Celestial Twins Gemini w/CJ Astrea

A LitRPG tutorial with a 5% survival rate is brutal. We sit down with CJ to talk about The Celestial Twins, starting with the tower-clearing Weave system, then digging into why this story hits harder than a typical system apocalypse power trip.

We get into why CJ chose twin main characters instead of a single overpowered lone wolf. He breaks down why sibling bonds and found family can create deeper stakes without losing the progression fantasy dopamine. We also talk character dynamics that feel lived-in.

We close with a roadmap for where The Celestial Twins is headed, what Earth looks like after the tutorial, and a preview of CJ’s grimdark project The Gentle Blade. If you like LitRPG, GameLit, progression fantasy, and honest conversations about resilience, hit play, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome everyone to In Other Worlds, the LitRPG Game Lit and Fantasy Podcast. I am your host, Jess, and today we are sitting down with the amazing new author, CJ Estrella. CJ, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

I am great, tired, but good.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

I mean, you're up a little bit early for you, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

It's true. Uh just a couple hours early, so not too bad. Could be worse.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Well, I appreciate you waking up to talk to me.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Of course. Wouldn't miss it.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

So you have your first novel is already out, and the second book in the series came out today, June 1st. Although this episode, by the time this episode releases, it will already have been out for about a week.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

So The Celestial Twins is the name of the series. Book one is Gemini. Give us a little bit of a rundown on the series.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

So Gemini takes place in the tutorial, where basically, you know, it's classic system game lit apocalypse tutorial type stuff. Uh, you have to clear these towers to unlock certain aspects of this magical system called the Weave. And uh the twins are doing it in order to find the parents, and along the way, they end up meeting uh their friends, Yara and Caleb, and they find this guy Lucian, who's a total D-bag. Yeah. He's he's not great. Um, but they they work together and mostly and uh clear these towers and everything. Uh then they eventually meet Hanna, who is the ice mage. Uh, she's kind of like their mascot at first, originally, and uh ends up having to grow into herself. And the whole story is basically just my nod to unhealthy coping mechanisms and trauma responses, and each character represents a different one of my own shortcomings in that regard. So it's just them trying to keep each other alive while dealing with all the PTSD and trauma of the of you know billions of people dying all around them, and they can't really do anything about it. So that's basically what it is. Also, there's a lot of anime fights and giant kaijus and super anime attack call-outs, and it's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

And now you have said in other interviews that you chose two MCs because you're not really I mean, the main overpowered MC is is is really overdone, kind of point. That's 95% of the books are just one main MC who murder hobo's everything.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Now I don't want to get that misconstrued though, because even though I say that, I do still love those stories.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Like some of them are fantastic, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Primal Hunter is one of my favorite books of all time.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

And it that is the epitome of the solo lone wolf murder hobo MC. And it's still one of my favorite books of all time. The problem is their oversaturation, and especially like I don't want to get too much into that, but the AI thing where everybody's just it's just copying the same style, which just completely oversaturating the market with the same murder hobo MC, and it's just the same guy over and over with a different name. And so yeah, Celestial Twins is kind of my counter to that. Plus, I mean, it's just fun to have a twin dynamic and a sibling dynamic and a lit RPG. Like, I don't know if you read Defiance of the Fall, but Kenzie and Zach's relationship in the first like three books, their brother-sister relationship. I love that so much because it's it's so organic, and I just wish more books had that. It's just cool to me.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah. So, what made you pick twins versus just two friends or two just normal siblings?

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Honestly, I have a a set a pair of uh I have cousins who are identical male-female twins who kind of look like Callan and Arya. Okay, like they're both blonde, they both have green eyes, uh, they're identical. He's taller than she is, and yeah, it's I I wouldn't say that they're the basis for it, but once I decided I was writing two twins, I decided, yeah, they're gonna look like these guys because I can imagine these two pretty vividly.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Do they know that you kind of modeled your your main characters on them?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

I don't even think they know I wrote a book. I don't really I don't really talk to my family that much on any side, but they those two are probably the two I'm I was closest to growing up for a while, so it just kind of worked out that way. But I've I was an only child, but I had lots of cousins and step cousins and family, the family that was always around. So the found family aspect was always very important to me, and so I knew I wanted to do that, and I was like, well, why not just have you can have found family, but why not? Also twins, plus you can do so many cool like twin telepathy things, and which I love doing because it's just like adds to the mystery and stuff, and I don't have to write as much dialogue.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I mean, they I mean twins are kind of known for being able to

