I'm Not the Hero w/Tommy Kerper AKA Sourpatch Hero

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Welcome everyone to In Other Worlds, the Lit RPG Game Lit and Fantasy podcast. I am your host Jess, and today we are sitting down with Tommy Kerper, also known as Sour Patch Hero. Tommy, how are you?

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, thank you for

A Sidekick-Led Isekai Premise

coming on. So you are the author of I'm Not the Hero. Give us a quick uh rundown of what the series is about.

So I'm not the hero is a the classic Isekai story of a guy who gets hit by a truck and he's summoned to another world. He's the hero, has to defeat the demon lord. Um, but this is about his best friend who accidentally got hit by the truck as well, and comes along and he knows all the tropes, he knows all the stupid things that his best friend is about to do, um, and he spends all of his time trying to keep him from rushing in and telling everybody he's the hero and doing all the stupid stuff that you we see in anime and lit RPG over and over again.

And so what made you decide to make the MC not the hero, like the the sidekick basically?

So I I love Royal Road, and I will back that website until it goes under. Um, but I had read every single story that I could find on there, and there were so many amazing side characters that would pop in and then leave, and I was like, I really want to explore more of like one of those characters. I want to know what that guy does when he goes off the screen. And that character the yeah, the hero's story is great, but like what about all the side characters? And so this idea of writing a story from the perspective of the background character, the guy who stands behind the guy with the big sword, it started just to kind of evolve. Uh, and of course, he they had to be best friends. They and then I was like, oh well, if they both got hit by the truck, then you know, maybe this could be something. Yeah.

There are so many stories where I will find that one obscure little character, and I'm just like, I love this character so much. Why is there not more of this character?

It's such a fun experience as an author to have people come up and be like, I love Tony. I want more Tony. And I'm like, I love him too, but he won't be there for the next few books. Sorry, he'll come back, I promise. Uh, but it's definitely become a fun part of uh being an author, is now I can be like, oh, okay, well, people love this character. Let's bring him back for a chapter or two, see how they're doing, check in on them because I know what all of the characters are doing, because my mind uh creates thousands of stories while I'm in the shower every day, but um I don't always get to write about them.

And so is that something that you find yourself doing often is kind of taking uh your readers' preferences in who their favorite characters are and making sure that those characters make more of an appearance.

So I don't do it as much now. When I first was writing, I want to say it was yeah, it was book two, I did a poll on my Patreon where I was like, hey guys, I'm gonna have them do a dungeon run soon, and here's a few of the past characters that we've explored, and two of them are gonna come along. So tell me, vote, vote who's gonna be so they voted them in, and I was like, okay, this is gonna be fun. Um, I haven't done that as much since then because it was very hard to uh find a natural way to do it because of how I write. Um I write my chapter and then I immediately release it on Patreon. So it's harder to do a poll for something in the future when I'm writing it in real time. Uh, but I would love to do that in another series. I think I have included maybe a little bit more Tony. Um I've written a little bit more about characters that people have talked to me about, just because that because I know people like them, I want to include them because I like all these characters too, but I write in a very small I mean I'm in my office, I write in a bubble, and I don't really pay attention to the comments or or reviews anymore. So it's when some fan walks up and goes, Oh, I really loved Mave and I want more of Mave. I'm like, I love Mave too. Yes, okay, I will do that. Let's let's explore a little bit more about what she's doing.

I love that. Yeah, I mean, who doesn't love Tony really?

He's he's so good. I mean, yeah, I've I was able to get a little bit more of his story out in book five and book six, which I'm excited for everybody to to find out. But I mean, he was one of those characters who was like, oh, okay, this will be a two or three chapter person, and then we'll never see him again. And yeah, he's back.

Yeah, good, he's great. Uh now Orin is technically the main character, but he's not the hero, so he wouldn't be your typical main

Building Orin’s Support-Class Kit

character. And he's not really your typical sidekick either. So he doesn't have a normal sidekick class. Like he's a support class, yes, but it's a little bit bigger than that. How did you decide to give him this class and all these abilities?

