My Reddit AMA
Back in 2020 I sat down for an AMA on Reddit's LitRPG community. Here's my intro post, kept (almost) as it was — a little time capsule.
I'm Dan Sugralinov, AMA!
Hey! I am the author of the following LitRPG series: Level Up, World 99, Disgardium. Since I write in Russian, my books are published in English and German by my publisher, Magic Dome Books.
Some screenwriter guru once said that an author has to be able to describe his book in one sentence. That's what I'm going to try here for those who are not familiar with my work. Though I can hardly put it in one sentence.
The Level Up trilogy is about a jobless bloke who spent most of his adult life playing WoW, lost his wife because of it, and suddenly acquired a neuro-interface that very same day. Now he can check his characteristics just like in an RPG, see what other people think of him, and even gather experience points. There's no apocalypse or anything: just an ordinary guy living his ordinary life (okay, maybe it's not that ordinary, considering he's living in Russia).
World 99 is about Earth in a parallel world, where one poor disabled kid suddenly acquires the skill of metamorphosis.
The Disgardium series is about a teenager who was named the highest-level threat by the game's AI, because that kid suddenly became OP. In-game balance can be regulated only with in-game methods — and that's why the whole world is after the kid.
I told you about my books; now a little bit about myself.
Actually, my name is Daniyar, but since I was a kid everybody has called me Dan. I'm so used to it that when my wife calls me by my full name, I know — it's bad. But this happens rarely; my wife actually likes what I do. :-)
I started writing only three years before that AMA. Before that, I worked in web development for almost my entire life.
When I was 12, I talked my parents into buying me my first computer. It was a ZX Spectrum without even a floppy disc drive — there had to be a tape cassette player to run games on it, and an old Soviet TV was my monitor. Ever since that time I have loved two things: games and programming. Nether Earth and Elite were my favorites, and programming — and a little later, web development — became the thing I did for a living. For the next 20 years I ran a business, and my company became the best in Kazakhstan — my homeland — for three years in a row.
I still can't picture my life without video games. There were no tabletop RPGs back in the USSR, which is why I got acquainted with the genre only through video games. I've been playing WoW since Vanilla came out and spent 12 years of my life on it. Also Morrowind, Skyrim and all the Fallout games (New Vegas forever!).
My interests are quite common. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved chess and soccer (I played on the college team). I fell in love with the weight routine and managed to build some muscle. I am an avid reader — and not only of LitRPG; I read about 5 books a week — and an avid watcher of TV series.
What else? It's not a resume, but perhaps someone would be interested to know I have two degrees, an MBA, three kids, and I'm married for the second time (it just happened). At the time of the AMA I lived and studied in Florida, which helped me learn some English.
I guess that's enough about me. The questions and answers live on Reddit — but if you're new here, the best place to start is Books in Order.
→ New to my worlds? Start here: Books in Order.
