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| James Eddy, Author IN DREAMS DIAMONDS THE DARK ERA (To be published) |
James
Eddy has written and published screenplays, short stories, and a novella and
now is getting ready to publish his first novel THE DARK ERA—inspired by the
life of his grandfather, a Polish immigrant who moved to Britain following
WWII. Eddy says the story is
largely about father/son relationships but also about self-identification.
Eddy,
who currently resides in South Norfolk, UK, likes to listen to a broad range of
music. He admits he also likes to read, but finds he can’t appreciate reading
without looking at books through a writer’s eyes. He plans to write more novels, once he launches THE DARK
ERA.
Don’t
miss the excerpt from THE DARK ERA following the interview.
Q: You have
written screenplays (IN DREAMS), short stories , a novella (DIAMONDS) about
romantic relationships. What can you tell us about your first novel THE DARK
ERA due to be published this year? Is it also about relationships?
James Eddy: It's certainly
not about romantic relationships. This is a story that's more about the
dynamics of family and friendship. As important as romantic relationships can
be in our lives, I feel that it is often our families and our friends which
most define who we are as people. With THE DARK ERA the story is largely about
the relationships between fathers and sons but it is also a story about
identity and how each of the three main characters chooses to define himself.
That is seen in relation to each other, to their backgrounds, to the events of
their lives, and to the people they’ve loved and lost or are going to lose.
Q: What
inspired the story in THE DARK ERA?
James Eddy: The main
inspiration for it was my grandfather. He was a Polish immigrant who came to
Britain at the end of World War II. We know certain things about what he went
through but it's all a bit limited. He had Alzheimer’s in the last years of his
life and now that he's gone there's really no way of finding out exactly what
happened to him back then.
It
was actually at his funeral that I got the idea for the book. During a reading
of 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' by Dylan Thomas, I realized that the
themes of the poem seemed to fit perfectly with what we knew about my
grandfather and also, potentially, with many of the gaps that remained in our
knowledge of him. What I wanted to do was to find a way to tell his story as a
piece of fiction and it occurred to me that to make his story and remembrances
a fantasy was a good way of doing it.
Something
else that also stemmed from that and from him was a feeling that I wanted to
tell a story that did some
justice to the people of Poland. To the men and women of that country who
fought and died in the name of freedom during World War II and who were left
without freedom at the end of it because the country was effectively swallowed
up by The Soviet Union.
Q: What did you
discover is different about writing a screenplay, short story, or full-length
novel? Which do you enjoy writing the most?
James Eddy: To put it
simply it’s mainly about detail and the way the story is communicated. A
screenplay is generally sparer in terms of description and much of the story
comes through in the dialogue. Short stories are also quite dependent upon
brief but telling descriptions of the action and characters. Novels seem to be
a bit different in that there is a greater scope for more indulgence. It's less
condensed than a short story and the broader canvas is something I've
definitely enjoyed, although to a certain extent I’ve tried to maintain my
short, concise descriptions.
In
fact, that’s probably why I’ve enjoyed writing this novel so much; because I’ve
been able to combine the elements I’ve learned from screenplays and short
stories and apply them to something a little bit larger.
Q: How do you
engage readers to care about your characters?
James Eddy: That’s a tough
question but I think the best way to answer is to say that I try to make each
character as honest as I can, so their actions and reactions and words within
the story are true. That’s ultimately how I think that we, as readers, connect
with them. Whether they are positive or negative figures within the story, if
what they do makes sense then it will be easier to connect with them.
Q: How
important is the concept of “heroes” and “villains” to your stories?
James Eddy: Well, there
are definitely both in most of my stories although I’d say that I tend to
prefer writing characters that are more ambiguous and avoid being one thing or
the other. I have to say though, that I’ve found that easier to do within short
stories rather than in a novel.
THE DARK ERA certainly contains a lot more out-and-out heroes and
villains than anything I’ve written before.
Q: Do you write
strictly to entertain or do you try to educate or deliver a message as well?
James Eddy: I think there’s
definitely room for both things, although I can't help thinking that if I
genuinely attempted to do only one of them then the chances are that I’d end up
not managing to do either. Personally, I always think there is a message in any
story. It might be the most frivolous, boring, silly, unnecessary message but
it is still there. The difficult part always seems to be in making the story
entertaining.
Q: How
important is humor and/or suspense to THE DARK ERA?
James Eddy: I’m not going
to pretend that it’s a comedy or anything like that but there are certainly a
few lighter moments. Most of them were inspired or directly taken from the
stupid drunken antics of myself and a group of my friends. There are some
exaggerations and distortions to those things for comedic/dramatic effect but
they are basically things that happened. They are also things that I feel are
necessary to the story because they provide a counterpoint to the darker
elements.
And
in terms of suspense, I think that the structure of the novel means that it
plays quite a large role in the overall story. There are three stories with
each of them being told a chapter at a time. This means that when a climactic
event happens at the end of one chapter, there is a wait of at least one more
chapter to find out what happens within that story. My hope is that I’ve
successfully managed to do this well enough to keep readers turning the pages
to find out more.
Q: Is THE DARK
ERA set in today’s world, the past, in a dream? How do you make the story
credible?
