Today I have an interview with famed Canadian and author, Luke Chmilenko. He has toes in both the traditional epic fantasy world and the newer LitRPG community. I wanted to talk to him because his co-written epic fantasy series is a great match for Benjamin Ashwood fans, and his LitRPG is the perfect place to start for readers who are curious about the genre. If you’re interested in learning more about Luke or his work you can find him at: https://lukechmilenko.com.
AC: Luke, thanks for the opportunity to chat! Before we get into it, can you let us know how to pronounce your last name? I’ve actually met you in person, but as I’m writing this I’m not 100% sure I’ve been saying it right (my bad)!
LC: Haha, not to worry, I know that it can be a bit tricky! But it sounds much like it reads! I know that’s not super helpful, but if I were to describe it, it’s a hard ‘Ch’ followed by a ‘mill’ sound, then ending with ‘lenko’. Hopefully, that’s a little helpful!
AC: Sounds like it reads, who could have known!? Now that we have that settled, can you tell us a bit about your Ascend Online and The Shattered Reigns series?
LC: Of course! Starting first with the slightly odd one to explain, my Ascend Online series falls into the LitRPG category, which for those who are unaware, is a sort of a ‘video gamey’ overlay on top of a fantasy, science fiction, or adventure story with the game elements defining the characters growth in an RPG like fashion. So depending on the story you’ll have people fighting rats, goblins, orcs, and so on, then progressively getting stronger as they do so in a gamelike fashion. There are a ton of different ways that these series are put together, but in Ascend Online’s case, this story takes place within a Virtual Reality Massively Muliplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), so essentially something similar to World of Warcraft. The twist is instead of sitting at a keyboard and playing away, your brain itself is plugged into the gameworld and you play the game as if living day to day life. Sounds like fun, right?
With regards to the story of Ascend Online itself, it is an action adventure-based story involving a group of friends that all jump into a brand new fantasy world looking to have an exciting time. As they get into the world however, they find themselves drawn into it by both the NPCs within and by other players as well, some of them friendly and some decidedly not. This then prompts adventure after adventurer as they try to carve a place for themselves out in this little world while not losing everything that they’ve worked for.
My other series, The Shattered Reigns, is much easier to explain of these two! It is a mainstream Epic Fantasy series that I’ve co-written with Bryce O’Connor (with no LitRPG elements) and written in a more ‘traditional’ fantasy style than my more modern and meta take in Ascend Online. This story centers around Declan, an orphan turned mercenary, who (without spoiling the story) finds himself caught up in the middle of a resurgence of a dark power who seeks to dominate everything. Banding together with a group of trusty comrades (and an exceptionally special horse) he then looks to investigate the darkness that’s fallen over the land finding himself roped into an adventure of a lifetime.
For both of these series Bryce and I are currently working on their sequels. I am hoping to get the next Ascend Online book out sometime towards the end of this summer (September/October maybe?) and we are looking to get the next Shattered Reigns book out in early 2021 if things go according to plan.
AC: As one of the earliest writers in LitRPG, how have you seen the genre progress, and where do you predict it will go next?
LC: I think over the last couple years this genre has finally found its feet and has managed to establish some base ‘expectations’ and tropes from the readership. In the early days I really remember when new subgenres or takes on the genre itself were creeping up almost monthly, either to great success or fizzling out. Looking at things now, I think we’ve hit a point where things have mostly stabilized with regards to that, and the genre is now growing outwards within each established niche.
As for where the genre is going to next is something a bit hard to say. I think given LitRPG’s web serial origins and less experienced collection of authors, we’re going to see a steady improvement in the coming books quality as the readers become more discerning, especially now that they have a larger collection of books to choose from. Beyond that, I think we’re going see a slow but steady growth in the readership itself. The readership as a whole for LitRPG is rather small, especially compared to the mainstream genres, but has grown steadily as more people find out that exists.
AC: Many of my readers aren’t familiar with LitRPG. For someone new to the genre, where’s a good place to start (after Ascend Online, of course!)?
LC: This all depends on what you’re looking for, but my best recommendations for a good cross section of the genre would be:
Awaken Online by Travis Bagwell
Delvers LLC by Blaise Corvin
Continue Online by Stephan Morse
The Feedback Loop by Harmon Cooper
Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout
All of these books are considered the ‘classics’ that LitRPG has to offer and all belong to the different various subgenres that there are. I’m sure that any aspiring reader will be able to find ‘something’ interesting in one of these books!
