J.J. Kochmanski’s new novel, The Side Questers, contains plotlines both inside and outside of a video game. Inside the game Eternity: The Endless Realm, a nonplayer character (NPC) seizes a chance for an adventure. Outside Eternity, Dr. Walter Grant and his Ph.D. student Mercedes “Mercy” Gomez pull the strings on what happens in the game as they conduct research via the characters.

Kochmanski’s debut novel, a literary role-playing game (LitRPG), brings constant plot twists, but the characters become more than their journeys as they grow as individuals.

Kochmanski lives in Ann Arbor, works as a data scientist, and has an academic background. He will read and sign his book at the Traverwood branch of the Ann Arbor District Library on Saturday, September 5, at 4 pm.

Within Eternity, Anya Dazel has longed for a life outside the Frothy Flagon, a bar she tends as an NPC who possesses a role in a side quest in her tavern. In contrast to other NPCs in Eternity, Anya has the ability to remember, among other skills:

She knew her programming was unusual. Unique. Unlike the other nonplayer characters seated around the bar, she could generate novel dialogue and recall every conversation she’d had since waking in the tavern. Yes, she was still chained to the pub’s scripted series of events, but for Anya, each reset brought a chance to grow. To learn. She only had theories as to why—the prevailing being that it was a special ability granted to the barkeeps of the world—but one day she would discover the truth. The meaning behind her distinction.

Anya’s aspirations may be lofty, but they motivate her to persist through danger and conflict.

When Cyrus Blackwood and his pursuit of “The Wanderer” enter the scene, Anya gains the chance to see the larger world of Glotis and potentially learn more about herself. What neither of them realizes at first is that there are much larger forces afoot.

Beyond the game in the human world, Walter sees his funding waning and feels significant pressure on the outcome of their research from his lab’s partnership with Variant, the company that develops Eternity. Walter’s affection for Anya and his desire to keep his lab funded, especially for the sake of Mercy’s Ph.D., weigh on him. Through chapters called “Interlude,” the reader glimpses the lives and work of Walter and Mercy—and how these external factors influence what occurs in the game.

As Anya and Cyrus level up, battle monsters, navigate puzzles, and get to know each other in the game, they contend with Walter’s issues in actual life, which start to encroach on their experiences. Central questions loom large: Is Anya too curious for her narrowly programmed class of tavern keeper? Is Walter too attached to his character Anya?  

Kochmanski and I caught up for an interview about The Side Questers before his event at AADL.

Q: What drew you to writing a novel?
A: I don’t have any formal creative writing training, but the idea of writing a novel has always been in the back of my mind, perhaps because a solid chunk of my youth was spent reading fiction. For me, there’s a very satisfying sense of putting a puzzle together with constructing a novel, and the writing process tickles my brain in a way that few other things do.

In terms of my writing history, my first attempt at a novel came during my undergraduate years. This first manuscript was a largely incoherent mess, so I did what anyone would do and immediately wrote an ill-advised sequel. In many ways, these two books were my proving ground—demonstrating to myself that I could not only complete a single work but also build on it with a second. Thus, a new life goal was born: getting a novel published. It took four more shelved projects, many rejections and revisions, and over a decade, but I finally succeeded.

Q: That sounds like a long journey but one with a great outcome. How did you become interested specifically in the genre of literary role-playing game or LitRPG?
A: Honestly, I wrote The Side Questers with only a passing knowledge of LitRPG, not realizing it was its own sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy (SFF) until my book was sold to a publisher. I wrote The Side Questers thinking I was breaking new ground by blending classic fantasy storytelling with a video game world, but then realized as I got a book deal that hundreds and hundreds of authors were doing—or had already done—the same. So it’s been a ton of fun to discover all the other books that are similar to my own, and I do feel like I’ve found my people in the genre and its fans.

Q: I am newer to the genre myself but learned that LitRPG has a number of variations. In The Side Questers, the game Eternity: The Endless Realm is a portal of sorts for Walter. The character Anya has her own unique origins. How would you describe The Side Questers in the sphere of LitRPG?
A: Because I didn’t set out to fit the norms or trends of the LitRPG genre for the rather embarrassing reason that I was unaware they existed, my story and its virtual reality world are a bit of an unintended throwback. Nowadays, many LitRPG stories utilize apocalyptic or “isekai”—character-thrown-into-a-different-world—setups to establish clear stakes for their protagonists, whereas many LitRPG tales about virtual reality were written quite a while ago.

Still, my story is a bit different from the older [virtual-reality]-focused titles because instead of focusing on a player with the ability to log off—thereby making stakes and conflict harder to define—the story is grounded in a digital “native”—a nonplayer character, or NPC. This provides a unique perspective by which to explore a digital world, and as a result, I hope that The Side Questers can side-step some of the complaints about other VR-focused LitRPG stories and find its place in the genre.

