Who is Creating the Village at the Crossroads?
Welcome to Part 2 of our three part blog series introducing our project. Part 3 will be released in the coming weeks. We’ll update this post with that link once the blog is published.
Part 2: [You are Here] Who is Creating the Village at the Crossroads?
Part 3: (Coming Soon) Where is the Village at the Crossroads Headed?
Hopefully, after reviewing Part 1 of this series, you thought to yourself, “Why yes, I have noticed that classic fantasy is missing in children’s literature, and I’m certain that I want that gap filled!” If so, then undoubtedly your next question would be “But who can take on such a monumental and important task?”
Well, look no further, friend. You’ve found us. We are those people. Allow us to introduce you to Sid and I, the creators of the Village at the Crossroads.
Brandon Copeland: The Salesman
Hi – Brandon here. The idea for a children’s fantasy book series formed in my head late at night as I rocked my daughter, Addison, my first of two children, to sleep. I’ve always been one to concoct ideas and businesses that I think could be successful, and this was no different. Scrolling endlessly on my phone for books I wanted to read to her, I simply couldn’t find the type of high-fantasy content I was looking for. Glancing around at her bookshelves, I began to look for inspiration. A 4-book box set of Peter Rabbit is what drew my attention.
It would be dishonest to say that writing a children’s book has been a long-term goal of mine. It was a spur-of-the-moment idea that I kept coming back to in that chair in the dark. However, what I can say is that fantasy has long been my genre of choice, whether it’s books, movies, or video games. I was 10 years old when I read The Hobbit, and I’ve never strayed. The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, the First Law books, A Song of Ice and Fire, Dragonlance… all have been series I’ve immersed myself in over the years as I’ve built up my love of the genre. I also spent tons of time in the Warcraft and League of Legends universes in my younger years, really cementing fantasy in my video game choices as well.
A lot of my fantasy fandom has been in my private life. I rarely broadcast what I read and what I play. More publicly, my friends know me as an extrovert who can’t help but talk people’s ears off in any sort of social setting. I play golf religiously in the summer months, although my scoring would lead you to believe I barely play at all. I follow multiple soccer teams – the sport is on at my house every weekend. I even have season tickets to the Halifax Wanderers despite living in a different city and needing to hop on an 1.5 hour flight to get to a game. For work, I am a commercial real estate broker. Essentially, I help people buy and sell office buildings, warehouses, or negotiate leases for corporate clients. And of course, as I alluded to earlier, I’m a dad. I have a 3.5-year-old daughter and a 7-month-old son at the time of this writing. They are the ultimate beta readers for this project.
Sid Williams: The Artist
In many ways, Sid is my opposite, which is perhaps why this collaboration has been going so smoothly. He very easily fills in my gaps.
Sid is an artist and an entrepreneur. He is the creative director of his own marketing firm, Rogue Penguin, which he has run for eight years. Needless to say, Sid isn’t one to shy away from a big project. With his artistic background, Sid has an eye for things I simply don’t. Sid’s different perspective (to say nothing about his amazing skills) was one of the primary reasons I felt he would be a great partner. Finding out after raising the topic that Sid had always wanted to create a children’s book only further cemented the fact that I had come to the right guy.
Outside of his business, Sid wears his nerdiness with pride – literally, in the form of a full tattoo sleeve on his left arm. Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and the first book, “The Eye of the World” in particular, are what Sid highlights as the material that kick-started his love of the genre.
Sid is married to his wonderful wife, Deanna, who runs a daycare and has proven to be an incredible source for market research! Sid and Deanna are the loving parents of Bear, an old soul in a dog’s body. When he isn’t designing the heroes and villains of our world, Sid is an expert in modern media and maintains an impressive collection of board games and – I’m immensely jealous to say – swords.
Teamwork to World Build
We hope that our skillset will, at a minimum, allow us to create a book that I can slide onto my children’s bookshelves and Deanna can read to her ever-rotating cast of daycare attendees. And if we’re really successful? Well, the sky is the limit, really, but let’s just say we have preliminary ideas for over 20 characters that could easily headline their own story.
To make it happen, though, the two of us need to deliver. And to that end, I don’t feel like there is a better person to cover my weaknesses than the partner I have found. Let’s hope the teamwork can make the dream work.