Get Trucked, Four Treasures Saga, and Anunnaki w/ Longwinded One

Welcome everyone to In Other Worlds, the Lit RPG Gamelit and Fantasy podcast. Tonight I have the long-winded one. Jared, how are you?

Oh, good. Oh, you're talking about me. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Hi. Good to see you again.

How's it going?

It's going. It's going. Uh, I think I told you before, but I wanted to show everybody. I got some merch today in the mail.

Fantastic.

Yeah, I'm going to be rocking this at LitRPG Con.

All right. So tonight we are going to talk about you've three books that I want to talk about. So you've got this is the Four Treasure saga. We're going to talk about uh Children of the Cold Moon and the Breaking of Anun.

Yeah, you pronounced it correctly, didn't you?

I know, I know.

Yeah.

I tried to make sure. I looked at the pronunciation guide at the beginning of the book.

No way.

That's the only, it's the only one I'm going to try and pronounce.

No problem.

I'm not going to do any of the other ones.

I don't pronounce them correctly. Just so just so we're clear.

Well, as long as it's not going to be a prop focus, I will butcher them. Other than the main character's name. That one's easy. Uh, we're also going to talk about Get Trucked, which is your series that is on Royal Road right now. And then maybe what you have coming up next.

Yeah, that sounds great. I have got some fun things to announce on your show.

Ooh.

Yes, I saved them just for you.

Framing The Four Treasures Saga

So your first series is the Fort Treasure saga. I don't want to ask you to describe the series for me because that's what everyone asks you to do. So I'm going to switch it up a little bit.

Okay.

How would you describe the series to me if you did not want me to read it?

If I did not want you to read it?

Yeah.

Well, it depends on who you are.

This is not for you.

I'm going to mix it up a little bit. Who are you asking the question? Are you Jess or are you someone else?

I'm someone else.

Someone else. Are you a lit RPG fan?

Doesn't matter. I'm just a regular, like, I just I meet you out on the street and you have no idea what I read. And I'm like, oh, what's your book about?

I would say it's a lit RPG.

That's how you get me to not read it.

Right? Because unless unless you like played video games or played role-playing games, it's like it's like the same thing. Like, you do you go up to somebody on the street and be like, hey, I've got this DD campaign going on. Would you like to join me? Probably not. It's like a very specific, like, although I do I do it more than I should probably. Um, but anyway, so but if you know, if if you are, if I know you're a lit RPG fan, if I didn't want you to read it, I would tell you the truth. I would say, this is a this is kind of like an epic fantasy, like a high fantasy um with some lit RPG mil elements mixed in, right? It's got the it's got the the snarky humor of um kind of Western lit RPG. Um, you know, the narrator that's a little bit sarcastic and and snarky, that makes a lot of pop culture references. Um but in the end it's it's kind of like a high fantasy setting. And and unless you're into high fantasy, right? And not everybody, not everybody likes that.

The Four Treasure saga is a very Celtic background book.

It's very Celtic, yes, it is.

Yeah.

So when I Why is it the way that it is? Why did you do that? That's what you're trying to ask me. Yeah. Um, so so I, you know, I I wear I've worn a Celtic cross um since my sophomore year of college. That's a long time ago. Um, because I felt very in that doesn't mean that I'm not French, because I'm also French and I'm also English and I'm also German. Um, but but I have some Scotch-Irish in me, and that's the part of myself that I think I've always identified the most with. Um, it's certainly been the history that has interested me. Yes, I got into like I got into like King Arthur stuff at, you know, when I was in college, uh, I read The Once in Future King and all that. But when I graduated college and moved to Boston, um uh the first year I think I was living in Boston, I went by myself to Wales um and discovered like you should have seen me. I had I had suitcases, I had a laptop, and I had a bag of books. And I had I had no joke, this is this is and I sound like me when I'm going to a convention. Yeah. Well what's funny, so there's a funny story about this. So I get to I I'm flying to Heathrow and I take the little train over, a little subway thing um over to Paddington station. And it was and I had studied all of these places and I knew all the places that I needed to go. And um, the the thing is though, English over there is not the same as English over here. Um who knew? Um and I got up to the counter and I said, Um, you know, I need a um, I I need a I'm gonna go to Newport and then I'm gonna go up to Abergavni is what I said. And the guy just looked at me, it had just opened, and and it's like rush hour, and the line is forming behind me, and the guy and I'm trying to communicate the town name, like I this is where I'm going. And and and finally he just said Abba Gavani, and I had no idea what he said, and I just shook my head. Uh I didn't know where he was sending me. Um, and um, and so I I went over there with all my stuff. Um, I was a little naive. I ended up in mid-Wales with all of my stuff, and I ended up in this little town called Talgarth because I studied dark age Welsh history was like my thing. Wow. And I and I I ended up in in in like these towns over there. It this this this thing that happens at five o'clock is that everybody leaves the town and goes into the hills where they live. AM or PM? PM So at the at closing time, like literally the towns and and and villages empty out. People go home and then they come back in for dinner or nightlife or whatever. Um, but I got there right at like right at like closing time, and it's this little tiny village, so there's very few people anyway, and literally nobody around. And I and I have to get from this town center to the BNB where I'm staying at, and I had no idea how to get there from here. This was like the last stop, and I was like, oh, somebody will yeah, on the map, it looks really close. Um and I I wandered into the TIC, the Tourist Information Center, and met this guy who was closing up. His name was Brian. Brian and I hit it off and he gave me a ride. And um anyway, I ended up in mid-Wales studying Welsh uh Dark Age Welsh history. So the you know that's wild. I studied the Celtic tribes and um kind of the Roman occupation in and uh South, I have to do this every time, Western um like southwestern England, just at the beginning of of Wales, and uh fell in love with this town called Co Wint. And it's a Romanized uh it's a it was like at in the heyday had it held like 3,000 people. And there and and for a long time I tried to write a story through my 20s. I tried to write a story that took place, and uh, there was a tutor there, he was a missionary, his name was uh Tathu uh was his Welsh name, and then kind of became a little um Latinized with by the Romans, so they called him Tathan. And he he tutored all of the noble sons and and daughters in the area, and that was the story that I wanted to write. And there's this there's this old Yeah, there's this old Iron Age Hill Fort and these druid stones up on the hill. And I just um I wasn't ready. I don't I don't think I was ready to write it. I don't I was very self-critical. I expected to write the the next great American novel, and I was, you know, I just hated everything that I wrote. And I think that's one thing that LitRPG has taught me is to um to just enjoy what I read and write, and um to not be so caught up on every single word that I write, and um, and and to just enjoy the the the journey, the process and the story. Um, and so when I started writing Children of the Cold Moon, I had like a basic premise of what I wanted to do, and I was like, where should I start this? And I came back to Coint and um the d the druid stones there.