Twin Leads And Market Saturation

SPEAKER_01 4:55

uh communicate with each other without actually really communicating. Oh yeah, uh that's just one of those things that you just found out was a real thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Yeah, me neither. And uh I found out that was a real thing after I did it, and I was like, oh, cool, I'm good. This is real. Like uh a couple different people have reached out to me and been like, Are you a twin? Because like this is this is accurate. I was like, Nope, only child.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I mean, you nailed it then.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Yeah, I got lucky.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Did you do any research on twins beforehand?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Not a single iota.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

You just played it by ear with everything.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

I don't think I think I started researching stuff maybe halfway through resonance, and then I started writing stuff down, like actually like keeping notes and stuff and keeping track of things in like the last four chapters of Resonance. So I had to go back and write like series Bibles and character like growth charts and everything in the last four chapters of Resonance. Yeah, I did successfully, but then people were like, Hey, how are you doing this? I was like, I guess this kind of looks weird, so I'll write it down.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

I mean, if it works for you, it works for you.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Uh so at the very beginning of book one is when the apocalypse happens.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

And they twins find out that there is only roughly a what 5% survival rate for the tutorial.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Yeah, for their specific tutorial, yeah. They're their little group. So there it doesn't really touch on it much, but there are multiple different there are thousands, hundreds of thousands of tutorials going on all at the same time. Oh this, yeah, this group and a handful of others are in five percent tutorials. Uh the ones that we see in the epilogue, they're not. Um, we don't see any of the other ones, we don't meet any of the other factions that were in 5% tutorials until book three. Um, but they're like everyone else had like 10, 20, 25, 30, 50% survival rates, some higher, some lower. Um, but the twins whole thing is very much the most dangerous one there is.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And these are all people from Earth or people from everywhere?

SPEAKER_02 7:10

People from Earth, and they're just kind of scattered in and just thrown in. Fate has a little bit to do with it, which is why Yara being from Brazil is in there with the twins, and Calum being from Ireland, Hana being from Japan. There fate kind of has a play in everything because I didn't want to just have it set geographically, because that's that's lame. You know, I wanted I want that multicultural vibe, and Gemini very much is a multi-c multicultural vibe, like with everyone.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, oh, it most definitely is.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

And so I I really I really like that aspect. Plus, I get to have fun with like making up voices in my head and practicing my own version of their of their lines and stuff in different accents, and it's very fun. I want to add like uh a Samoan guy into book three, and so I've been practicing like that accent just subconsciously in my head, and it's it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Did you come up with where they were from before you created the character and come up with the accent? Or did you create the character without that background in and try it in different voices?

SPEAKER_02 8:12

It kind of happened all at the same time. So, like the twins, I mean, they were always in my head. I always knew they were going to be at the stars. And then the next person that came up was Yara, or I guess Wusha, technically, but he doesn't really count. And then Yara, I came up with because I have these two daggers that I have hanging on my wall. I have a lot of swords and different types of weapons just hanging on my wall because I I like collecting them. Um, but I saw these like elvish almost like long daggers, and I was looking at those and I was like, I need a new character. I was looking at those, and then immediately just Yara popped into my head, and I was like, Brazilian, wolf cut, yellow eyes, total chaos, gremlin, flirty bitch, and then it kind of just evolved from there.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

And she is that she is boy, is she?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

I love Yara so much. She she's the closest to me in so many regards, and I love it.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

You're a flirty bitch too.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Oh, unintentionally, entirely unintentionally,

Found Family And Multicultural Cast

SPEAKER_02 9:10

but yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

But that's that innocent, unintention, unintentional way, is the the most fun way to be.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

And it it's so great because she's so she's so different from me, though, because she is constantly reading the room. Like you see it, especially when they when they find Hannah, and she's like, you know, she makes the joke, but then she like we go into her head for a second, she realizes, oh, push too far, pull back. And you so we get those moments where we see, like, oh, she's like constantly observing everything, and that's really just who she is, is like she's the one who tries to keep the morale up, which I love.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

She does a pretty good job of that too.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

She does. I love Yara so much. Her and her and Caleb's whole romance subplot is my favorite thing in the world to write.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

It was so sweet.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

I know.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

It was so sweet.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

I love it. And I'm so bad at romance in my personal life. It's amazing I can write such healthy toxicity in a book.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