I was playing Dungeons and Dragons with uh my DD group, which has somehow kept together for like five or six years now, and I was playing the most ridiculous characters that I could think of just to mess with my DM. And I had one point was playing some guy, a cleric who could like bless and had a few other uh buffs, basically. And I was like, I really want to know about how that would work in a story. And when I first started writing I'm not the hero, I thought I'm gonna write this for 20 or 30 chapters and then I'm gonna lose interest because nobody's gonna want to write this, and I'll move on to the next ADHD hyperfixation. It'll be one of those stories, oh yeah, I've got a story up somewhere, and then it took off, and I was like, oh crap, I need to really think about this more. Um but luckily the stuff that I had set up in the very beginning uh kind of naturally came together. There's a lot of moments when I'm writing when I'm like, my god, this thing from earlier, I can tie that into this and it works. And then people are gonna think I'm a good author because I didn't plan this, but it works, and it's all falls together. Um so that's kind of how he came about. I just really wanted somebody who wasn't straight up fighting all the time, someone who um could heal a little bit, who was more of the background fighter.

He's he can do a lot, he can fill a lot of roles, uh, as as you get a little bit later on. I'm gonna try and keep this mostly spoiler light uh and to book one, just for people who have not read further in the series or read book one yet.

Administrator Access And Its Dark History

And you you find out pretty quickly that Orin has administrator access, which is rare but not unheard of, but it's not a good thing.

One of the things that when I started writing the series, I knew how I wanted it to start, I knew how I wanted it to end, and I knew the characters. Um, and as I started to really think about how I wanted to get to the end, there was a lot of uh background world history that just suddenly started to come to me in waves, and the administrator aspect of the system and how it works and why Orin is an administrator. I knew all of that, I want to say, by chapter seven or eight, I knew where this was gonna go and how it was gonna go. At the end of book four, that there's uh a scene where when I wrote it, I sat down and like felt this huge weight because I finally got to tell the secret that I've been holding in. Um and in book five, the same thing. Like, there's there's these moments in the later books where I'm like, oh my god, I can finally like I don't have to lie every time one of my friends is like, Well, I have this theory, and I'm like, I can't tell you you're right, I want to tell you you're right, but I can't tell you you're right yet. Read the books. Um But yeah, it's uh it's been a lot of fun working with that on top of his class because it is a separate power and it's something that he has to learn a lot about.

And that's one of those moments where you just kind of look at your friends and you go, I don't know.

I don't know.

When I was reading it, I was like, oh man, he like he broke the system, and it's he's not like no, this is gonna be a a unique thing that no one else has done. But you do find out through the course of book one that other people have had this, and the people who do find out that he can do this are like, don't don't tell anyone, don't let it be known, because other people that have had it is it that they become bad guys? I can't remember why he wants to keep that a secret.

So uh I it gets into it a little bit later in in the series of exactly why everybody seems to be scared of the administrator powers. It's kind of the boogeyman of history. Um, way back in the day, if you misbehaved, an administrator might come and take away your class and skills. And for reasons, administrators are not in the world anymore. So when they learn why administrators are not in the world anymore, and the people who do know about administrator history, and there's a lot of politics and uh information manipulation uh behind the scenes that go into why everybody's so so scared in book one that he has these powers, but he doesn't know how to use them yet either. And that's another aspect of the story is him learning how to use not only his buffs and debuffs and utility warder class, but also how and when he should use the administrator powers. Um, because a lot in book one, I think he only uses them in big life and death emergency type of situations when they kind of trigger on their own. And as he goes along and learns how to use them and how to use those powers in a way to help people, and and you know, because Orin's a marshmallow and wants everybody to be happy, um, as he learns to use them, he learns more about what the past administrators did and why they have the reputation they did in some places and why other people think of them in a different way. And uh again, I don't want to get too far into spoilers, but uh I am currently writing book six. I'm almost done with it, which will be the finale. And at this point, they pretty much know everything they need to know about administrators. Maybe we'll see.

We'll see. Typically, you know, you get your Isekai, you get your hero, and they are

Flipping The Hero Reveal Trope

just the hero. They jump in, everyone knows they're the hero, they're popular and big. And in this one, one of the first things that they're told is, you know, don't tell people that you have all these quests. Don't tell anyone that you're a hero. Why go the exact opposite route and keep it so that they need to like keep this big secret?

