Double Exposure! The Life is Strange Authors Interview Each Other
- Uncategorized
- September 29, 2026
It has been a good year for Life is Strange fans. As well as the release of Life is Strange: Reunion, the game that finally reunited Chloe and Max in a time twisting, fiery mystery, and filming beginning on the Prime TV series, this year also saw the release of Out of Focus, the novel that followed Chloe Price’s adventures as the band manager of Drugstore Makeup, by Rosiee Thor, who previously ventured into the Life is Strange universe with their novel, Steph’s Story.
And it also saw the release of Caledon University’s (heavily annotated/defaced) university prospectus, Welcome to Caledon University, by, umm, me.
Having worked on these projects in parallel for so long, and finally had a chance to read each other’s books, it’s understandable that we both had questions for each other.
So we asked them, and you can read how we answered right here!
Chris: To get us started – What did Life is Strange mean to you before you were commissioned to write in that world? Were you already a fan?
Rosiee: I’ve always been a big gamer, but I’ll be honest that the Life is Strange games weren’t on my radar when they first came out. I did eventually encounter them in the wild, but I didn’t originally think I’d be into them–the gameplay style wasn’t something I thought I’d like. My taste tended to skew toward RPGs back then. I’ve since broadened my horizons and discovered so many new favorite types of games (roguelites, deckbuilders, and puzzle games being huge hits for me lately). When I did finally play Life is Strange, I was blown away by the storytelling and character work. And, of course, seeing queer characters centered in a way that felt raw and real was huge. When I was offered the chance to write novels set in the same world, it was an obvious yes from me!
Rosiee: What about you? When did you find out you’d be writing for the series? What did you do to prepare for it?
Chris: I’d recently done the Star Trek Lower Decks handbook, which uses a similar “in universe publication that’s been vandalised” framework, which is probably why Titan hired me to do the follow up to Welcome to Blackwell.
While Life is Strange hadn’t been one of my fandoms, I’ve got plenty of other fandoms of my own and know how i’d want them treated. So I immersed myself as much as I could in the lore and world of the games. The first thing I did was just binge my way through Life is Strange and Double Exposure in the space of a week, and like you say, I loved the characters, and the centering of queerness and the way the supernatural elements were used to emphasise a character-driven story. I also did plenty of trawling through the fan wikis and Let’s Play videos to help fill in the wider background.
But Life is Strange is really all about the characters, and Caledon has a really strong cast of them, so the main thing was just getting a handle on their voices.
Rosiee: I completely agree about approaching these projects with a real respect for fandom in mind. I cut my teeth on fandom in the early 2000s and I’ve seen how tie-ins can be hit or miss within fandom culture. I wanted to set out to write something that the fans would know was made with love for them in mind, and research was a huge part of that for me as well. I replayed the games, watched streamers play on youtube, and scoured the fandom wiki. There’s some incredibly brilliant soul out there who made a full timeline google doc with all the different timelines color coded that was immensely helpful (whoever you are, I owe you my life). I just wanted to immerse myself in all things Life is Strange to ensure I was in the right headspace to deliver something that was both fun for new readers and meaningful for the OGs.
Chris: So that the fans can appropriately judge us: Quickfire round. Answer honestly – What choices did you make on your first playthrough?
Bay or Bae?
Rosiee: Bae–BUT as much as I love Chloe, and knowing the full scope of the games up through Reunion now, I might go Bay on a replay.
Chris: I didn’t even admit this to Deck Nine until we were well into the editing process, but… I went Bay. There were kids in that town!
Did you romance Vinh, Amanda, both or neither?
Rosiee: Amanda
Chris: 100%. Amanda FTW.
How many people died in the fire of Caledon on your first try?
Rosiee: Two
Chris: Three fatalities, then in true Max Caulfield fashion I went back and saved them and got another character killed instead.
Rosiee: Classic Caulfield!
Chris: How many times did you rewind to make absolutely sure that they weren’t going to let Max and Chloe kiss on the boat?
Rosiee: Just once–I was in a hurry, okay? I had to finish the game in one shot because I had a meeting with the team to discuss book stuff, but in my heart I tried a thousand times.
Chris: I gave it four or five goes, just to be sure.
Rosiee: We both wrote books that tie into the series, though very different types. Welcome to Caledon University isn’t just an in-world guidebook to the setting; it’s also got some incredible character work in the marginalia you wrote. I loved getting to see glimpses of the cast through their notes on every page. What was your approach? Did you start with the reference book stuff and then layer on top with the comments? Or was it more simultaneous?
Chris: It was tricky with Welcome to Caledon and the Lower Decks book because in real life nobody is ever really going to be gripped by a university prospectus or employee handbook, but you wanted those sections of the book to be engaging in themselves, not just be a foil for the annotations.
Ultimately the way I did it was to try and make each section of the book a showcase for a character, in particular, how that character wants to present themselves, with the annotations interacting with (and sometimes) undercutting that presentation. So the marginalia and the main copy were pretty much written simultaneously, almost like a conversation.
That said, there were a lot of discussions between myself, my editor at Titan and our contact at Deck Nine about the chronology of the book, how it was initially put together by Yasmin before Double Exposure, then redone by Owen between Double Exposure and Reunion, and finally when Max would steal the printed draft (for evidence!) and various people would scribble on it as it was lying around her house. It was all very carefully accounted for!
