Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy and sci-fi author and one of the original founding fathers of the new genre of LitRPG-the MMO-based fantasy and sci-fi. His debut novel series, The Way of the Shaman, took literature by storm in 2012. Vasily dipped into his college days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines, and even a budget.