AC: How much, uh… “research” do you need to do playing games, and what are some of your favorites?
Hah! Not as much as I’d like, but I am definitely planning on taking a break soon as I’m done with Glory to the Brave to recharge…err, I mean study up on what’s new! But that said when I do have some time to relax, I really do like spending my time between both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14, since MMORPG games are among my favorite ones to play. Beyond those though my current favorites at the moment are both Path of Exile and Stardew Valley. They’re both perfect to relax with for an hour or so after a busy writing day and let the brain churn away on whatever I’m planning to take the writing for the next day.
AC: Let’s transition over to A Mark of Kings: The Shattered Reigns which is a lot more like my own stuff. My understanding is that the genesis of that book was an old, unfinished manuscript by your co-writer Bryce O’Connor, and that he had many of the same influences that I did. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got involved, and what it was like to work with Bryce on something completely different from your LitRPG work?
LC: It was! Through the luck of fate, Bryce and I were super lucky to cross paths and become friends while navigating the online world of writing and eventually the topic of writing together came up. As it did, Bryce mentioned that he had one other story that he’d been sitting on for years and years and was itching to give it another look and see if it couldn’t be published. So with that, we both ended up taking a look at the manuscript and then brainstormed between one another on what we felt worked and what needed to be adjusted to fit the current climate of fantasy today. Then from there, A Mark of Kings was born! (And to great success too!)
Switching from the LitRPG perspective was something that I discovered I very much enjoyed during this project too. While I do like the framework that it provides for measuring growth and character progression, it does have a ton of extra things to worry about, such as stat sheets, game mechanics, and all the other similar pieces. Not having to worry about that for once was extremely freeing and I’m looking forward to doing so again on a few more projects in the future over above the Shattered Reigns series.
AC: Because you enjoyed it so much, do you have any other co-writing projects in the works?
LC: Oh boy, too many! Outside of the Shattered Reigns, I have another series with Bryce that we are looking to release (likely) this year. Then past those, I currently have three other LitRPG projects on the go. At the moment though, it’s a little early to talk about specifics, so I’ll leave you all in suspense past that!
AC: Oh wow! Busy man. You did say you have more Ascend Online on the way, right?
LC: I am currently working on finishing the next book – Glory to the Brave, which I hope to have out towards the end of the summer, which will be my longest book that I have written yet! <AC: I’ve seen the wordcount, this thing is a beast!> Yes, even beating out Legacy of the Fallen, which was huge in its own right!
AC: Good to hear. I love that with Epic Fantasy, and it’s cousin LitRPG, you have the freedom to write these huge books and sprawling series. What has that freedom allowed you to do that you couldn’t get away with in a shorter, more compact series?
LC: I feel that it allows me to slow the pacing a bit and give each and every scene a bit more detail as well as add in some ‘slice of life’ elements that while may not directly advance the story itself, make the world feel more alive than if I focused tightly on just the plot itself. This style of writing I find is also great for myself personally, since as a reader I find I always want to know all the details that happen in the world of what I’m reading, not just what the characters are experiencing. It gives me the depth too to show how things around the characters may change even though it’s not ever directly relevant to them or whatever their quest at the time is.
That all said though, I am looking forward to trying a few ‘shorter endeavors’ (such as not, 250k+ word monsters!), just for their ease to write a bit faster, especially since I’m not the fastest writer around!
AC: And last but not least, congrats on your new baby (spoiler alert)! A question relevant to many of us working from home now in these strange times — how has having a little one in the house impacted your writing and work/life balance?
LC: What balance? Haha. It’s been a huge shift from having the ability to work consistently through the day to grabbing whatever spare minutes that I happen to have to tap out a handful of words, be on it on a keyboard or my phone. That said however, the sense of urgency of not having as much time has helped with making sure that I focus on getting the actual words in and not spend so much time on administrative things. On most days, I find now that I can actually get more ‘writing’ done in less time than I used to before, which in terms of actually putting the finishing touches on this next Ascend Online book has been desperately needed! I am hoping though that as the world goes back to normal, so will my writing day, but that I’ll also be able to keep that sense of urgency with me, allowing me to speed along with my projects faster than before!
AC: And that’s all we have for today. Remember, you can find more about Luke at: https://lukechmilenko.com or go straight to Ascend Online or Shattered Reigns on Amazon. Happy reading!