I love that.

Yeah. How's that for a long-winded story?

Living up to your namesake.

Yeah, yeah.

Building Otherworlds From Real Folklore

Yeah.

So you spend a lot of time in the other, the other world, uh, the Fey universe, and you do talk about some of the races and gods. How much of this did you have to research, and how much of this is based on actual folklore?

The Celtic Pantheon provided me, um, I shouldn't even say the Celtic Pantheon, because really it's the Irish pantheon, um, which is which is Celtic, but it's it's very different than what you'd find in any anywhere else. Um, the Irish had the Tua Dannan, but even that pantheon was like everywhere you looked, it was different, right? You know, and this tale, this person begot this person in another tale, it was the other way around. Um, they reused names, so you're not really sure. Like, was this the was this the guy in this story, or was this the guy that was supposedly his grandfather? Yeah. So so to answer your question, I I used um I used uh probably 90% of the names in this book are real historical or mythological figures, just rearranged, as I said in the beginning of the book, put into a blender and sprinkled on a lit RPG landscape. Because, you know, the King King Nuata, for example, he he has a uh kind of like a metal silver hand, right? You know, but it's a gauntlet in this book. Um, and and let's see, what else can I tell you? Um, you know, so I so I use little bits in in of pee like uh Bridget. Bridget is like sacred in in Irish uh culture and history. So like Bridget played a very she's the fiery queen and she plays a very prominent role, even though it doesn't appear in the first book that she does. She has she has like one of the most badass scenes in the second book. The person who's with her is like, oh, I can kind of see why they call her the fiery queen. So I yeah, so like all of these people, you know, even the horses and the monsters, like these these things exist in Celtic um lore, but I tried to stick very and I tried to borrow from Welsh and Scottish and Manx, um, but but um you know I didn't I didn't I don't think I went outside of like Celtic folklore.

Right. How angry was your narrator at you? So my narrative needed to read this book.

Pronunciations, Narrators, And Canon

Yeah, he's so good, and so it just it just worked out and and you know he's a he's a good sport when it comes to pronouncing things. It would have to be. But but I tell but I you know, and and you're you're right. There's like there's a lot of words, right? So if you don't have the books, there's um I think there's 80, you know, there's there's there's two and a half pages in the first book. There's even more than that in the second book. And the third book is gonna have a whole pronunciation guide, like it's gonna be one of the appendices, kind of like Return of the King. Um, so we'll have we'll have a bunch of words in there. And what I do for him, um, and it's become it's become vitally important now because I have four narrators in the second book, is I hire a Gaelic speaking expert to do all of my words, and then I give Chris that and I say, I need you to put this in your voice, because we're gonna give this to the rest of the narrators. And if you encounter a word that you have historically pronounced differently, you are now canon. So, um, right, so so there are words that I had hired two different Gaelic speakers, and they pronounced it one way in the in the first book, somebody else pronounced it differently in the second book. And so there were some words that we had already recorded and it's up. It's it's canon, it's on there. So those his words now are canon, even though they might be incorrect.

Well, I mean, you get to the second book, and if you pronounce a name a different way, everyone's gonna say, Who's this guy? Yeah, who is this? Why is this new new character in here?

And there are words that that sound familiar or like similar, sorry. So there's like the fiakca and the fianca, right? What's the difference? Well, the fiakca is the really nasty band of fairies that um the Morrigan has trained to to do her bidding, and the fianna is that group of like-minded people that roam the Midlands, but they sound very similar, they're very different things, but you're right. If if you have to be very careful about pronunciations.

