This time around we have Ed Erlac with us. As you'll see, he has Self-pubbed in the past, but his latest book is coming out via Ragnarok Publications and it sounds great. And I could go on, but I'd ruin the interview. Enjoy!
GRM: Tell us about your book.
Ed: My latest book length work (due out in September) is called Perennial. It takes place in Raganarok Publication’s new Humanity 2.0 super hero universe and is included in the inaugural release with short stories from a couple other authors fleshing out the world. Perennial is about a young heartthrob teen actor on a wildly popular television iteration of the Peter Pan story called Peter ‘N Wendy who arrives on the set one day during an impromptu celebration of the show’s season renewal only to have a bomb go off and kill the entire cast and crew….except him. The explosion jumpstarts his latent super gene and due to a peculiarity of his mental state at the instant of his awakening, he gains Peter Pan like powers; flight, agility, toughness, and arrested aging. In the course of investigating the source of the explosion which created him, he uncovers an extensive and horrific child slavery and pornography ring in the entertainment community and dedicates years of his life to smashing it as the underground costumed vigilante Pan wherever it rears its head, all the while never aging. But when a supervillain breaks loose and Pan is the only guy around to stop him, he inadvertently garners unwanted media attention, touching off a nationwide debate about the dangers of superpowered children and drawing out enemies he didn’t even know he had.
GRM: Where did your inspiration come from?
Ed: I’ve always been a huge fan of the James Barrie book and all things Peter Pan.
When Ragnarok put out a call for superhero fiction I had it in mind to do a Pan themed character. The child exploitation plot came about partly from the debate about Barrie himself and his relationship to the children who inspired Peter Pan, but mostly just from living in Los Angeles and hearing the kind of sordid things that sometimes orbit the careers of child actors, stuff that’s covered in Amy J. Berg’s documentary An Open Secret, for instance. I also became friends with the comic book artist Geof Darrow, and through him and author Andrew Vacchs, learned about Protect.org, a national organization that lobbies for strong legislation to protect exploited children, and especially the H.E.R.O. child rescue corps, which is a nationwide group of federally trained ex-military personnel schooled in computer forensics analysis and hands on enforcement of child protection laws.
GRM: Why did you choose to go Self-Published?
Ed: Perennial isn’t self-published, but I have self-published in the past. The fourth book in my Judeocentric/Lovecraftian weird western series Merkabah Rider (Once Upon A Time In The Weird West), I put out through Createspace solely because I wasn’t entirely happy with the series’ publisher up to that point and didn’t want to wait another five years to get the rights back and give the series a proper re-release (it’ll come out in 2018 now). It was edited, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the book’s design as I mainly did it myself. I’m also self-publishing my first story collection, Angler In Darkness late this year or early next, mainly because it’s difficult to sell a single author fiction collection these days if you don’t have a prior relationship with the publisher. The stories had all been edited anyway having been published elsewhere, so I just figured I’d experiment with controlling every aspect of a book’s release, hiring an accomplished artist (M. Wayne Miller) and designer (Shawn King) this time around.
GRM: What was the hardest part about taking this route?
Ed: Not having somebody else to handle the promotion. I prefer having the machine of a middle to large publishing house to do the leg work on a book. It’s just more effective, I’ve found, having someone else tout your work. Anybody can say their own stuff is good.
GRM: Morning, afternoon or evening writer?
Ed: Whenever I have the time, really. When my kids are in school, I write two hours in the morning, which is what I prefer. In the summer, I’m lucky to get two in the evening as they demand a lot of attention.
GRM: Architect or Gardener? Planner or Pantser?
Ed: Is a gardener with a plan a thing? Sort of like a bonsai garden? I write the story out long form in third person and keep it at the bottom of the document, deleting as I go, so I can always scroll down to see where I’m supposed to be at, but I let it go off on whatever tangents the characters and flow naturally dictate.
GRM: Silence, music or what when writing?
Ed: I prefer total silence. Music is a distraction. Though I do, during the course of the day, sometimes listen to music to get me in a mind-set for writing later.
GRM: What’s the weirdest fact or piece of information you had to research in order to write the book?
Ed: I wanted to base a setting in the book off of Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch so did some digging to see what the grounds and house were really like and turned up this great post on VICE by a couple of urban explorers who snuck in and took pictures of the place, which is basically sitting vacant with most of the weird decorations still inside. I’m actually gonna post a link here if that’s OK, ‘cause it’s too interesting not to share.
GRM: To steal (paraphrase) from Rod Stewart, what do you wish that you know now, you knew when you started the journey to a finished and published book?
Ed: The first one isn’t going to bring you even a modicum of success so don’t make a big deal agonizing about it. Just get it out there and move onto the second, third, and fourth, etc. That’s when you start garnering attention.
GRM: You’re on a deserted island with enough food and water to survive. There are no building materials around so you must wait for rescue. What three books would you have with you, to help you pass the time?
Ed: There’s three series I’ve been meaning to finish, so I’d say the latest Aubrey-Maturin novel by Patrick O’Brien (I think I’m on the eighth one, The Ionian Mission), a Flashman book from George MacDonald Fraser, and a Mike Hammer novel from Mickey Spillane. Hope the wait isn’t too long and leaves me wishing I’d grabbed Tolkien or Cormac McCarthy, but I’m a slow reader so I think that ought to do me.
Find out more:
My blog, Delirium Tremens: http://www.emerdelac.wordpress.com
Patreon (I’m releasing a short story there every month): https://www.patreon.com/EMErdelac
And if you can't find enough sage advice in there, go back and read it again. I'd really like to thank Edward for agreeing to answer these questions and doing it with such style.
Feel free to get in touch and tell me what you think via the links or the comment box below.