It's usually the way it goes, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Like, but they are so like all the relationships are so healthily toxic, and like they all have their their ups and downs. Like the twins are entirely too codependent on each other, and then Caleb and Yara are just the weirdest mixed bag of traumas, and then Hana is just nothing but imposter syndrome in book one, which is great for character development, which happens very rapidly. But it's it's kind of hard to read in book one, I think. But they're there's they're just so fun. Yes, it's so fun to write them.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

And that imposter syndrome that she has really is what pushes her to work as hard as she does. 100% to get better and not hold the group back and not fall behind.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Exactly. It works for her, and she has a major transformation in book two, which I'm sure some people watching this have already seen, but she she goes through quite the change here here coming up, and it's it's so cool. I I love Hana's character so much as she's grown because she's never like each book has a main side character. Like Yara is obviously the main side character for book one, Caleb is the main side character for book two, Hanna will be the main side character for book three. Her subtle growth throughout books one and two into book three is so impactful to her character. It's crazy that she's not had her moment yet.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, she's probably my second favorite character in book one. So it's two characters are my favorite. Um one a little bit more than the other, but uh the twins' parents.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Really? Yeah, that's a first.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

I loved the twins' parents. Um and and then I don't I'm not going to go into too much detail about them. We can talk about that uh after. But just the way that they act when they are brought into the book and the thing that they just I I love they were my favorite. All right, so book one, they're a tutorial that they're going through, they have to defeat towers. I think it's five towers they have to defeat.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Uh three first, and then they have the final tower. They end up going through five, but that's mostly for training, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Uh so each

Towers Kaiju Fights And Inspiration

SPEAKER_01 12:25

tower is a little bit different, and it's almost like Mario levels, like they're all just different.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Shitty water levels.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah. So how did you come up with the themes for the different towers?

SPEAKER_02 12:39

I don't really know if I did. Um, it's kind of hard to explain. Like, the way my brain works is I'll like see like a thing off the distance, like a mushroom or uh like uh like a leaf or an aurora or something, the shooting star, and my brain will just automatically connect that to the weirdest shit, and that'll turn into either a new monster or into a uh new setting or location or a tower uh or a quest something, and or I'll hear like a song and it'll somehow trigger something. Like I remember um the Tower of Fractured Skies, the second tower they go into. That was entirely because of uh what what song was that? I think it was Stairway to Heaven, is what brought that on. And I was like, this doesn't make sense, but it kind of makes sense. Giant bird kind of acting like the angel, I guess. I don't know. My brain does weird things, and then it just pops a movie into my head, and I'm like, okay, I'll write that.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

So you're very much a pantser then.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Oh he yeah, kinda, sort of. I think I have a general outline. I know, like, we need tower one, we need tower two, we need tower three, and then the details I'm very pants on. But like what needs to happen, like the the main plot points, those are all very much planned out.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

So, were there any towers that you thought of after the fact or didn't get to put in the book that you wish were in the book?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

There was one that I wanted to do, and it was uh Lucian's like whole first tower, actually, all of their first towers. Uh, I wanted to do a big novello for just to like show like how they all started in the tutorial before they met the twins. And that wasn't fun. I've tried writing it like eight times and I just can't make it work, and I don't know why. I think it's because I've already moved past it. And because I I had the I like I think I've mentioned this before, but like uh originally Arya was gonna go with Lucian, that was the original plan. And I ended up skipping a chapter because I could just couldn't make the the dialogue or something work, and so I skipped it, and by the time I had moved on, I'd already gotten like two or three chapters ahead, and I was like, Well, this works way better than what I was planning, so I just never went back, and that that tends to be how it goes, is I just you know, if I if I skip something, I won't go back to it. I just can't, like my brain just won't allow me to, and I think that's the problem I'm having with these novellas is that I know subconsciously these are like their prologues, and so I can't write them because I didn't write them before.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

So that kind of checks out, yeah, and I'm glad that she did not go with him because I would have been very angry, I would have been so mad.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

It was gonna be like a manipulation type deal where like like she wasn't gonna willingly go with him, but I like the idea of her like kicking him in the chest with a knife way better. Yeah, so it works out.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah, I thought he was gonna kidnap her at one point, and that that was kind of the intent. I was very mad. I was very mad, but yeah. And now the other people who are who end up not really in the tutorial, but kind of in the tutorial. So

Hollows Factions And A Merciless System

SPEAKER_01 15:55

they're I think they're called hollows.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