Bren’s Mystery, Hybrasal, And Uferin

So Bren is the main character in the story. And when you start the so I've only read book one, uh book two is on my TBR for March. When you start the story, he has no memory of his past, right? Like he can't remember, I think, anything past when he woke up in the town that he's in. And you later find out that uh, so you know, he goes to the other world and he ends up meeting his mother, and that's when he finds out what his race and everything is, uh, and you then meet the character who shows up when him and his brother are building their stone portals.

They call it a moon, they call it a brew.

Yeah, and so you find out she's the reason why he can't remember everything. Does she play a role? I mean, I'm assuming that she because she's she seems like she'd be a main character. Does she play a role in the later books?

Yeah, so um, so so actually, so let just I wanna I wanna set the scene a little bit. So there is uh there's a famous place um called Hybarasil, which is is a part of the other world, but it's also kind of set apart. It's it's like um, you know, if we're talking about um where I'm watching um Percy Jackson season two with my kids right now, and one of um my youngest asked me, uh, what what are what what's the what are the Elysium fields? And and so we had to kind of we had to kind of explain the layers of the underworld. Um and so and so I guess the way that I would describe Hybrosal is kind of like the Elysium fields almost in in Celtic mythology. It's not the same thing, nothing in Celtic mythology um has a has like a uh what's the word I'm looking for? It's not like Greek mythology. Um so Hybrossel is kind of like this set apart place that's just like beautiful and wonderful and everything is perfect there. And then there's like a there's like an alt. Um I I I took some liberties with this, but there's um when the Christians came, they kind of piggybacked on some of the mythology and added some things and subtracted some things. They created this place called Uferin, um, which is kind of like the in my story, it's kind of like the land of the dead. I kind of tried to take a very complicated um other world and and make it a little bit more like like people can palatable, I guess. Right. So there's this other world, but there's this, there's this like heaven, Elysium Fields place, and then there's like this, you know, Tartarus and Hell place, right? Like so so people can kind of visualize that and grasp that. And and so you're right, Brenn goes to High Brossel and he meets this very large woman who and he's naked be um because something has happened.

And so my mind immediately went giant. She's a giant.

Companions, Spoilers, And Teases

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna give anything away, um, but there's she's she's a very large, like everything there is grand, like everything the the mounds that had been constructed, right? And so, and so you later you learn that the the Tua have all come from High Brossel and have come through what's called the heart-shaped pool. And in order to do that, they have to build these these these mounds, they call them brew, part of them being ready to be birthed into anon. Um, uh, and by the way, brew means womb, um, right? So in order to be birthed into uh anon proper, um, you have to construct this mound, and the very last thing that you do is you put this keystone into place above the doorway. And so Bren and Kai did that um on the night of the cold moon. Uh, this very shadowy figure shows up and um and and is the reason for Bren's memory loss. In book three, Bren and Kai do go both to Oofran and to Highbrassel. So, you know, they're only in Highbrassel, I think, for two chapters, or Bren's only in Highbrassel for two chapters, and um, you only get you you like you through the mist, you his mother sings him a lullaby about the the babes of the mist, which is on TikTok if you want to listen to it. Um yeah, uh it's uh it's an Irish lullaby. Um uh um and then he looks through the mist and he sees this grand castle off in Highbrossel. So the whole point of that was to obviously bring you back there at some point in book three. And uh yeah, so yeah, hopefully uh and and you'll get to meet more than just his mother in book three.

Bren at one point goes back to Earth and then through a series of events goes back to uh the other world. And when he comes back, he has his companion is gone. I think at one point they unbond too. Like towards the end of book one, they unbond. He does he come back? Do we get do we get him back? I liked him.

Um, well, you know, I I'm starting to think that maybe your podcast should be named spoiler sessions. No, I'm just kidding. Not my podcast, but your podcast. Anyway, no, it's all good. I I love talking about this stuff. Well, I don't know if you can see it up there in Rise of the Shilador.

Um on the far right.

What is that thing that looks like a serpent there?

It's pretty big.

Hmm, it's pretty big, yeah. Bigger than Monty. I wonder if it's uh maybe Monty.

Monty was small.

Yeah, Monty was small, huh? Um well just have to read that second book um and see what happens there. Yeah.

I will.

Yeah, no, so so Monty was he was a funny one. Um, and I described the I can't remember if I did this in the text or I just did it for Chris, but I described him as a high-pitched um Andre the Giant voice. Um and so I thought he did a pretty good job with it.

That is I feel like that would be an accurate voice for Monty, too.

Yeah.

He just wants to bite everything.

Can I eat it? Yeah.

Plotting The Trilogy And Voice Influence

Everything. So, how many books do you think are gonna be in the series?

Book three.

Book three is not out yet. Do you know where you want the series to end? Are you pantsing it? Do you have it all plotted out?

Well, I used to think I was not a plotter. Uh I I think I have to I have to just admit that I plan things out a little more than I thought I did. I am intentionally waiting to get the audio files back from Neil and Andrew and Andrea um before I start writing book three because I think their voice will impact my writing and for good um will impact my writing.

