Local Author Takes The Independent Path To Tell His Family’s Story

HARLESTON, U.K. - Oct. 27, 2014 - PRLog -- It 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 has been immortalised in a novel called ‘The Dark Era’. The author is this man’s grandson, James Eddy, and he will be releasing the book through his own publishing company, Youngblood Books.

“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. There’s a lot of freedom that comes with doing it like that but the problem is that there are limitations to how well I can promote the book and get it to as large an audience as I believe it deserves. If I can manage to do that then hopefully it will 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'.

The Dark Era is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk, Smashwords.com and the Apple ITunes IBookstore. For more information contact james@jameseddy.co.uk or go to www.jameseddy.co.uk