Kirill Klevanski:<\/strong> Hello. As it seems now, I never could have guessed even a tiny bit as to how it would be after a year, let alone three years of developing the Dragon Heart Saga. When I started, I wrote a few chapters a week, and had at most 100 readers. Now this whole journey has gone beyond my wildest imagination.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> How much of your life is consumed with these books?\u00a0 Do you have anything else that you do on the side, or it pretty much waking up and writing?<\/p>\n KK:<\/strong> It’s pretty much like an 8-hour job. I wake up, bring up some food and I\u2019m writing until 17:00. Sometimes longer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T: <\/strong>LitRPG is becoming a huge subgenre of fantasy.\u00a0 You went a step further and mixed it with a subgenre of Wuxia.\u00a0 Did you think that such a blend would work in your favor as well as this has?<\/p>\n KK: <\/strong>I did it on purpose, but with a different reasoning. When I had started with the Dragon Saga, in my country\u2014Russia\u2014the wuxia genre was so low key, that only a few geeks knew about it.\u00a0 So, it was more like a marketing step.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T: <\/strong>How do you feel it worked out?\u00a0 You\u2019ve got a lot of books out, so it must have been a good mix!<\/p>\n KK:<\/strong> I\u2019ve got my mother on retirement, bought decent cars for myself and my brother, and I find myself not worrying about how I will make ends meet when it comes to my bills. So, on some level, it’s definitely worked out!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n T: <\/strong>You have five books in the series out so far, with the sixth on the way in August.\u00a0 It\u2019s over 2000 pages.\u00a0 You\u2019ve spent a considerable amount of time with these books.\u00a0 You\u2019re almost to the halfway point, as you say the series is going to contain twelve books.\u00a0 How worn out are you?\u00a0 That\u2019s a huge accomplishment!<\/p>\n KK: <\/strong>It’s a translated series. In Russian, I already managed to finish the 16th book. As for how worn I’m out\u2026 it’s something that I’m trying not to think of!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T: <\/strong>I knew you\u2019d written a lot!\u00a0 A while ago, you had mentioned that it was supposed to be twenty books\u2014has it gone beyond that now?\u00a0 You\u2019re talking about making a series here of beyond epic proportions!<\/p>\n KK: <\/strong>Nope, the plan is still in check. Now I’m on my 17th book of the series. 3 more after that and the Dragon Heart Saga will end.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T: <\/strong>The Dragon Heart books are not the only ones you\u2019ve written.\u00a0 You\u2019ve also worked for publishing agencies and written books for them.\u00a0 It\u2019s got to be a world of a difference.\u00a0 Do you prefer working on your own material with all the freedoms it brings?\u00a0 Or can it be kind of nerve-wracking not having the structure that a publisher imposes on you?<\/p>\n KK: <\/strong>The Dragon Heart Saga doesn’t have any publishers. It’s through and through self-publishing. As it in Russia, as it on the Amazon. I do have a literary agent though: Valeria. She helps me with the translation, manages the whole team of translators, editors, artists, etc. But, still, I’m as free as one can be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T: <\/strong>Did you ever think you\u2019d have globally appreciated work?\u00a0 What was the first time you thought to yourself that you had made it bigger than you expected?<\/p>\n KK: <\/strong>When some foreign readers reached to me on FaceBook, that was awesome. You must understand that here in Russia, only a handful of professional writers can say that they have foreign readers. And suddenly I found myself in that same spot. That was mind blowing all the way through.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/FH1A2483-copy.jpg\")
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