Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus E.T..
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Inspired by watching animated series like Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and reading books like Redwall and Animorphs, I started writing stories and reading them to my classmates when I was 8 years old. From then on, I was always consuming media in every form and developing my own fantasy worlds.
My love for storytelling got me interested in journalism, which became my major in college. I later taught myself how to write screenplays and comic scripts. I’ve had my works published in various anthologies and magazines, and collaborating with other creators has kept me inspired to keep going.
Also, seeing so many new creators making genre-defining movies, TV shows, books and more has motivated me to always try new things, including launching my own media company, League of 40 Media.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As a solo act and self-published author, I think marketing myself has always been the biggest obstacle for me.
Social media can be a fickle beast, and I personally don’t enjoy posting and scrolling on social media as much as writing, reading or watching my next favorite story. I’ve tried paying some agencies to help, but didn’t quite get the results I wanted either.
Another struggle is finding strong, dependable collaborators I can stay with. I like to work with a lot of the same people when it comes to art for my comics and book designs. I’ve been fortunate to find a couple of great artists who I’ve worked with over the years, like Cristine Evaristo, David Monroy and Alejandro Lara, but in the search for them, I’ve had some missteps. There was one artist who refused to finish illustrating my nine-page comic script, only drawing five pages. I later saw his art published in an anthology I’d also submitted a short story to and his comic shared a lot of similarities to the script I sent him before. I’ve also recently been scammed on Fiverr while trying to put together my first animation project and the platform was very unhelpful when I tried to recover my money. Things like this have set me back financially and made me wary, but I’ve also become more driven as a result of the setbacks.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve had my short comics, poems and short stories published in multiple anthologies since 2010. I self-published my first flash fiction anthology “Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less” around 2018. I’ve continued to work with other indie artists to make other one-shot comics for other anthologies and my other self-published projects like my sci-fi anthology “Chimera Revolution; The Nue-Gaea Chronicles” and my first novella “20 Paces: The Four Revenants”.
Most recently, I decided to launch League of 40 Media to brand and publish my works intended for younger audiences. All of the stories under the League of 40, or L40, brand take place in one fantastic world composed of 5 previously separated realms merged by one wish. Monsters, immortals, fairies and spirits live among humans in the L40 Universe, and this creates a toy box for me to develop my own lore based on pop culture, folktales, and myths from around the world that I’ve enjoyed growing up. So far, I’ve published two books under the brand, including a narrative poem called “Wilhemina’s Music Factory” and a world-building flash fiction anthology, “Pretender’s Paradise: Welcome to the New World”. I’m also wrapping up production on my first animated project based on one of the flash fiction stories. It’s called “Bogeyman Therapy” and follows a Bogeyman whose cursed face prevents him from making personal connections because people fear him, but by helping his therapist with an experimental exposure therapy treatment for other clients, he is able to use his curse to help others. It’s a story about facing fears, the need for social connections and the importance of mental health.
I think a lot of my writing is about found families, individuality, immortality, misuse of power and unlikely heroes. Since the birth of my son in 2024, I’ve also been writing more about faith, leadership and fatherhood. I published my first nonfiction book called “Dear Future Royal”, gathering words of wisdom from other fathers I knew and turning them into short letters to guide children of any age. I say “children” but it’s for adults too, since we’re all someone’s child!
Ultimately, I just want to be known for making an impact on the lives of people with my writing the way the stories I grew up on did for me.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Most people may not know I wanted to be a hero who caught bad guys instead of writing about them. I almost chose a career with the FBI, planning to study pre-law instead of journalism, and intending to join the military police to get experience.
In the end, I did choose to go the writing path in my schooling and career. I’ve worked in state and local government since graduating college, using my writing talent in public service to promote programs and stories that help people.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: League of 40 Media
- Facebook: League of 40
- Youtube: League of 40 Media