How Book One Sets The Map

Before we move on to get trucked. Get trucked. Uh, is there anything that you wanted anyone to know about?

So if you're gonna start this series, um the first book paints the landscape. In the second book, you you get to just enjoy the landscape, right? So, so I am literally taking you around the globe, even though it's not a globe, it's actually flat, um, the other world. Um, so I'm literally taking you around the place in the first book, and you're meeting the cast of characters and you're seeing the world. And if it seems like, boy, this is a lot, by the side, by the time you get into the second book, you know, the person that you met in chapter three comes back in in, you know, in the in chapter three of the second book, and and and so on. And so people that might seem like, well, why is this character here? You're gonna meet him again.

Enter Get Trucked: The Ender Premise

All right, so get trucked, Royal Road. I I do not read on Royal Road, so I've not read this series or this book so far. But the premise to me sounds hilarious. So you you know, we hear about people being Isekai and truncon, but you never hear about it from the truck side what the person's doing. The Isekai. I want to talk about that.

So this book is about um it is about the drivers that run people over to send them to other worlds, which is just in and of itself is ridiculous. And and it ended up being like it's I think it's funny, but um it ended up being like a you know funny, serious story as story stories like like I was thinking about this, um, not to compare myself with Matt, you know, like Dungeon Crawler Carl is both a hysterically funny story, but also incredibly heartfelt and uh soul soulful, you know what I mean? So you can you can straddle both of those worlds, and I think our genre does that very well.

How do they get involved in being the people who have to hit other people?

Yeah, yeah.

What effect does that have on them?

Bureau Of Afterlife Dispatch Explained

Morality, Trauma, And Pun Names

Well, it's it's funny that you you mentioned that. Um, you know, that this actually comes up in the book. Um and so the way that it works, just from like a high level, is um there is something called the Bureau of Afterlife Dispatch. And this this organization works for death. And um, death lives in a place called Terminus. The world is a is a multiversal world, um, but there's only one afterlife, and that is Terminus. So so people come from all of these worlds and they end up in this in Terminus, and they're each there are three divisions to the Bureau of Afterlife Dispatch. And there are three fates, and each of the fates kind of oversees one of the branches. And so one of the branches deals with taking souls, these are the reapers, they they take souls from the worlds to terminus when they die. There are the echoes who are housed in Terminus, who are in charge of the souls in Terminus, and you and you learn later that they are also in charge of like the reincarnation. And then there are the enders who handle the world-to-world transport. They are their own division, they are, you know, headed up by their own fate, but but between the fate and the enders who do the work are these people called dispatchers. And the dispatchers are in charge of the enders in their geographic area. So again, so Max works for the bureau, but he has a dispatcher that he has to answer to. And that dispatcher, he only knows the dispatcher by and it the book never says whether it's a male or female. Um, but based on the language that this the dispatcher uses, he thinks that it's a she. Um, so he refers to the dispatcher as she. The dispatcher's name, uh, the handle is fourth wall. And um, and so Max talks with fourth wall and gets jobs from the fourth wall. So yeah, so that's so, so, and and how do you become one to answer your question? There has to be an opening, right? There's only so many enters. Um, so you you have a phone with a medallion on the back. It's almost like um, it's almost like a medallion for a taxi cab, right? And there's only so many medallions. An ender has to give up their spot in order for there to be an opening. Um, so something has to happen to that ender. Either they have to die or they have to log out of the app and decide they don't want to do it anymore. But the benefits that come with the position, the things like being um, you know, never aging, never being able to get sick, um, those, those, those things go away when you decide you don't want to be an ender anymore. And Max can't make that decision because he finds out that he's terminally ill. And that is, and that's why he's stuck into that's that's why he seeks out uh Dan Driver, who who he learns, you know, he nobody knows that he's an ender, nobody knows what ender's are, but one of his uh sergeants talks about seeing a man who he taught 20 years ago and how he hasn't aged a day, and how that's really odd because that person was also terminally ill 20 years ago, and Max was like, I have to find this guy. So he goes out and he finds Dan Driver, and Dan is tired to your point. He's just he the this whole thing running people over, it like it is he he tells he tells Max that people don't make it past level 20. Out of a hundred levels, they usually don't make it past level 20 because they are stuck, they're not issachai, right? The drivers are stuck seeing the outcomes of what they've done. And the bodies don't go anywhere, the bodies stay, they're dead.

Oh gosh, right?

And they're and they're mangled, and they're he has to see the family crying on the news, right? And like, and so so that actually comes up in the book, and um, and so it's it's not all like it's not all like you know, potty humor and you know, uh penis jokes in this story, although there's plenty of like how his last name is Driver though. So yeah, so so Max Ryder, Dan Driver, um the the female ender is named uh Laney, um for like the link lanes of the road. Um there's a there's a character whose handle is uh Axl Rhodes. Um and uh yeah, so so all of the enders have pun names.

Leveling Systems, Cars, And Weapons

That's so good. I love puns. So if they can level up being a driver and having uh to trackon people, what does the leveling system for that even look like? Because I would imagine they're just driving around in a vehicle. Like it's not it can't be hard to figure out who you're supposed to hit, and then that's just it. I mean, you can do that in any car.

