not listed among the genre categories, a reflection of the scarcity of African American fantasy writers, and she is in the Children/Teen category. The festival takes place May 16 & 17 at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center.

ASLEEP is available at amazon.com. For more information on the author, her novel ASLEEP, black superheroes, and much more, visit: www.wendyravenmcnair.com.