So one of my favorite things to do when writing the series is to take a trope or um an expectation and flip it. So I wrote the whole series from the perspective of not the hero. Um instead of him immediately being, you know, thrown a parade, um, he kind of has to show that he's not the typical hero, because in this world, people can summon a hero. It's expensive, uh, but they've done it in the past, and these people are usually terrible or get killed or get used. Because there are some really great Isekai stories where the hero gets summoned, or the the main character gets summoned, and it is not Sunshine and Daisies. It is a terrible, terrible time. And I kind of like those dark, gritty stories. Um, and while my main characters are 17, 18 years old throughout the course of the series, I didn't want it to be too dark, uh especially still writing about kids. There was a point very early on in book one where I was like, maybe I'm gonna make this a really dark series and they're gonna get kidnapped and they're gonna be slaves and they're gonna have to like work. But I was like, mm, that just isn't that wasn't the story I was telling. So um, but yeah, just flipping the script on the classic hero is accepted everywhere. I wanted it to them to have to earn it a little bit.

It definitely causes some problems when people find out that that you know he is the hero and um some drama and some political plots and scheming happen.

Pantsing Craft And Subgenre Swerves

So you have said in other interviews that you are very much a panther, but you do have the story kind of plotted out. You know where you want it to end, you know like key points that you want to hit throughout the story. As a pancer, how often do you find yourself riding yourself into a corner?

Oh, I love when that happens. Uh really? Oh, I do. I so when I write something and I'm like, oh my god, how are how are they gonna get out of this or what's gonna happen next? I absolutely thrive, like that's the moment when I have a list of all of the things that in the past I have left open-ended, like plot hooks, red herrings, any kind of you know, little tidbit of information that I haven't explained. And when I reach one of those points where I'm like, I don't know what's gonna happen here, like how are they gonna escape? Or are Orin is now stuck in this one place and has to do this thing, and then I'm like, oh, well, I can use that that one thing that I haven't gotten around to explaining, I can twist it. And it always ends up giving me a fresh idea, like it lets me move in a new direction. I talked with Rec a few days ago, uh, and they brought up that each one of my books seems to be a different subgenre, which I hadn't really thought of before. Um, like you know, you got your introduction, and then you got your dungeon dive, and then you've got your magic school, and I was like, oh, I didn't ever think of it like that. Um I but I guess it's because when I get to a certain point, I'm like, okay, well, I want to explain how the magic works. How can I do that? Magic school is fun. How am I gonna get them in magic school? Oh, so I I really enjoy those. There are points though that I will be writing and I will get to a point and I'm like, this isn't going anywhere. Why are they just sitting around talking? There's so many things that are happening. That's always my trigger to throw them into a battle. Have some kind of tension uh where they have to start making decisions because unfortunately, um, Daniel and Orin are the kinds of people who would sit at a table discussing all of their options for 14 chapters if I let them, which I didn't realize until after I had started writing these characters, like, oh, I I should have put somebody a little bit more action-y, like Daniel will rush in.

Um I was gonna say, Orin, I could definitely see that, but Daniel seems more of the type to like, alright, let's go fight.

He yeah, 100%. He will rush in and and hit the problem, but he trusts Orin enough that if Orin is like, hey, hold on a second, he will pause. And so that's why I kind of I'll give one little spoiler. Book three, they are temporarily separated. Um, and in that Daniel off the screen is able to kind of learn a little bit more of planning and and controlling his urges, while Orin is able to kind of find his way of no more decision paralysis. I need to make a choice and stick to it and go. So they're able to grow separately, and when they get back together, you know, they're both better for it.

It just makes them that much closer.

Yeah.

They realize they need each other. It's a really good character dynamic, like the friendship dynamic between those two is absolutely fantastic. And they fight like brothers, and sometimes it just seems like they really hate each other. But they don't. They love each other.