Correct, yeah. So so the thing that makes it very difficult for Max is he he quickly discovers that it's not as simple as getting his fare and running his fare over because there seem he he he's unsure of number one, whether he can trust his dispatcher. And number two, he he gets into a little tiff with some of the other drivers. Um and there's a little bit of a competition uh going on, uh which there's not supposed to be. And and so the way the leveling works is each time you complete a fair, you level. So you can get a new car. Um, and there's there's a there's a hundred different cars that you can get, and they're all categorized. There's 10 different categories, and you also get different upgrades for those vehicles. So if you haven't downloaded the app, you should check it out because you can do exactly the same thing that Max can do in the in the story. Um you can you can complete the fair. Now I'm I'm I changed the app a little bit.

I can pick a fair and then I can go run someone over.

Again, I changed I changed the app a little bit. So you basically you hit a button that says complete fair, and then from there the app does what it would do in the story if if you had completed a fair. Yeah. So the the people are all made up, and the map doesn't in the app is just the map of Boston. It doesn't actually map you anywhere. I had to be I wanted to be very careful not to, you know, pretend to to actually be like a ride killing share service. Right. Um so um you get sued. Yeah, well, yeah. So but but in the so we you level up in the app, and then you can you can select the car that you want, and then you can select the upgrades for the cars that you want. And then there are also guns in the well, there's a knife in the glove box, and in the trunk there are guns, and the guns level up with you too. So like Max ends up leveling, of course, um, because our he's our MC, he ends up leveling way faster than people normally do. Um he kind of he doesn't he doesn't intentionally find a cheat, he discovers a cheat because his life is on the line, and then like lo and behold, he's you know past level 20. Um and so he has access to all of these cars and all these special weapons and um and he needs them. He's he's like using them. Um, and and so you're right. If if it were as simple as just running over a human, he wouldn't need all of these special things, but um he uses them um pretty pretty significantly in in the first book here.

Why Build The Companion App

I like it.

I'll have to mail you a copy. Yeah.

The app, what made you decide to actually make an app? Did you make the app yourself? This is gonna be a lot of questions. Did you make the app yourself? And is it a thing where you can use the app while you read the story?

Yeah, so so I I gotta be I'll be honest, I I made the app originally so that so that I could keep track of what everything looks like and so that I could properly describe it in the book. Um, but I also was making it for other people so they could do the same thing. Um, but it certainly helped me, you know, be able to properly and consistently describe things. And and I did design it. I so I did some vibe coding.

So it's up on Royal Road now. When is it going to be done on Royal Road? And then when will it be published?

Release Timeline And Formats

Uh I began posting on January 6th and um January 5th, excuse me. I did 10 chapters the first day. And then and then for the next 10 days I did a chapter, and then I'm in the period now between January 19th and February 20th, where I do two chapters a week. And um I believe starting next week, it will only be on Mondays. So so I'll be doing um and I'm done with the book, obviously, um, but I I need that I needed the schedule so to front load enough that I would qualify for Rising Stars, which I got on, and and last long enough that it would that I would be able to release my books and give Jonathan enough time to record them. Um so I'm gonna release the ebook and paperback. In fact, the um the Kindle pre-release is already out there for May 4th, so people can go pre-order it on uh the Kindle. June 1st is when the audiobook will come out.

Fantastic. Is it gonna be physical on June 1st as well?

It will, yeah. In fact, um, you know, I'm I have it's it's there. I they just don't do pre-orders for the for the paperback. Um, but I'll be sure to get you one, Jess.

I honestly like I just think this is the most you I've never it's just the most unique take on on this whole thing.

Well, I that's what I was going for.

Length, Pacing, And Market Trends

So, how many books do you think will be in this series? Or is it gonna be a standalone? I have no idea.

Um, I I know there's gonna be a book too. There's a cliffhanger at the end, and my wife is really good at guessing these sorts of things, and she didn't see this coming. She's like she's like, Oh, that's good. Um, and so, and it happens in the very last sentence um of the epilogue, mind you, not even this story.

Um nice, yeah.

And so it's like, oh, ooh, and and I knew when I thought that up, okay, there's gonna be a book too. Could this be more? So I I I put it in what I call the Ender Chronicles, mostly because I, you know, I the other one I called a saga, and I know that sounds pretentious. Um, uh, but but like, you know, you're so full of yourself. I well, I I just didn't know it was I didn't know it was gonna be a trilogy. If I had known it was gonna be a trilogy from book one, I would have called it a trilogy. And this one, you know, so I stopped trying to like figure out how many books are, especially when I'm writing book one. I I don't know how many books are gonna be in there. I was pretty sure, you know, near the end of book one of the four treasures that it was gonna be a trilogy, but I had already labeled it as a saga on Royal Road.

And you know, once you go saga, you know, it's hard to you can never take once you just saga, you can't go trilogy.

You can't, no. Well, why is it not a saga anymore? Is it not good?

I don't think there's anything wrong with it being called a saga.

Okay.

Well, so yes, it is I don't I don't know if there are any like hard and fast rules on saga versus trilogy.

