Author Spotlight: Sean Oswald

The “system” for Eloria/Life in Exile was originally created about 10 years before I started writing it as a homebrew D&D game loosely based upon 3.5. It was then modified to fit the world. The timing element which is used for the duration of effects is called a ‘tick’. This is from Everquest where spell durations ran in six second ticks.

I don’t see that much difficulty in building game-like systems with immersive story telling. I see criticisms from general fantasy fans that the game-like elements pull them out of the story. I get that there are different tastes, but for LitRPG readers, the system is like a secondary main character.

How so? It has its own growth arcs as the readers learn about the system.

For me, I’d love it if the real world were gamified and we had quantifiable targets and better confirmation of when we’ve reached a goal. To me, that’s just a fantasy element which is easy to accept in a world. It adds another aspect of growth for the hero too. No longer is there simply character growth as a person, but there is also quantifiable growth in terms of power. The two work very well together and, in my opinion, create a more immersive story than without those mechanics.

I literally can’t think of a single fantasy book that I’ve ever read which wouldn’t have been made better with LitRPG elements added to quantify the power of the characters.

The enhancement comes with how interludes expand the world. They allow me to show the character aspects of the world which the main characters wouldn’t have access to. I’m a big believer in the concept that the readers should know things that the main character doesn’t know. Interludes are a great way to achieve that.

The inspiration for the use of interludes was criticism I received for how I handled shifts in POV in books 1 and 2 of the series. Both of those were entirely written and edited before book 1 came out. While I had gotten some feedback from beta readers, none of them pointed out some of the noob author mistakes I was making with clumsy POV shifts.

I attempted to fix that in two ways. First, I labeled chapters which weren’t told from the POV of one of the main characters as an interlude. I’ve carried that over into the rest of my 50+ novels. Second, because Life in Exile is my own series with multiple main characters who are all of equal importance, I started labeling the beginning of each chapter with where it took place and whose POV it was told from.

I’ve continued to expand on this as I learn more as an author, but I very much enjoy weaving various plots together so that when certain events reach their crescendo, it doesn’t feel like it was pulled out of nowhere.

It would be simple to say that their biggest challenge was simply surviving, ie. not being eaten, finding food and water, etc.

I like to think though that it was broader and best wrapped up in the word ‘adapt’. They had to adapt to a new way of thinking and seeing the world. This was true on physical level, but also thought processes, parenting, social interactions, moral theory, and even religion.

The purpose of including past life skills on their character sheets was three-fold. The simplest reason being that I had never seen it done and yet in a series that I’d read, and it always struck me as doing a disservice to the characters. Secondly, it provided me a way to make the Nelson family more powerful than their like-leveled counterparts in Eloria. Generally in LitRPG the main character always has an advantage. Well, this was one of my ways of doing that without making them so powerful that the challenges were negated.

Finally, it was my commentary on how many skills that we develop in the modern world would have very little obvious application in a survival situation. Sure, the hand-to-hand combat experience, as limited as it was relative to Eloria, would have immediate use, but what about negotiating? Attorneys do that on the daily, but you can’t negotiate with a charging monster.

Krinnk is presented as a bit of an outlier. Goblins were meant to be a naturally curious type of creature, but they often have that curiosity beaten out of them by the harshness of their existence. I tried to show that in early chapters which showed life from the perspective of the goblins. When being seen can lead to death or forced labor, being curious is a luxury.

Beyond that though, Krinnk was meant to be a bit neuro-divergent as a goblin. He had a higher degree of curiosity and by the close observation of the Nelson’s he saw a different way of life. Krinnk probably couldn’t have put to words why he captured Sara rather than killing her. He likely thought of her as a pretty thing he was collecting.

That is when she is gifted her class though. It is both a blessing and a curse. It forever changes who she is but also creates the connection between her and Krinnk. I meant for that connection to reflect who Sara is more than who Krinnk was. Krinnk becomes better for his bond with Sara.

