My childhood can be simply described in one word: rebellious. Both of my parents were working all the time, so us kids had total freedom to do whatever we wanted. Being an inquisitive child, I spent days reading books and encyclopedias. I called it expanding my horizons. My parents called it being lazy. I read every book my hands could get a hold on. Back then, we didn’t have the luxury of the internet.
The first computer, and therefore first time on the internet, in my life appeared when I entered university. It brought entirely new worlds to me. After classes, I would search through breathtaking stories describing unseen worlds, their histories, and characters. The most lasting impression for me was the Fallout series.
I remember everything as if it was just yesterday…
At 22, I went through a pre-midlife crisis. I was finding out my place in the world, trying different jobs and directions for life. Restaurants, websites, freelance, ghostwriting — everything I did, I gave it my all. Life was like a game to me: you earn resources and gold and spend them on armor and equipment.
At the end of 2013, I read my first LitRPG book. I read all of the stories from the first LitRPG wave in Russia. It was a revelation! The two things I liked the most, internet gaming and books, were now seamlessly combined to produce heroic stories. Needless to say, I became a fan of the genre. It was like reading and playing at the same time, a game you could only dream of!
I was full of emotions and energy and purely inspired. I had so many things to say and write that eventually I put pen to paper. The story just wrote itself: a world of mystery, elaborate plot twists, and devious characters. No free hugs, no super luck, no powers and definitely no magic for free. That was the book I ended up writing.
If I’m being totally honest, sometimes I cried when I wrote the traumatizing and dramatic life experiences of Anji. I was with him, side by side, and I felt his pain as if it was my own. And I wanted to share our story with the world.
I’ve put my soul into this story, so after six months, all four books were ready. I’m not going to say much about the story itself or the ending. That would be unfair.
The most important thing to remember while reading: everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, then it’s not the end.