I just want everyone to know that I named it saga because I didn't know if it was gonna be a trilogy. Um and Chronicles didn't the Four Treasure Chronicles was too long, but the Ender Chronicles that makes that that sounds that kind of rolls off the tongue.

Yeah, I feel like yeah, I like the way that sounds.

Thanks. Yeah.

And so if someone wanted to find the app, it's ENDR.

What’s Next: Sequels And Titles

Yeah, you can go to Ender.app or you can go to my website, longwinded.one. Under books, there's a button for the app. Well, actually, under apps, there's a button for the app, but also uh ender.app, I own that domain, and it takes you right to the to the iOS and Android download. There's another app that I want to do for the four treasures, it's called Interbellum. Interbellum means between wars. Um and so I wanted to do a text-based lit RP, uh not lit RPG, text-based RPG, like like old school text-based, right?

Yeah.

In between the major battles in my story. Um, and so I've started flowcharting that a little bit, but I keep coming up with I I I keep coming up with book book ideas though, so I can't um I just can't do it.

Well, just stop.

Yeah, yeah, no.

Stop.

All right, so I'm I'm excited for Get Truck. That is such a unique idea. That's one of those it's one of those things where you think, how has no one thought of this before?

Yeah, I don't know.

How has no one thought about writing a book from the truck's perspective? Yeah, it's good.

Thanks. Thanks. Yeah, I think and it and it actually like it was way easier to write. I mean, you know, it's half as long. Um, so I use different trim size, so it's it's like 250 pages. Um, I didn't I didn't increase the font the font size is the same as the other book. The other book's like 400 pages, the second book's like 420 pages. Um, this one's like 250, so it reads faster. It's gonna be about seven hours, I think, in audible on Audible. But it's also like there's no like weird words that nobody knows. And um, you know, it takes place in my in my state, in my, you know, I got to write about the places that I love, you know, around me. So it's just went so fast, and it and the story wrote itself.

Yeah, and that's 250 pages is short for a lit RPG.

It is, yeah.

New Project: Anunnaki LitRPG

That's like an afternoon read.

But um, I will say that the authors that I interface with, and you and I interface with very similar authors, there's more and more people, you know. Eric Uglin already writes short books. Um, you know, uh JD Glasscock is is he's doing novellas now. He's doing novellas now. So so like there is this move. Um, and not everybody's gonna make that move because when people get audible credits, they want to use them on longer books.

Most bang for the buck.

Right.

Yeah.

Um, so not everybody's gonna make that move, but for me, you know, it's more important for me to to get my story out there. Um so I don't know. I and then coming off like really long books. This is a long book for me. For over 400 pages is a long and I don't use big, I use pretty small type. Um so you know it takes it takes just takes a lot longer to write those kinds of books. And it does. Yeah.

So I know I I honestly I'm I'm very excited that some authors are making the push to write normal sized books.

So what is next after Well, what I thought was gonna be next um was you know, either Get Truck 2, which is gonna be called Truck Around and Find Out. Um Yeah. Yep. Or or TAFO or TAFO, however you want to pronounce it.

Um I like that. That's good.

It's fitting for the second book too. Um I um went ahead and hung it up on my wall already, so eventually I have to write Rise of the She the Sheer Lodore. Um obviously I have I have a title or a cover art already. Um, but I I had a really good idea, and like you know what happens when I have a really good idea um is that I want to do it immediately. And I'm waiting on all these audible files or these audio files from these narrators, and they are so worth the wait. I wouldn't change I wouldn't change that. I'm not complaining about that at all. Um and so it kind of opened up, you know, time for me to I am doing some editing, like some um they call them pickups, right? So when you get the audio files back, you do these pickups where you say, Okay, well, this this word is inconsistent here or you you missed a line here or whatever. Um so I was doing a little bit of that, but now I'm free to work on my next project, which is called Anunnaki, the Lit RPG.

And um And I gotta say, I'm a huge fan of Anunnaki. Uh love, love um Ancient Aliens. I don't know why I couldn't think of the name for a second. It just completely left my brain. But yes, I love ancient aliens.

Well, you're really gonna like this announcement. So after I had the idea and I started uh planning out the novel, and even after I wrote the first chapter, I was like, you know what'd be cool is if I reached out to that uh ancient aliens narrator and see if he would narrate my book.

His name does everything.

Mesopotamian Lore And Nibiru Reframed

So his name is Robert Clotsworthy, and he has agreed to narrate my book.

That is fantastic.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a good get.

Yeah, that's good.

I will, you know, I tend to do physical books over over audio now because I just I don't have a commute anymore, so I I don't get through as many audiobooks as I used to. I will do the audiobook for that one.

So there's like the real Anunnaki, right? Which Anunnaki basically just means um offspring of the sky god. So the the sky god is named Anu or however you pronounce it.

Um in an episode of Ancient Aliens right now.

