t almost sounds unreal: At the beginning of World War II, a man is taken from his home in Poland and made to work as a slave; he escapes, lives in a forest for months then joins up with the resistance against Nazi occupation; before somehow making his way out of the country at the end of the war and finding himself in Britain.
And yet, all of this did actually happen and it is a story that is soon to be immortalised in a novel called 'The Dark Era' (released in October 2014). The author is this man's grandson, James Eddy, and he plans to release the book independently by making use of the financial assistance of a crowdfunding campaign.
"It's not been an easy story to tell," Eddy explains, "There are details that we know about my granddad's life but it's mainly in fragments. That was partly because he was a man who kept things to himself and also because in the final years of his life he suffered from Alzheimer's." For this reason a decision had to be made about whether and how the story could be told. "Writing it as a non-fiction book wasn't really an option. There wasn't enough to work with but I wanted to tell this story. It wasn't just for my granddad. It was also for the people of Poland, who went through so much during the war. The story of their sacrifice has largely been forgotten or ignored."
The other problem that Eddy encountered was in marketing and promoting the book ahead of its release. "I made a decision early on that I would release the book independently. I have some experience in this after releasing a collection of short stories and a novella in the same way. The problem with this is that 'The Dark Era' is a book that deserves a larger audience than I was capable of giving it if I simply released it without much promotion."
That was when he started looking into the idea of crowdfunding to increase his budget. "The idea behind crowdfunding is that, for a set period of time, people can pledge money in return for various rewards that range, in this case, from e-book copies of the book to a day spent on a guided tour of the locations in the story. For 'The Dark Era' there are about a dozen different rewards in total and the campaign will run until Wednesday 18th June. Hopefully it will help me to get this story out to as many people as possible to provide a fitting tribute to my granddad and the people of Poland."
James Eddy was born in Braintree, Essex in April 1980. After moving first to Colchester, Essex, his family settled in South Norfolk and it has been his home more or less ever since. Following University, he started writing fiction. Since 2012 he has written a collection of interconnected Short Stories called 'Diamonds' and a Novella called 'In Dreams'. For more details on how to contribute to 'The Dark Era' go to http://thedarkera.pubslush.com and for more general info go to www.jameseddy.co.uk