So explain to me why why are they hollows? What is a hollow? So they eventually end up in the tutorial.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Yes. So their parents were actually hollows, too. Um, the there there were, I think, 125 people that were basically like they were the ones who didn't select their class by the end of the countdown, and so they were held in reserve. They were like, listen, if you can't do this, we're just gonna hold you in stasis and we're gonna throw you into a more dangerous section here. Hopefully, you can find somebody who's gonna protect your ass because you're too indecisive. And so that's that's basically who the hollows were. And the reason I did that is because I really wanted a reason to have the twins need to progress, and the weave and the hollows system and all that was all just kind of too perfect for it. But then also I wanted factions to be very integral to this multiverse because not enough people focus on like the faction building aspect, and like nobody can like there's the whole like Taoist cultivator thing where it's like you know, you know, a cultivator challenges the heavens alone and whatever. I'm like, that's bullshit. You have sex, you don't like every sect has thousands of cultivators that all work together to strive together, so you're literally not following your own principle, so you know it's not true, just deal with it. And it's it goes back to the murder hobo solo MC, and it all cultivates back there, but that's why at the end of the book one you see that, like, oh, you need a whole faction to finish this final tower to get out of this tutorial because it is a necessary aspect in the multiverse. So that's where the hollows came from, was just my idea of trying to force faction politics, which I think worked out pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

I I like that you're you're so indecisive that you can't pick your class, so we're gonna stick you into an even more dangerous situation.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yeah. Well, because the system is merciless, the system does not deal with mercy, it's not actively antagonistic, but it's not gonna it's not gonna handhold, it's not gonna help you out, it's not gonna, it's gonna force you into these situations where you're forced to grow because that's its directive, is to create the strongest soldiers it can. That's what it's for. And that's that's a very common, you know, system trope that you know it's like uh you know the system is here to make you stronger and not to you know make you pathetic type situation. And it's it's very much that. All the hollows that survive, they're all way stronger for it.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Like uh like the the group of teenagers, um Tanner, Mira, Nate, Farouk, and all and Ereti, they're all the ones who survive, you know, they're all like lieutenants and Gemini now. Like they're they're up there with right underneath Cal and Arya and the rest. And I I I love that because it's very much true to their nature because they they saw what is possible and they were the ones who were like, you know what, we got this, we can do this.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

And I can't recall after they are put into the tutorial. I know some of them pick crafting classes.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Can they pick fighting classes at that point, or are they stuck without them because they didn't pick them in the beginning?

SPEAKER_02 19:21

So the crafting classes are like everybody has a fighting class to begin with. They have one of the original four classes, and then after once they all reach level 10 and the faction actually becomes a faction, then they could choose to change over to a uh to a non-combatant class. However, they do still keep their fighting class skills. So, like a builder or a cook can still you know throw an energy beam at somebody, they still have the ability to fight if they need to, they're not completely defenseless, and they can still use their non-combatant skills in creative combat ways, but it's it's more like I think it's something like 75% of all of humanity took a non-combat class, which is pretty accurate. I think, in fact, I think it's probably a little low of the number. Um, I think most people in reality, if we were given the option in this situation in this situation, would probably take the safer route, which is the non-combat class.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

And so I'm I'm kind of trying to show that because that's why so many people chose non-combat classes in the tutorial, and why there's only like you know, so many fighters, but they all still fight when the time comes, because if you don't fight, you die.

Crafting Classes And Bloodline Power-Ups

SPEAKER_02 20:35

You just you know you're a little more protected than everybody else, though. Which is good for them.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah, and we need we need crafting classes.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

You absolutely, yeah. I mean, who's gonna support the fighters? Who's gonna cook the meals? Who's gonna who's gonna fix their armor? Who's gonna who's gonna make the potions and the exploding potion bombs? And who's who's gonna do all who's gonna do all these things?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Yeah, yeah. Now the fighting classes, they do have the ability to uh unlock bloodlines.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Everyone does.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

So, where did you come up with this idea for bloodlines, and how do you determine which characters can unlock them and which ones they unlock?