Q: As a character, Anya possesses numerous layers. We learn early on that her intelligence is based on a real human. How did Anya’s crossover between being a nonplayer character, the neural network of a person, and a character who breaks out of her NPC status change how you thought about her?
A: Great question! Anya’s origins changed quite a bit over time. In the earliest draft of The Side Questers from late 2022, Anya was a real-life coma patient plugged into the game by a researcher to help heal her injured mind. While I enjoyed writing this, I found early readers struggled to suspend their disbelief on Anya’s origins, and it made it harder for her to carve out her own identity. So I ended up making her a purely digital combination of a real person’s data and an algorithm, giving her not only a unique perspective but also the chance to develop her own personality.

Q: Anya demonstrates her own thoughts and feelings. As she learns how to mount a horse for the first time by watching Cyrus do so, “A half smile tugged on his lips, and her core buzzed, sending contentment scripts coursing throughout her body. It felt good to know she could elicit such a response. To make this normally brooding man set aside his quest and enjoy this moment with her.” As Anya continues playing, she faces dilemmas while encountering new situations. In what ways do you see Anya evolving as the book progresses?  
A: I wanted Anya to feel like a person, but one who grew up extremely overprotected. Trapped in the safety of a one-room home for her entire “adolescence” and then dumped out into a wider world with minimal context. Such a setup provided plenty of opportunity for comedy as well as character growth, and I think many can relate to a “fish out of water” storyline, as everyone has moments in life where they feel out of place.

Q: Cyrus learns as he goes, too. His “stubborn refusal to accept reality” affects his ability to play the game. He is single-mindedly intent on his quest, and Anya attempts to explain that it is only a game. How does this contrast between Anya’s awareness and Cyrus’ focus affect their relationship?
A: I wanted Cyrus and Anya to represent two sides of a coin—one representing the curiosity-focused video game player, the other representing the achievement-focused gamer. And as they are forced to work together on their quest, each grows in different ways. Cyrus pushes Anya out of her comfort zone and forces her to confront her purpose, whereas Anya forces Cyrus to reevaluate his single-minded focus, showing him there can be more to life than revenge.

Q: Let’s also discuss the characters outside of the game. Walter and Mercy likewise have a complicated relationship. Walter needs to maintain his lab to continue his work, and Mercy relies on the lab for her Ph.D. research. Do you think their goals blind their decision-making abilities? Why or why not?
A: Yes, Mercy and Walter’s goals do blind their decision-making. This was intended to reflect two major pitfalls I’ve witnessed in academia—the need for validation and the need for funding. One is internal, whereas the other is external, but both can impair an individual’s ability to maintain objectivity about their goals. Even those who enter the research world with good intentions can end up making poor decisions when the forces of funding and validation blind them.

Q: Back to LitRPG, plot points coincide with quests that advance the game or are completed, players leveling up, and new challenges. How did these gaming features help or complicate your writing?
A: For me, the RPG mechanics were only a help in writing. I’ve been playing video games for over 30 years, so I understand not only the modern mechanics but how they’ve changed and evolved over time, and it was a tone of fun tilting gaming tropes sideways for comedic effect—e.g., leaping ahead hundreds of resets to skip a long grind in the middle of a game, the inability to control oneself in a cutscene, the frustration of repetitive puzzles. None of these were hard to write, and there was no research required apart from the thousands of hours I’d already devoted to virtual worlds over the years.

Q: Firsthand experience can create an excellent knowledge base. Relatedly, what does your writing practice look like? Are there any connections between your roles as a writer and data scientist?

A: Working a full-time job and chasing a toddler around the house means the vast majority of my writing time occurs during lunch breaks and evenings after bedtime. This means my chapters often spill out in a frenzied nighttime rush, and I don't have time to edit in the moment. This helps me avoid getting too caught up in the weeds but does mean a typical first draft is quite rough, sometimes with placeholder language or missing blocks that need to be added later. 

To your second question, I first started writing as a freeform creative outlet to cope with working in a field dominated by precision and flat, repetitive language, but rather ironically, all the novels I've completed have incorporated pieces of my background in computational and biological sciences. So I'd say my career has undeniably influenced my writing even if my initial goal was to escape that world through the written word.

Q: Now for the last two questions with which I like to wrap up, what are you reading and recommending?
A: I largely read fantasy in my free time, and I’ve been recommending the Ana and Din Mysteries by Robert Jackson Bennett to people. Very excited for the third book to come out! I also recently enjoyed Katabasis by R.F. Kuang as it touched on the difficulties of academia in a way that I found quite relatable.

Q: After having your first novel published, are you considering writing another? What is next for you?
A: Yes, I’ve completed two other science-fiction/fantasy books since I finished The Side Questers in 2025, and I hope to have news about those projects soon. In the meantime, I’ve also recently started a new standalone [work-in-progress], though it’s in the very early phases. All of my writing is in the SFF space, at least for now.

J.J. Kochmanski will read and sign "The Side Questers" at the Ann Arbor District Library's Traverwood branch, 3333 Traverwood Drive, on Saturday, September 5, at 4 pm. Kochmanski will also table at the Ann Arbor Book Fest at AADL's Downtown branch on November 15, 10:00 am-4:00 pm. You can read a five-page excerpt from "The Side Questers" here.