Today we’d like to introduce you to Edwin De Castro
Hi Edwin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always had dreams of being a writer ever since I was a child, writing stories about my favorite video games, movies and shows and reading plenty of books. As I got older, my dream shifted to other things I loved like music and cooking and I even started studying those subjects in college, but for one reason or another, they never worked out. Writing was always on the back of my mind though, and even though at the time I may not have been writing as much, I was always brainstorming cool ideas to maybe expand upon one day.
That day came finally when we were all locked up during the pandemic. I was doing food delivery to make some money around the time and ideas would come to me as I was driving. It got to the point where I was coming up with so much stuff, I had to start saving these ideas on my phone while at a red light or waiting on my next pick-up order. Finally, I had so much material that I knew this was a sign. I had all the time in the world to write, so write I did.
I used to think I was going to write traditional books but as I got older, I really started getting into the making of movies and shows. I never really saw myself making a movie, but why not combine certain aspects when it comes to making movies with my writing? Thats where comics came in.
When you write a comic, you are not just writing a story, but you are also visualizing the story within each panel. What will you showcase in these panels to display your story in a visual sense? It’s almost like directing in a way, and I have tons of fun condensing my story to panels and deciding what will be shown in every panel.
My dream has come full circle, and I couldn’t be happier finding a way to combine two things that I love so much.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not counting the stumbles along the way to coming back to my dream of being a writer, the biggest obstacle was running my very first Kickstarter campaign. It’s so nerve wracking to run a crowdfunding campaign for your first time about something no one knows anything about. It was a whole new world to me and quite a lot of work to promote. That pretty much goes for every Kickstarter campaign since, it never gets easy!
The biggest obstacle so far was the company I was using to print my series originally. I was able to print the first two issues with them perfectly fine with no issues, but then they completely ghosted me on the third one. My personal theory is that the company went under, but I had sent payment already and now was shipping a late product due to not knowing what had happened because there was no communication. Thankfully I was able to get my money back and switched to a different company which has been doing a great job so far!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My day job is being a lead in a loan company, but that’s the boring stuff. My other job besides being a father, is overseeing Lost Between Worlds! Besides writing, I’m the one communicating with all the artists who help bring my vision to life, promoting the series, making con appearances, doing interviews, pretty much everything besides actually drawing the comic itself!
I’m known for doing things my way. I don’t like to follow what’s trending or do things because I know it’s what people will like. I fill my writing with things I love, so you will find plenty of references to things I enjoy, people I know, and even fellow comic creators.
I even have an alternate version of the first two issue of my series with the alternate third issue coming soon. Why? Well, there’s a story to that actually, but also because it gives me a chance to spotlight different artists and their styles and have differences between the two versions to give readers something fun to look for. I also just thought it was a cool and unique idea.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
My mentors were all the creators that I enjoyed growing up. They are the ones who shaped my tastes and style and I’m sure that goes for most people. As for networking, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish, but a good place for me was Reddit! I used a subreddit called indie comics collab where you will find writers looking for artists and artists looking for writers. I made a post saying I was looking for an artist and had plenty of people who responded and posted their portfolios. It’s pretty much where I found my whole team!
X(Twitter) is another good place to find people, there’s plenty of talented people on there!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lostbetweenworldscomic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lost_between_worlds1/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lostbetweenworldsbookseries
- Twitter: https://x.com/Lostbetweenwor1
- Other: https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com/products/lost-between-worlds-volume-1?_pos=1&_psq=lost+between&_ss=e&_v=1.0