SPEAKER_02 21:15

So you see more of it in book two, especially, but also in book three a little bit, where bloodlines are innate in a way, but they're also there are different ways you can get them. So, like Yara's bloodline, for example, is uh kind of one of those ones that she was not really born with, but born to, and then the system gave it to them. And then the twins, the system had nothing to do with it. They're as a unique bloodline, they're completely outside of the system's purview, which is why they're unique and why the system can't control it, but it can out influence the system. But as far as like just random people, I mean there are all different types of bloodlines, and I explained this all a lot in what I just wrote in book three. But it's like there are innate bloodlines to race because we get race changes in book two. And then yeah, it's it's great. And then some of them are as low as affinities, like you have the space affinity now, you have the life affinity, whatever. And then some are as low as like, oh, your hair changes colors. Cool. But then some of them are very, very much oriented towards combat. So as far as deciding who gets what, is with like the non-main cast, I don't really focus on it too much. Like if they have them, they have them. If they have like this cool special little thing that they can do like somebody can grow their arm twice as long or something. That's just that it's I'm not going to call it out specifically. Right. But bloodlines are just these little trinkets, these little extra little power buffs that some people have. And then some people get really good ones.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Very excited for book two now.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Hey it it's available go check it out on Amazon and KU.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

As soon as we log off here I'm going to be picking it up.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

It's honestly resonance is so much better than Gemini in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

And it it worlds above like it's for I look back at my writing Gemini and even at Resonance now I'm like man I did not know what I was doing. Like I didn't know what prose was until I finished Gemini. I didn't know what the word meant. I think that's pretty typical of of first time newer authors though is five years from now you're gonna be writing your I don't know twelfth or fifteenth book and you'll look back at these and be like oh my god I was horrible yeah but no the fact that so many people glaze up Gemini so much and I'm just like man I can't even go back and reread Gemini like I cringe at every chapter. I will say I mentioned earlier that I can't really go back and do any and re and fix things. I did with one chapter in Gemini. One chapter I finished the whole book and then I went back and added it and that was the Gemini duel and the the one where Calan and Arya spar in the middle of camp. I rewrote I wrote that in after I'd finished the entire book.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

I think that needed to happen though.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

It 100% did they they were way for them but also for everyone else. Yeah they needed that that show of this is what people can do without powers. And um I I thought it was a really cool addition that I added but yeah but that's like the one thing where I'm just like I go back and I relook at the stuff I've already done and it's like this is kind of ass. And then I look at what I'm doing now and I'm like that was really ass and then I but especially like in my dialogue and stuff my dialogue in Gemini was very sitcomy which is it's fixed now. I I've gotten better but even in book two it's it's a little sitcomy and then writing my Grimdark series definitely helped with learning how to dialogue properly because it's it's a lot of like in turn especially because it's first person so it's a lot of internal dialogue and I I got a lot better with it from that I think which is good.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

I needed to because I I need that that level up and you'll every every book you write you'll continue to improve and I'm excited to see my peak.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

I I think that'll be interesting. I have an idea for the series I want to write when I get to that point. So what was what would you think your most difficult scene to write in Gemini was there are two I would say Yar and Caleb getting together that was that was really hard for me because I just I wanted to make sure that it felt genuine but I also needed these two characters who you know have been kind of tiptoeing around each other this whole time to actually feel I wanted to feel the awkwardness. And I feel like I feel like I got that across pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

It was awkward.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

In the best way because they're awkward ish they're awkward little shits and I love them.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

It was cute and awkward.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Exactly and that that's the best I could hope for and then it's just getting worse by the way in book two and three it they're their their awkwardness never fades.

Writing Growth And The Hard Scenes

SPEAKER_02 26:05

They're just much more bold with it now. Yes. But I think the hardest scene was spoiler warning uh the parents' death scene so watching them heal through it and get past it is helping me get past it which is why I I I often say that you guys are just reading my therapy logs and that's that's really all it is because that's really what it is yeah and that is a big reason why I keep writing Celestial twins because that is that is the core message like terrible shit happens this is this is not just a game this is this is reality at least for them and terrible shit will happen and will keep happening will you keep moving forward or are you gonna let it beat you yeah and for my depression riddled ass it's very easy to say no I'm just gonna let it beat me but then I see my characters and they're in my head and they tell me no yep we can do it so can you so can you look at all that look at all this shit we're going through and you think your problems matter no let's see you go through a tutorial with five percent survival rate exactly facts I want to get that tattooed on me get that on a t-shirt that that peak marketing right there but that's exactly what it is like it and it helps me which is why I publish it and why I write it but then it helps other people too which just makes it a thousand times better. Like I I got a DM not long after I put out Gemini where somebody actually reached out and they told me hey you know I just lost my parents in a car accident or something whatever it was and um it Gemini was seeing them deal with that and go through everything with their parents really helped them with their you know own grief and I I cried for like a solid hour after I read that and I was like well shit like because when I when my mom died it was cradle that brought me out of it and it was the first thing that got me back into reading and it really like opened my eyes to like oh you know this this progression fantasy you know just overcoming obstacles and all these issues like it can't people can't overcome these things. And for me to be able to do that for somebody with my little shitty story about Star Twins it was it was really it it hit. It it hit the right the right place in the in the best way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Good how many books do you think will be in the series?