I am the oldest of four boys. Oh gosh. So there is so much of me and my brothers in that relationship. I mean, I would go to bat and and do anything for any of my brothers at the same time. We want to kill each other on a regular basis growing up. Like it would when you're best friends and you're living that close to each other and there's no privacy, like, yeah. So that dynamic is very easy for me to write. Um, and I love it. I love watching them prank each other as they're having a very important conversation. And I love when Daniel gets one over on Orin, and I love when Orin pulls it back.

So they do plenty of that. Having written yourself into corners and being a panther, how often do you find yourself having to try to write in a way that forces the character to do something that maybe would be not something the character typically does?

Very, very rarely. Um one of the good things about this series is that when I started thinking of the characters, they came to me fully formed. I knew Orrin and Daniel and what they would do. And so when they reach a situation where they have to make a choice, I know what their choice is. And sometimes the choice they make pisses me off so bad because I need them to do the complete opposite, but I feel I have to write the characters just uh with giving them their due justice. So even if I want them to walk away in the moment and they would be like, No, I'm going to punch this person in the face, I have them punch the person in the face, and then I deal with the consequences. And that's that's where my pants comes in. Like, I'm fine spending two or three chapters on a side quest that I'm sure that if I had a traditional editor by the time I gave these stories over, um, somebody would be like, Um, you don't need these five chapters where they're talking about, you know, how to get Tony's cookie recipe. That's not necessary. I'm like, yeah, it is, because that's that's what's important to them in the moment. So that's what they're gonna discuss. And I'm I'm fine with a story that kind of meanders. I mean, I've played Dungeons and Dragons for years. You never go complete the quest right away. There's always a bar with some random side quest, and I enjoy that. So when I read a story that has a very clear progression, and they go and they solve the problems right away, I'm like, that's awesome. I love that. That's just not the story I'm writing. So I'm okay if they don't get around to what I need them to right now. It just means I'm gonna have to write an extra book. Um, sorry guys.

And the series is you're ending it on book six, and that has been the plan for a while now. It's been the plan for a long time, right?

Yes. The plan was always between five and seven. Um, and I think I was about halfway through book four when I was like, okay, book six is gonna be it. I can I can get there.

Were you ever worried that they would end up taking you on some kind of a side quest that would have to push that number of books farther out?

So I am currently writing chapter 64 of book six, and I think it's probably gonna be around 80 chapters. And I told my wife the other night, I'm pretty sure that I could end the book right here, and then write an entire another book of these last 20 chapters. But if I did that, I would need a few side quests, I would need to stretch it out, and I don't want to like write a book just because everybody loves this series and and they want it to continue. I know that I can get what I need to in this last 20 chapters, it will give that wonderful sense of uh tension and stress of like, ah, okay, we're at the end, what's going on? Um, that I really was aiming for. Um but yeah, there are definitely points where I'm like, there are entire side stories that I would love to explore and have them explore that I'm like, I'm not sure it's necessary, it doesn't push forward the main plot at this point. Tony's cookies, yes. Uh being able to find out, you know, uh the whole background history of what's going on and why administrators are the way they are. I mean, a little bit. The back room dealings of the political scheme in Beskar, nah. If anybody wants to sit down at LitRPG Con, I'll tell you about the different districts and who runs which and why they are the way they are, but it's just not gonna make it into the book.

And that makes sense because you don't want to continue to write the story just for the sake of writing the story. Like you want it to have a purpose and a meaning and that flow.

And it it started snowballing in book four exactly the way I wanted it to go. And it's it's on the path towards the end that I've known since the very beginning, and I've been able to have so many of those aha moments where I'm like, oh, okay, here, I can reveal this now. This is how this works, and that's where I get the WTF messages from people uh who have been able to read it, and uh my patrons haven't all unsubscribed, so maybe I'm doing something right.

You can't be that bad then. Yeah. Were you ever worried that the story wouldn't end the way you originally thought ending?

No, I have a few small changes in how I originally thought it would end. Not that I mean it's still ending the same way. It's just like who's involved and what are the relationships like and little things like that that as the paracters progress throughout the books, I was like, oh, okay, well, this needs to change now. But I always knew what they wanted and where they wanted to go, and I knew where I was going to leave them. So as long as I can pull this off, uh, which I'm hoping I can in the next few weeks, um, it it should be a nice wrapped bow of exactly what I wanted to deliver. Um, and I I hope everybody likes it, but if you don't, I don't care. I wrote this story for me, you're all along for the ride, and um please don't hate me. But yeah.