Avatars, Skill Trees, And Modern Arenas

Publishing Path And Dream Narrator

We well trust me, you're not. Uh so so the the real Anunnaki were just we're just like the offspring of this sky god, right? Um and there's uh uh Anlil and then there's Enkil uh Inki um are like the two really big gods. And and the truth of these gods are they were kind of like the god the gods were kind of like like a caste system back then, um, and they they kind of like became gods, right? And and then so that's so that's like the real thing, right? So those were the Sumerian gods and and then and then the the Akkadians and the Babylonians kind of like added on and changed the the pantheon around. Those are what we call the Mesopotamian, right, gods. Um, so that's that's the real stuff. And then there was a guy named Um, I forget what his first name was, his last name was Stitchen. He wrote um some books and claimed that um, and he misinterpreted some some tablets. And um basically were like, oh no, the Anunnaki are are these gods that live on this planet Nibiru, and the Nibiru comes around every like you know 3200 years, and then usually these great cataclysms would happen, right? Floods and you know, all different kinds of things. And um he claimed that the Anunnaki created humans to mine gold for them. So and there's some truth to like even on like the tablets, the the humans were created to do to do work for the lesser gods, right? So the lesser gods kind of served the Anunnaki and they kind of got tired of it. So they created humans and then humans kind of took that over. So there is there is some overlap between what you hear on ancient aliens and the actual real stuff. So my story is somewhere in the middle, um, and I think fits with like the lit RPG elements pretty well. Um, and and even like like even though the first book is not going to be an Isekai book, the whole concept of Nibiru, Nibiru was never meant to be a planet. Stitching got that wrong. Nibiru was meant to be a portal in the sky, right? So it's so it's perfect in that way. So so my story, my story is about the Anunnaki are the progenitors, they seed planets, and they don't travel around on a planet, they travel around in a portal, and they live in this place called Nibiru. And um there are these two main gods. One of them is kind of like the judgment guy who bring who wants to like when their seeded race, in this case the humans, get too out of control or you know the world goes crazy, there needs to be this reset. Um, before I go there, so there's one God who wants to do that, and one God who likes the human race and likes all of these the seeded planets. And um, both of them essentially get avatar create avatars, and the two avatars battle it out f for for whether that race and that and that particular time will get reset through. Cataclysm. And so our main character, Jack, uh is a custodian in a building in a real building in California called the Ziggurat that houses some sort of um department of California state government. And uh he gets chosen to be the avatar of Enki to and and Enki is he's the guy who likes the human race. And so his job is going to be to um try to save humanity so that it this this cataclysm doesn't happen. Um but but because the humans were created by the Anunnaki, um they have these latent abilities inside of them that get awakened when you become an avatar. And that's the that's the lit RPG stuff, right? So um so you're gonna know his whole skill tree, right? Uh from the very get-go, and he's gonna awaken bits and pieces of it as he goes through the story and as he and it's gonna it's like ridiculous, right? Um instead of the four horsemen, there are like four modern day horsemen that have to do with like social media and like there's like all kinds of are they on motorcycles? There's some professional wrestlers involved. I'm just I'm just gonna say instead of ziggurats, there's like uh sports arenas and like high-rise buildings that are the um and so so that's the idea. These these avatars of these old Sumerian gods are trying to either destroy the human race or save the human race. Um and our and our character Jack really wants nothing to do with this, and um, but he's got a heart of gold and uh was selected for the job.

That's awesome.

That's the idea.

So is is this also gonna go up on Royal Road?

I haven't decided yet. I'm you know, I'm not digging Patreon right now, so I'm I'm thinking I might like retire Patreon for a little while. I was gonna I was gonna put it on Patreon. Um so maybe maybe it'll go on Royal Road. I was actually thinking I've indie published all of my books so far, and I actually like that process. I like being in control of over all aspects and picking my narrator and um but I was actually thinking of floating this one out to a few publishers um to see if anybody might be interested, uh as long as they hire Robert Clotsworthy as as the narrator.

Well, you're gonna have to let me know when if one of them decides to pick it up because I will that's that's exciting. And to have that narrator, that guy narrator, he does everything. He does he like just about anything on Discovery.

You know, people that are this is another book where there's I think there's one Anunnaki book on Royal Road, which is crazy to me.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm honestly shocked that there is another one.

Say Yes: Community, Access, And Courage

Well, I I I was shocked that because because everybody loves ancient aliens. I mean, how can you not? Yeah, that's um so anyway, so I I was very surprised. This is another case of me like thinking I'm like thinking of this idea, doing research, right? Nobody's doing Celtic novels, nobody's writing reverse traccoon, nobody's doing Anunnaki novels. And I was like, oh, this is something that and the idea, the the concept of it came right away. And then when Robert said he would do it, I was like, you know, people are gonna be so familiar with his voice because I I can I can picture what his voice sounds like right now.

Yeah, so can I. Because I think he also did the voiceover for um The Curse of Oak Island. I love that show.

Yeah, well, he's done apparently he's done some other books, um, you know, so uh he's he's he's narrated books before. So I'm you know, I yeah, I'm so like I'm I'm so comfortable with uh the lit RPG narrators that we all know and love. Um, you know, that was like, do I want to reach out to somebody else? But I think in this case it makes a lot of sense.

It does. And the worst thing he could have said was no, thank you.

