Author beat it with love for faithful wife (8)
I believe the answer is:
penelope
'faithful wife' is the definition.
'penelope' can be an answer for 'wife' (I have seen 'Wife of Odysseus' mean 'penelope' so perhaps 'wife' could also mean 'penelope'). I'm unsure of the 'faithful' bit.
'author beat it with love' is the wordplay.
'author' becomes 'pen'.
'beat' becomes 'elp' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'with' is an insertion indicator.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'elp'+'e'='elpe'
'elpe' going around 'o' is 'elope'.
'pen'+'elope'='PENELOPE'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for penelope that I've seen before include "lady" , "Mrs Odysseus" , "The wife who waited for years for Odysseus" , "Ulysses' faithful wife" , "Odysseus's wife" .)