I mean, personally, I feel like that is what makes a really good story really successful is when the author is writing it for them and not for the readers, because it's just much more genuine.

The story for first and foremost. Is for me, and if I find myself writing towards a scene or something that I feel I'm like, eh, I'm not interested in that. I just don't write that. Which sounds a little selfish, but at the same time, I'm like, I read a lot of the same books all of you guys do. I'm a huge lit RPG fan first and foremost. And if one of these stories that I love with this to like down these routes, I'd be like, okay, this is fine. I'll keep reading it. I do not DNF books, but I'm not gonna have the same passion to grab the next book immediately that I would say for the next uh Woadie or the next uh he who fights with monsters. Um you know. So I try to keep it within the realm of something that I would like, and then I hope that other people like it as well.

And I think that really comes through when an author does that. Because otherwise it just it can feel kind of flat.

Yeah. Because if you're not excited to write it, it comes across. It's very hard to I mean, I'm sure that there are authors who are able to do that, but I am not that skilled

Maddie’s Growth And Reader Reactions

yet.

So were there any characters that progressed through the story in a surprising way or or any that surprised you the most with how their character progressed?

Maddie was not supposed to be a huge part of the series. Um, she was going to be the uh introduction, like to the political scene. Then I got so many comments that were like, I hate this girl so much, she's the worst, she's obviously lying to them, and I was like, Well, now I'm gonna hate write her into this book and make you all suffer. Like, if you're gonna tell me that you don't like somebody, we're gonna explore why. And honestly, her progression has become one of my favorite because when they met her, she was she was a spoiled brat who did not understand how things outside of her world worked. Yeah, and she was very entitled, and now she's the kind of person who will throw herself in front of the boys, and she ribs back just as bad as they rib each other, and she's found brothers that she never thought she would have, and they've helped her grow so much. She's a completely different character in even book three than she is in book one because she was able to have the interaction with them and watch the way they interact with each other. Um and again, I never really expected to write very much Maddie again, but I'm so glad that I was able to. So thank you, haters.

Yeah, and even over the course of book one, you can kind of see just the little seeds of her maybe not being such a shithead. Yeah. She definitely has her moments, and she is that spoiled, self-centered princess, but towards the end of book one, you get those little seeds of like, okay, well, maybe she can learn. Maybe she's not that bad, and maybe she just doesn't know any better.

And that's exactly what it is. The way she was raised is very different than what you know we would expect, what Orrin and Daniel would expect. So when she's able to come out of her shell and and trust a little bit and show who she really is, uh, and and there are moments in book two, book three, even book four where she backslides and she gets very uh chapter one matty again. Um and trying to think of a nice way to put that. And and they call her on it and they're like, hey, no, uh-uh, we've you don't get to do that. Like, that's not how friends treat each other. And she's like, You're right, I'm sorry. Like, that's growth. We all have problems and things we have to work on, and yeah, occasionally we're gonna backslide and be dicks again, but it's the saying sorry and moving forward and trying to, you know, re-uh acquaint ourselves with who we want to be. Um so yeah, Maddie's definitely come a very

Designing Dungeons Like A DM

long way.

The dungeon that they went in in book one was really fun. There were different levels, each one was different. Some of them were just batshit. How did you come up with the ideas for these levels and and the dungeons in the future books?