Right, right. And I and I think that if people are watching this and they're you know, somebody wants to write a novel or do a podcast, you know, and you're nervous that you know people are gonna say no, like that's the worst that can happen, right? And if and you never know, like yeah, like I've I have freaking shirt alone coming on my podcast. I've never I've I've interviewed Ed Greenwood, the creator of Forgotten Realms. Like, yeah, holy crap, like the this the stuff that you can experience just by asking. I I just want to encourage everybody to do that.

Yeah. I am a huge fan of putting myself into situations where I normally would say no. Like, there's been a lot of times where someone is like, Hey, can you help me out with this? Or hey, you know, do you can you do this for me? And and I'll say, Of course, yeah, I'll help you out. I'll I'll do that for you. And it has led to I mean, one of them led to me doing this podcast.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I that's what I was telling my kids the other day, you know, you you gotta just say yes. Say yes to things. That's that's how that's how your life unfolds, right?

Yep. Yeah. You just do the thing. The worst that can happen is no one reads it, or they politely tell you no, or I don't know.

It's just well, I I love that people are reading these things, um, but but I've always wanted to write for me. I've always just I've always liked create. It's why I DM, it's why I've done my podcast. I just like creating things. Um, put something original out in the world, and and that's to me, that's what it's about.

I like it. So what where can people find you? What do you have going on? I you've got a podcast. Let's tell everybody who's coming up your podcast.

Boy, um, well, they can go to longwinded.one, click on podcasts. Uh, the sixth seasons called spoiler sessions, even though I think Jess is should be uh it's you know I try to keep a spoiler light.

I try to keep the spoiler light.

Final Question: Stats And Support

In other worlds, uh spoiler sessions. Uh no, just kidding. Um, so they can go to longwinded.one, check out the podcast link. It's the first thing listed there. Uh uh season six is called spoiler sessions, and and we just have a ton of people. We're doing somebody every week, and in this case, next week, we're doing two people. I was able to get Hunter Mythos in. Um, so by the time this episode comes out, Hunter Mythos will already have been on my show, but I'm doing Hunter Mythos and um Troy Osgood is coming on this week. Um, and there's just there's just an amazing lineup coming, coming up. I try to do, I try to do an author this season and then a special guest. So sometimes that special guest is a narrator, sometimes it's a friend, sometimes it's somebody that they've co-written with. Um, you know, in one case it was somebody that shared a birthday with that author. Um, so you know, it's just it's just fun. Yeah. Yeah.

In that case, I'm you know, wacky.

Yeah, yeah. So but use those. But that's what that's what our community is about, is is connecting people and and people say yes, you know, and and it's um, and I just love hanging around these people. I love doing these interviews for these historians and these authors is what gave me the confidence to write my own book. And um, you know, so I I owe them, I owe them their uh humility and all of their advice, and um it's it's just made it so palatable for me.

And none of us take ourselves too seriously.

That's true.

We just like to have fun.

We do, yeah.

Support each other.

We do, yeah, yeah.

So I have one final question that I ask everyone. Uh if you have I'm scared. If you if you had a stat or ability that would be your main stat or ability, which one would it be?

Does it have to be DD stats?

It could be it could be D stats, it could be something wacky. Most people to most people generally have been going with just your basic DD stats.

Okay. And we're talking stats, not I'm stalling here. We're not no, we're not talking skills or feats, right? We're talking stats.

Stats or abilities. So, like Aaron Michael Richie, he said, uh my ability would be that I write books fast.

Wow, yeah.

And I was like, that's a good one.

Um I think my stat is um that my wife is so supportive. Um if if so we'll we'll call that we'll call that a feat. Um I saw this can I go with a feat?

Supportive wife, supportive wife, yeah. Yeah.

So she has a background, she first of all, she's the fastest reader that I've ever seen. Um and she has um she has a master's degree in book publishing and did some editing work back in the day. And she's she's every time I write a chapter, she's mostly happy to let me read it to her. And um, and then so she hear she hears these chapters like two or three times because then she edits them. Um you know, on the weekends when I want to go write for an hour, she's very supportive of that. And um, so it's actually not my ability at all. It's uh it's just uh the luck of the draw, I think. You know, um we'll call that a class feat. Um there we go. Yeah, and um, and yeah, so I'm I'm very lucky. Lucky in love.

That's so cute.

I lucked out with that one.

All right. When I post this episode, I will link to everything in the description of the video. Um, I will link to uh your YouTube and your Facebook and your TikTok and your website. Yeah.

Maybe don't link to my TikTok either.

Maybe I'm just trying to get you to use it more.

I know it's like TikTok light.

I did tag you. I did I did your book review video and I tagged you in it.

You did? Oh, okay. I'm gonna check that out. I obviously I go on TikTok quite a bit.

Yeah, I mean you're always on it. I always see you online.

Where To Find Jared And Signoff

So totally, yeah. It's when I am on it, it's usually under my other account, and I'm watching cat videos with my son. So that's yeah.

There are some good cat videos out there.

Yeah, there are. I could go on and on about that, but I won't.

All right.

All right, thank you so much, Jared, for coming on and hanging out with me. Uh, thank you, everyone, for sticking around. Keep leveling up.

Yeah, thank you, Jess. This was great.