It mostly does that by building upon the natural tendency she had to want to save all life. As a child on Earth, she saved an injured bird. Of course, she also had to learn that there were unforeseen consequences to that. The same happens in Eloria. Sara grows more powerful through her bonds. It creates a new perspective in her where she sees the monsters as not enemies but potentially new friends.

Her evolution as a character is still ongoing, but it requires her to both open her mind to the possibility that there are more than just the accepted civilized races and yet being willing to kill as part of the cycle of life.

I think that the perceived shades of gray come from interludes done which show the POV of those characters. Alucien, the hidden villain, who was first hinted at in the chapter quotes in book 1, is truly an evil person. He is also a real life historical figure who was brought to Eloria from Earth. I haven’t revealed his identity yet, but there have been plenty of clues.

On Earth, his actions in my estimation were evil, or rather the consequences of his teachings were. In Eloria, he is better able to explore that. Yet, no one is the villain in their own eyes. He sees himself as one who has been betrayed and who is surrounded by incompetence.

Then there are the political baddies whether the Duke Holstein or others. They again see themselves as the heroes of their own story and that perspective may come across as being morally gray, but I feel like they are true villains with very few if any redeeming qualities.

Life in Exile was always conceived of as happening in three story arcs. That was true even before I knew what a story arc was, or at least before I thought in terms like that. The first was meant to be set at a country level and would deal with the threats to Eris’ Rise and the nation of Albia.

That arc was wrapped up with Watchers Repose, but it left hanging issues. Like who was behind the actions of the goblin army, Duke Holstein, etc. It also left power vacuums and created an opportunity for the orcs to rise again and unrest in the south with minotaurs and centaurs after Faelora’s failed attempt at taking over Albia. Those threads were ongoing.

A New Home is the second story arc. It builds upon the themes for each of the kids that were established in the first arc. Jackson is growing into a man and has his romantic entanglements. Mira is learning joy in a focus on magic rather than on what other people think of her. Sara is growing up as the ultimate, bring home a stray character. Each of them have evolving dynamics with their parents.

In A New Home, the threads for the final story arc are being woven, which will be world wide and not just on the continent of Talos like A New Home. It is also meant to follow the arc of exile, which is symbolic of real world issues but also meant to show a parallel between the Nelson’s being exiled from Earth and the inhabitants of Talos being exiled from Solun because of their low tier nature.

Simply put, I was reading a ton of LitRPG and having dreams about it. I’ve been married for over 31 years now and have nine children that we’ve raised or are still raising. To me, family is vitally important, but I won’t lie, there are also days where the burdens of providing for so many- financially, emotionally, etc. feel overwhelming.

I was reading these LitRPG novels and they were escapist fantasy. That was fun. I wanted more. In my dreams, I would be isekai’d to another world but my wife and children would come with me. It took away the escapist aspect and made it very raw and real. My actions in the dream had consequences not just for me but for my family.

Out of that was born the desire to explore a story like that.

Other than writing, interacting with readers is my favorite part of this job. It’s obviously ego stroking when they tell me that they love one of my stories and I don’t think I can completely ignore that. But, I’d also like to think that sharing my joy in writing with their joy in reading is a mutually beneficial relationship. My friends and I have talked about various fantasy worlds from shows, games, and books for decades. It’s beyond cool being able to do that with fans of the worlds that I’ve created.

When I was younger, I always thought it would be amazing to interact with some of my favorite authors. Now, I get to do that both because I know other authors in LitRPG, but I also get to experience it from the other side. I love hearing how reading or listening to one of my books helped people get through a tough work week or a bad personal experience.

Without a doubt the greatest compliment I ever received was from a guy who said that seeing the dynamic unfold between Dave and Emily, the married couple from Life in Exile as they loved each other but had fallen out of love, gave him the courage to talk to his wife about the same situation in their life. Talking about is made so much difference and while I didn’t solve their problems, if I could be even a spark for that, it’s incredibly humbling and exciting at the same time.