I am a forever DM. Uh actually, I I can't say that anymore. I haven't actually dungeon mastered in like two years now. Ever since I started writing, I'm just like, guys, one of you has to do it. I'm sorry. I've always loved being in charge of the other people. Um, don't know what that says about me. But I also really like creating homebrew worlds and um throwing them through dungeons. And one of the things that I learned very quickly is if I over-prepare an entire Dungeons and Dragons campaign, nothing that I prepare is going to get used. So I got really good at improv. And I never once thought of what the next floor was going to be until I finished the floor I was on. Uh which sounds terrible, but again, it comes down to that, like, okay, well, I just had like three fighting levels in a row, maybe I should throw a puzzle at them, or how can this one be different? Um and this isn't all like while I'm sitting down writing. When I finish a chapter, I start immediately thinking of the next one. I'm not sitting in front and writing, but you know, as I'm making dinner for my family, as I'm trying to fall asleep at night, uh, as I'm driving my kids to school the next morning, I'm thinking like, oh, okay, well, you know, that last one had two monsters and they were big, bad guys. Let's do like a horde, like a level Oh, you know what would be fun? Is a a whole lane, like a small corridor, and they just keep coming and coming, and they think that it's gonna end, but it doesn't, and so they have to keep pushing through. And then I have a whole idea for the next chapter. I think that's actually a dungeon level at some point. I can't remember which book though. Um but yeah, so I I don't really plan them. Uh just they come to me when I finish the last one.

LitRPG Community And Release Plans

What is your favorite thing about writing in the lit RPG genre?

The community. Um, I mean, I could sit here and talk about how much fun the dopamine hit of leveling up is, and I'm sure that's a huge part of it, but watching how much the fans, the authors, the narrators, the industry professionals, like every single aspect, every side of this is so much fun that even if I stop writing and like never wrote another book, I'm not going anywhere. I will still be in the Discords talking to you all. It's so much fun watching people get so passionate about different characters and how much they love the success of everybody. I I love it, it's incredible. I love when one of my friends is like, I had a new book come out and it's doing great, and I am gonna write another one. And I'm like, that's amazing. Where can I buy it? I have a shelf, I have another shelf, I have another shelf. They all need to be filled with your books. So write, write for me, please. I haven't bought anything that's not lit RPG in like two and a half years, and I'm okay with that.

So, book five for you is coming out on August 4th. That's the the date that I saw on Amazon. Is it a simultaneous release?

Yes, all three.

Fantastic. Those are always the best. And then what about book six? Do you have a release date for book six yet?

I don't have a release date. I have a due date. Um I'm supposed to turn it in by the end of July, which I'm 95% certain will happen. And then it usually takes six, seven months. I mean, I've got Nick Podell as my narrator. I'm I'm very stringent on on I really want the simultaneous release, so I'm fine waiting. They have to go through like a round or two of editing because you know, all books do. Uh, and then they'll go to him on whatever Nick's schedule is, and then once that's done, it's just they find a good date and they push it. I'm hoping January, February. Um, I have no idea. I have not had this discussion with podium though, so I don't know yet.

Okay.

What Tommy Writes After The Finale

So what is next? What is after I'm not the hero?

So I've got two projects that I have started kicking around. One is a standalone, it's kind of a cozy. It's about a guy who uh ran with the wrong crowd and paid some consequences for it, and now he's trying to start over working at a uh a little bakery. Um and his friends are trying to pull him back in, but he's found these newfound family of uh the people he's working with, and that's the one that I think I'm gonna write next. Uh, because I need a one book where I don't have to think about what's going to happen next before I start what my next project will be, which is gonna be a absolutely massive lit RPG. John Wick meets he who fights with monsters meets Primal Hunter. Basically, gods have taken over our world um and have made a game out of which one of their champions is going to reign supreme, um, and this guy accidentally gets some power and decides he's just gonna kill all the gods. Um, so he's gotta work his way up, defeating their underlings all the way up towards the top, trying to upset the status quo. Uh, and then, you know, it's a huge sweeping saga that I've got. I'm planning maybe 10 books. Um, there's like hundreds of gods and so many uh it might be double POV. Again, I'm in early stages, so this might never happen. But um interaction. That's the one. Yeah, this is the one that I'm actually really excited for. It's just it's gonna require I'm gonna plot it. I'm gonna actually have plans um of where he's going to go. Uh, because I really want a set structure of how the books will go and which book will come out when, and I want to be able to know that like I can put one of these out every five or six months. I can get this book into people's hands because some of my books are 60 chapters, some of them are 77, like the they sway a little bit because I was just vibing, like I was just writing until I found an ending, and I want to have a more structured set for the next big overarching s uh series that I write.

Do you think that you'll have a difficult time sticking to that structured outline?

