A Sad Goodbye to Our Author and Friend, Elias Anderson

Posted on by amrycroft
Sunset with Rocky Mountains in the background and a grassy field in the foreground

Sunset at Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Photo by Robert Bohrer

No words are harder to write than those that involve saying goodbye. This hardship falls on me as I sadly must inform our Epic Publishing readers that on March 4th, Elias Anderson was killed in a car accident in Aurora, Colorado.

I hope he’ll forgive me for taking nearly a full month to post this announcement and memorial, but I had trouble with how even to begin it. In all my time as a publisher, a post like this was not honestly not one I ever expected or wanted to have to write.

Elias was the author of In Blood and Bone, an artist, a former food critic and journalist, and a musician. I knew about all of these things except for the last detail. For whatever reason, his music wasn’t something he ever mentioned to me, and I unfortunately only found out about it after talking to his brother. He described Elias as “always the funniest guy in the room.” I can believe it. Our relationship was more professional than personal, since I was his publisher, but we were connected on social media and messaged back and forth from time to time. There was always a note of dry humor to his posts, and he was one of the most sincere and easygoing authors I’ve ever worked with. The editors he worked with at EP all describe him the same way.

He came to Epic Publishing after the original publisher of his series decided to downsize. I loved his writing style and his voice right away and didn’t hesitate to offer him a contract. He was enthusiastic about getting a new start with us.

Just days before he died, we were entering the beginning phases of publishing the rest of the books in his series. It breaks my heart that he didn’t get to see that happen. And unfortunately I can’t say at this moment what the future will be for those books. I would like to see them published anyhow, but the decision isn’t mine to make at this time.

Elias was 44 and leaves behind two teenage children of whom I know he was endlessly proud. Epic Publishing will be sending a donation in his name to the Aurora Public Library at the family’s request.

— A.M Rycroft, co-owner of Epic Publishing