James Eddy: It is set in
today’s world and also within a coma, and it takes place over the course of
three days. In terms of making it credible though, I’m not really sure. I think
when you undertake a story like this you have to commit to it completely and
hope that the quality of your writing and your characters are enough to make
people care.
Q: What’s next?
Will you write more novels?
James Eddy: Yes,
definitely. At the moment I’m running a crowdfunding campaign for THE DARK ERA
to raise funds for a front cover and the promotion and marketing of the book,
so I don’t have as much time to write as I’d like. What I do have are ideas and
there are two or three of them that I think will work well as novels. I’ve also
got a few collaborations in the pipeline including a series of children’s books
and a trilogy of dystopian fantasy stories that I’m planning to write with my
brother. There may also be some short stories and screenplays somewhere in
amongst all that too.
Q: Tell us
about James Eddy. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
James Eddy: When I’m not
writing I like to listen to music. My taste is fairly broad. I like Rock, Folk,
Hip Hop, Jazz, Blues, Hardcore Punk, Metal, Country. For the most part it’s the
words to songs that grab me and they can often inspire the feelings within a
scene or the imagery that I write about. In many ways I find songs more
inspiring than books in this way. That’s not to say that I don’t love to read
because I do but, as a writer, I can sometimes be too much in awe of the
quality of great writing in a book. It can be intimidating and has been known
to make me wonder why I’m bothering to write at all. Songwriting and, to a
certain extent, movies aren’t the same. Because they are a different medium, I
can appreciate a great song or a great movie in a different way. In a way that’s
purely about what it is. No intimidation, just appreciation of a craft that I'm not trying to emulate.
About James
Eddy
James
Eddy was born in Braintree, Essex. After moving first to Colchester, Essex, his
family settled in South Norfolk and James has been able to call it home more or
less ever since. Following University, he began writing scripts for films and
drinking far too much. Eventually, he managed to focus long enough to write a
collection of Short Stories called DIAMONDS. His most recent release is the
Novella IN DREAMS and a Novel called THE DARK ERA is set to be released in
2014.
About
THE DARK ERA
‘Sometimes the first thing
on your mind is the last thing you remember.’
When
Stanislaw Gombrowicz falls into a coma, he finds himself inside a fantasy world
that has some striking similarities to the conflict
and experiences that had brought him to England from Poland in 1945.
Meanwhile, in the real world, his son, David, is trying to come to terms with
the past and the difficulties in their relationship as he races across the
country to be at his bedside. At the same time, David’s son, Jonathon, is also struggling to put together a story about his grandfather’s
experiences during World War II; hindered by Stanislaw’s Alzheimers ravaged
memories, the distractions of his own life and his attempts to avoid seeing his
father; unaware that between them they may possess the means to keep
Stanislaw's story and past alive, even as he is slipping away from them.
Taking place over three days in May 2010, The Dark Era is three stories in one that are all about history,
memory, fantasy, reality, family, and the attempts to both preserve and let go
of the past to create a better future.
Excerpt from
Chapter 1 of THE DARK ERA
Karski opened his eyes and tried to breathe. He couldn’t. Something was
blocking his throat and nostrils. Fighting for breath, he felt his heart
beating. His limbs flailed. Ineffective. Useless. He surrendered to it and
drank it down. Slowly allowing himself to become one being and one essence. And
all of it was liquid and choking darkness and then it was nothing at all. Fear
grew within his chest and the world seemed to slip away.
Karski saw glittering shades of blue, purple, yellow, and orange within
the clear liquid, which was also the closest thing to air in this place. The
ripples of coloured light and warm bubbles of luminescence were the
imperfections in something that was absorbing and being absorbed by his body.
And in an instant it was all over and he was plunging beneath the
surface of a liquid that was much more familiar. The water was freezing but he
hardly felt it at all. His earlier struggle had already weakened his body, if
not his spirit. He was exhausted and drowning again until two hands grabbed his
arms and pulled him up onto a river bank.
He was barely conscious but, as the light gradually returned to his
eyes, his mind went somewhere else entirely. Images went flashing through it
like a parade of horror emanating from the future and the past at the same
time. He was shown a great city in ruins; a blonde woman in a red dress;
exterminating angels with black wings and eyes filled with flames; and three
sad indentations in three empty mattresses. He didn’t recognise or understand
any of what he saw.
“Are you all right, friend?" he heard someone say.
The voice cut through the disorder and brought his mind back. By then,
the water had been absorbed by his skin and he got to his feet feeling nothing.
There was no cold, no warmth, no pains, cuts or bruises. Only emptiness
remained.
"Yes I think so," he replied, without looking at the man who
had just saved him.
Instead, he looked everywhere else. The most noticeable thing then was
that there seemed to be no sun in the sky. What remained was a low-powered
light in the form of a misty blue haze that was coating the entire world around
him. It was a haze that was only distorted by small ripples he saw every time
he blinked his eyes.
It briefly looked like the only other source of light was the glistening
silver lava shining on the snow covered ground and trees. Except that it only
lasted until Karski blinked his eyes again. Just another distortion in what
wasn’t quite the air.
Suddenly, a bullet buzzed past his right ear and he instinctively threw
himself onto the snow.
"GET UP QUICK!" the other man
shouted, grabbing him roughly by the arm and dragging him onto his feet.
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