Oh yeah. No way it happens. I I will lay the best plan I can and I will see how far we get. Um but I figure if I do enough of the background work of like naming all of the gods and all of the side characters. Um my biggest struggle as a writer is naming people. I have the character walks on, I know what they look like, I know their personality, I don't know their name. And it's I I don't know what it is. I l have a baby book that sometimes I will just open up and point and be like, that's your name for now, and we'll figure it out later because I don't want to stop writing. So yeah, I'm trying to get all of that taken care of before and having at least like a Bible of you know names and people and and places so that when I'm writing it, it actually comes out a little easier.

I will be interested in seeing how close you stick to the to the outline that you make.

Yeah, it we'll see if it happens at all. But you know.

I did see in some other interviews that you had talked about the possibility of another series that was going to not be VR MMO but similar. Is that one has that one been yes?

No, that's no, it's still there. That's my third secret project.

Um that is one that I'm very excited for. I think that this theme in these books needs to come back.

I really love Founder's Edition and I cannot wait for VR MMO to just explode again. And I I do have that idea. I am excited for it. I just it's third on the list right now because that that cozy came to my mind and was like, I have to write this. Um, and then I really want to get into the huge revenge portal series. Um, but yes, I have a VR MMO idea uh where basically the super rich have found a way to space travel, I guess, interdimensional travel. Uh, and so they have hooked up video games as a fake way uh as like a cheap labor. Like, hey, play this Minecraft like game, and you're gonna go and you're gonna dig gold all day, and you're gonna put and you we're gonna pay you to actually play the video game, like in real life. Isn't that great? And what they don't know is that they're actually mining real gold in 3D printed bodies on the other side of the universe, loading it up into transporters, and then these super rich are getting even richer off of our cheap labor. Um, and so the main character, his world is destroyed from overmining, and so he gets moved to a new video game, and this new video game is the first one with magic, and so he starts being able to use magic, but back on Earth now. And so things start changing rapidly as people realize okay, well, we can get magic here, that's amazing, but also they've been using us for all of these video games. Wait, things that we do affect the whole world, and you know, we go from there.

That one sounded so good. I all three of these sound fantastic.

So the cozy one's gonna be a single I just want one simple small little story. Yeah, it I'm not even sure it'll be that long. I and God, I I keep forgetting to mention this. And I'm writing um a short story for an anthology that should be coming out sometime soon. Um that uh I'll be writing with a bunch of other lit RPG authors. Um it's basically just good versus evil, like you know, classic, one no morally great characters, just the good guys against the bad guys. Um so I've got to write a short story for that, which I'm really excited about, but also super stress stressing because I'm writing that and I'm working on book six, and I'm like, I've got litRPG Con in two weeks, I'm gonna be away for a few days. So I might, if you see me typing on a laptop in the corner, just wave some coffee around, yeah, so that I can know to look up.

Yeah. You have a lot on your plate. All right. Well, that is uh everything that I had for you. Before we tell everyone where they can find you, was there anything that you wanted to mention that

LitRPGCon Invite And Where To Find Him

I did not bring up?

Come hang out with us at LitRPGCon. Uh, don't forget that the lobby turns into LobbyCon after, and we all basically just hang out. So if you didn't get to see a panel with me or someone, some other author that you like, you can probably find us hanging out, chatting about our own favorite books, because I'd say 95% of the people who go there, like as professionals and panelists, were fans first. So we all also geek out over meeting each other, which is hilarious. It's uh that the Spider-Man meme, like all of us pointing at each other. Oh, yeah, it's it's the best. Um, so yeah, other than that, nope, we're good.

Awesome. So where can everyone find you?

Sourpatchhero.com is the easiest way. Uh, all of my socials are linked up there. Um, I'm on the LitRPG Discord. I have my own Discord if you want to come say hi. Uh basically I just post, hey, my chapter's up. That's about it. Yeah, that's it.

All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on and hanging out with me. Thank you, everyone else, for sticking around and hanging out. Uh, thank you to my Patreon subscriber, TJ Lombardi. Um I will put a link to where uh all of your socials are in the description of the video and uh keep leveling up.