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Probably nine I think because I want to do like three sets of trilogies. So we have the fight the fight survive and thrive trilogy and 'cause marketing. And um I yeah and each one is gonna cover something different. So like books one through three are like the setup they're the tutorial it's getting your faction base set up and then the prelude into like the faction wars. And then uh the second set will be like the faction wars, faction wars and all that good stuff and uh starting to expand into the multiverse because the multiverse opens up after the faction wars. And then uh the third set will be like intergalactic war type fun stuff like we go out we leave earth behind and we're having to travel across the multiverse trying to stop the big bad and it's it's gonna be good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Nice. So after the tutorial do they go back to Earth? Do they leave the tutorial and go back to Earth?

SPEAKER_02 29:22

A very changed earth.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

That was gonna be my next question is how different is it once they go back?

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Well there's floating islands. So yeah and and the continent that they're on is I actually it's really funny. So I was drawing out the map because uh Morpheus is doing maps for me too and I was drawing out the map of the new continent and I basically I just held the silus on my iPad and then I just let the truck vibrations like move it around and it ended up Australia.

unknown 29:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Yeah so they're they're essentially on an Australia sized and almost shaped continent. Um there yeah there are at least three other megacontinents that we know of plus a bunch of archipelagos um where all the major factions are and stuff and this is probably the smallest of the megacontinents but it's about it's about Australia size like from uh south to north I think it's 2500 kilometers so it's about 4,000 miles give or take big that math might be wrong on that or switch I'm not sure but yeah it's it's huge but they can cross it in just a few days because you know super speed.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

So when they leave the tutorial and they go back to Earth does their faction come with them? Do they all stick together and go to the same place?

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah they do indeed and then even the vultures are on the same continent which is fun times. I will say I give I give Malark a redemption arc I'll I'll spoil that much for you. It's not it's not a good redemption arc at all.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

You're gonna hate him a lot more before you start liking him and you're probably not gonna start liking him until book four but I didn't necessarily I didn't like him but I didn't necessarily hate him in book one because Lucian was kind of in his head. You know digging around the back with brain and influence and things so I didn't necessarily hate him but I didn't like him.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Even in book two Lucian's influence is still there and it's it's very apparent I'm not gonna say anything else away but um but Malark does make a return in book two and you're you're gonna hate him again before you start liking him but he uh he fucks

Nine-Book Plan And A Remade Earth

SPEAKER_02 31:35

up a lot but he's always trying to make the right decision he's trying to do the right thing by his people which is the important part he just does it in the worst ways possible because he's an idiot but again that's that's partly me so I can't really blame him too much because I do this we're all just gonna have to read book two to find out you just gotta read book two it's available now on Amazon. Go check go check it out.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah go pick it up on Amazon yay read it to the Amazon page too so it'll be very easy to find.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

