Realm Raiders Author Interview: Ed Crocker

Welcome to Spotlight Indie! First of all, tell us more about Ed Crocker, the author.

I’m a speculative fiction author, my fantasy epic The Everlands (vampires, werewolves, sorcerers but no humans!) is currently being published but I’m moving into pure horror now too which is where I started out. I made vampires boring and political, and I’m hoping to make other monsters boring and political too in the future! My writing is weird, and I try and be funny and I’m obsessed with dialogue and mental trauma and I’m a bit of a Marmite writer to be honest! But I do my best/get distracted by video games.

You’re a member of the British and Irish network of authors, the Creative Commune. What made you want to join the group and what are its benefits?

So, I was invited to the group by a revered elder statesman named Phil Parker and given that I’d met some of the members in a thoroughly enjoyable inaugural book event called Spotlight Indie in Shrewsbury some months earlier and knew some others from online, it seemed like it would be fun. But once I’d joined it became clear that there’s other benefits beyond meeting new authors and having a laugh (although I will always prioritise that, simple creature that I am) such as collaborative projects, organising book events together, and having people to creatively bounce off. At the risk of getting more serious and dreadfully dull I think we’re in a very dangerous time for creatives full of bad actors (Amazon etc), bad industries (trad pub is full of the problems of late stage capitalism) and bad tech (AI could end everything we love) and the entire future of creativity and artists is balanced precariously and could go either way in the next ten years. Creatives have never in the history of humanity been under greater threat; the tech bros have specifically stated their aims on the record of trying to erase the labour of all human creatives. Against this apocalyptic threat of combined tech utopia and late stage capitalism, the only thing that can stop it is collaboration and coordination with groups of creatives, so on a broader principle, groups like this are a good starting point. I realise all the above sounds dramatic and a little hokey but it’s also 100% correct on the facts, so take it how you will.

It must be quite a challenge, writing a story in collaboration with eight other authors. Why did you get involved?

Well the flippant but true answer is that I was asked and it sounded fun; if I think about it more I suppose I have never really collaborated in a writing sense and I do think it’s important for lone wolves like me to challenge and test ourselves every once in a while; the forest is great and a good place to spend time in alone but every now and again you have to venture out into the valley because that’s where all the packs are. I’ve really tortured that metaphor; I regret it immediately.

What have been the benefits of collaborating in this way? Likewise, what have been the challenges? Has one outweighed the other?

I think one of the key benefits has been seeing how very different tonal styles or focuses on either comedy or action or character can actually go together quite well if the different writers make sure to keep their story cohesive. There are some very quirky different writing styles in then project, but the love of the story has stayed true and so seeing how consistency can remain even if the tone changes has been very interesting for me as an author. I think the challenges are just trying to keep everything consistent in such a necessarily complex plot; I had to go over certain things a few times to get my head around the story but things like Discord are good for that, so the challenges are definitely lesser than the benefits.

Without spoilers, tell us a little about what happens in the story that you’ve written so far and what you wanted to achieve in it.

My first chapter covers the origin of Lute, a blacksmith who lives in a small village and dreams of better things for himself. I wanted to write – building on the great writing of H L Tinsley who started the chapter I should add – a chapter that was at once comic and witty but also full of the yearning sense of wanting to explore the wider world and not be confined to one place your whole life. My second chapter is completely mad and full of death and rubble and I’m not telling you anything about it.

Sometimes, in collaborative ventures like this, a potential benefit is that you learn something. Has that been true for you? Can you identify a specific moment where you discovered something that has proven helpful to you as a writer?

Learning how to relinquish the feeling of ownership over a character and embrace how other writers might treat them has been a cool learning curve. My first chapter introduces Lute; other writers have since written him and though the arc is consistent, they’ve brought their own spin to it. I’m quite a relentless control freak so learning to let go and build on those who have built on my character has been a good learning curve. Maybe I can apply to this to my life in general (I won’t).

In 50 words or less, give us a tag line that will encourage people to read Realm Raiders!

Humour, action, twists, death and impossible choices abound in a race against time to stop an ancient evil being resurrected where no one is safe, and nothing is what it seems.

Find Ed’s work here: https://www.ed-crocker.com/