And by the time this comes out the paperback will be available I think so fantastic so what is next I know you're you're talking about the Grimdark series what is uh the title of that one so that is the Blacksmith's son book one The Gentle Blade The Gentle Blade give us kind of a so we know he starts off a nine yeah he starts off like this really yeah so he's a very diminutive pretty boy like he he looks like his mama which is a very much a compliment for him and but he's uh so he's got scarlet hair and crimson eyes he's he looks two or three years younger than he than everybody else around him and uh it starts off with you know with him just living in the village and it's just this little backwater village he's the son of the local blacksmith and um one day the uh a priest from the church arrives and you know we get the whole lore with the goddesses and the three goddesses Hermesta Visteria and Antoria the goddesses of order or balance light and darkness and we find out there there's these innate powers that people's souls have called Rama which is my interpretation of like a almost like a bloodline but not really it's just kind of an innate ability that some people have but they always have a cost and um like and the cost is pretty severe in most cases like you find out in like chapter two that the dad of the main character Korrin has a rama that allows him to forge uh soul weapons like it's basically this ring that like the smolten hot ring that he implants into your soul physically and uh it like kind of nurtures it's getting gets nurtured by your soul and forms into a soul weapon that you can draw and use whatever but when he uses it it takes half of his soul to create it. So by the end of it he's essentially soulless and his entire soul is in these soul weapons and like the costs get very real and very serious but uh he ends up you know I don't know how much I want to give away so the village gets destroyed and he gets taken as a slave by the church and by the duke's men and ends up in the mines for a few years where he meets other people and he learns to fight and that's where he grows up for the first for the most part for a few years before ending up transferring into the arena under the Duke's influence and he ends up having become a gladiator so it's very classic there with the gladiatorial style fights every other chapter and a lot of trauma a lot of torture a lot of people who don't deserve it being killed right in front of him for no fucking reason other than to to break him and because that's the whole point of it is that people can tell there's something off with this kid but they can't tell what it is and that but they want it. And so that that's pretty much all I'm willing to give away before you read anymore. So when is that one gonna be out oh god um I like I said I was gonna have it out for the con at this point though it'll probably be late August maybe early September it'll really just depend on how how much time I have to market it and all that but the pre-order will be available at litrpgcon you'd you'd be able to come and you know scan a QR code and do all that and uh I'll have posters for the I'm gonna be bringing a lot of merch and stuff like small stuff. Um I'm bringing my truck so a lot of it will be sold out in the parking lot which will be fun.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Yeah you know it is what it is.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Yeah but uh it'll help me save on hotel costs because I can just sleep in my truck. But uh I'll be

Grimdark Project And Con Plans

SPEAKER_02 35:55

having a lot of posters for like the cover and for some character art that I've had made and same with Celestial twins all that'll be the same and then you have some of the posters uh but we'll have even more because it's I like posters and uh yeah it's gonna be it's gonna be great but yeah probably mid to late August is what I'm shooting for.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

It might be pushed to early September but we'll we'll see okay well that uh that's gonna be an interesting story and I look forward to that one.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

I'm excited in that like if if you like Grimdark at all apparently it's pretty good. I I've never read a Grimdark book um which is funny to say because I wrote one but I think my interpretation on it is probably less grim it's very it's much less nihilistic than what I've heard others are. It will definitely get there. This is definitely not a hero's story it's not a it's not a classic chosen one hero's journey type crap. No this is just a a kid who's been pushed way too far and his mental state is very much that of a kid who's been pushed way too far and he breaks and he snaps and he goes I I give him this um I tried to therapise him a little bit and like how he recedes into himself and I he calls it the cold and that's like basically him retreating into himself and I try to show real trauma responses that he's having like you know the retreating and the exploding and all this stuff like he he gets very very cold when the people around him try to keep him uplifted but then they start dropping one by one and it's it's just harder and harder for him to stay a good person and uh the whole series is going to probably be four books. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Well I'm looking forward to that it's it's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

So I think that's everything that I had for you um was there anything that you wanted to mention that I didn't ask about I don't know and I can't think of anything.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Um we got your favorite characters out of the way which was interesting take on the parents I think I've officially now heard every character every named character at least uh for who's everybody's favorites and um almost nobody says Callon or Arya which is very telling to me but uh that's it's valid it's fair um I think that's pretty much it as far as Gemini goes we can't really talk more until you've read resonance but because that's when that's when shit hits the fan. But I yeah I so I can't wait to do another one of these when once you've read up on resonance and we get to go over that and talk spoilers. I love spoilers heck yeah uh so where can everyone find you uh on Instagram which I don't really use TikTok obviously I mean that's all I really use nowadays uh goodreads it does exist and Amazon

Where To Find CJ And Listener Requests

SPEAKER_02 38:50

just look up CJ Australia I will link to the Instagram uh the TikTok the Amazon and the Goodreads sounds like a plan okay um thank you so much for coming and talking to me and hanging out um thank you for having me thank you everyone else for sticking around and hanging out with us as well don't forget to pick up book one book two is now out so you can read book one and then pick up book two also and uh oh uh they are gonna be going on sale too for LitRPG Con. So if you don't have a chance to go to LidRPGCon and you want to get a copy of the ebook at least I'll be making both of them free for the weekend at the con.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Fantastic. Even better now there's no excuse to not pick them up.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

No excuses not to read it and make sure you leave a review so that I know what you think because I will change things and shit changes a lot.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

And Amazon reviews are very important. All right well that's everything I have thank you CJ thank you everybody else and keep leveling up