Chris: How much room were you given to create the story for Out of Focus? Were you simply told “Chloe’s managing a band. What was she up to before Reunion?” or was there more of a shopping list for you to include? And how did you flesh that out into a full story?
Rosiee: One of the things I’ve loved most about writing for the Life is Strange world is how much freedom I’ve been given to chart my own course. Both with Out of Focus and Steph’s Story, I had an initial call with my editor at Titan and our contact at the game studio to hammer out the scope of the novel, and then I go off on my own to write up a synopsis that covers the plot and character arcs before sharing with the team for feedback. Sometimes they’d point out issues with continuity or give suggestions for cameos that might be fun to include. Certainly on a few occasions I was told no about something I wanted to do (and in retrospect, they were totally right), but it all felt so collaborative and respectful. They really treated me like a creative partner and respected the directions I wanted to go.
The process for this one was a bit trickier than Steph’s Story due to the fact that the new game wasn’t yet released. I knew from jump that I was bridging the gap between Double Exposure and Reunion with Chloe’s tale, but I didn’t know exactly how Reunion was going to unfold. It was tough to get into her headspace and really understand where she needed to be by the end of the book without that information, so the team was generous enough to send me early scripts from the game to work off of. I also got early (albeit by about three days) access to the game, although that was after the book was completed and sent to the printer, so that was less for Out of Focus than it was for my own grabby fannish hands.
Without spoiling anything, I will say there’s something that happens in Out of Focus that wasn’t in the original synopsis and didn’t get approved by the team before I wrote it, which was quite bold of me. It was something that had the potential to be a bit controversial (though, I will argue, within canon-typical limits). It was also absolutely integral to the plot. When I reached that point in the drafting process, I realized that the story I’d planned was missing a solid chunk of the second act. I’d woven this thread through the first half but without any payoff in the second. I took a swing (if you know you know) and luckily it paid off. The team loved it and I didn’t have to rewrite the whole second half of the book, but it was a very real concern at the time!
Rosiee: One of my favorite pages in the book is the one about the Snapping Turtle, solely because of the band names and descriptions you included. I love coming up with band names for the novels, too, and felt a real kinship with you as a writer when I read that page. Do you have a favorite page or spread from Welcome to Caledon University?
Chris: I would have to check all the source material I was sifting through, but I don’t think actually came up with any of the band names – I think that if a band is mentioned in Welcome to Caledon, you can probably find a flyer for them somewhere around Caledon in Double Exposure or Reunion. That said, for most of them all I had was a name, so I got to have fun making up completely fictitious song titles, descriptions and outfits for them all.
One of the things I’ve loved about this project is that Life is Strange is full of little throwaway details like that, so I had lots of fun filling in the blanks with book reviews, tabletop gameplay guides, and of course, the underrated cinematic horror classic that is The Brain Bucket Saga. I think right now though, my favourite bit was filling in the surprisingly dark and tragic backstory of Neb the Bowling Ball.
Chris: As well as Fictional Bands, another thing our books have in common is an obvious love of tabletop gaming. Has tabletop gaming influenced your writing? And why do you think tabletop gaming is such an oddly integral part of Life is Strange?
Rosiee: Oh, absolutely! Tabletop is something very close to my heart–I got really into it at the start of the pandemic, and my love for rolling dice and looting bodies has sustained me ever since. It’s such a fun creative outlet–one that isn’t linked to my paycheck–and I love opening myself up to such an immersive and collaborative storytelling experience.
As for the LIS universe, I think gamers are at heart all storytellers in one way or another. Especially people who enjoy games like Life is Strange where choices matter and nothing is definite. We’re all shaping the story as we play and creating our own version of canon, and I think tabletop is something that enables the same creative impulse.
Chris: I think there’s also a recurring theme of characters that like each other, but don’t particularly like the place that they’re in? In that situation I think you pretty much have to start either a band or a D&D group.
Rosiee: Welcome to Caledon University is such a thorough text. You really cover it all! How much research did you do for this book?
Chris: There were varying levels of research for different parts of the book. For instance, while I’ve got a pretty decent enthusiastic layman’s understanding of physics, I asked Eugene Lim, a Professor of Theoretical Physics at King’s College London, to read through the scientific explanations to make sure I avoided any mistakes that would embarrass Moses.
On the other hand, for Lucas Colmenero’s sections required a bit more research, which I did by completing a degree with a minor in Creative Writing from 2002 to 2005, letting all the petty grudges and irritations from that fester for about 20 years, and then just allowing that to manifest on the page.
Similarly, anyone who has ever seen me die horribly at an open mic night now knows that that was research for Amanda’s comedy guide.
Chris: The Chloe that we meet in Reunion is a different person to the angry teenager we know from Arcadia Bay, and the Chloe of Out of Focus is different from both of them. We see her doing things we’ve never seen Chloe doing before – being responsible for a group of people, even leading them. Trying to keep things calm while others are blowing their lids. We even get access to Chloe’s own awkwardness and insecurities in a way I don’t think we’ve seen anywhere else. How did you write this new interpretation of Chloe while making sure it remained faithful to the versions she has been (and would become)?
Rosiee: This is such a good question! When I sat down to break this story down, I had to wrestle a bit with this exact conundrum. The Chloe we know from the games is a teenager, for the most part. We get glimpses of her from Max in Double Exposure, and of course I knew what I was building toward with the scripts I got to read for Reunion, but it wasn’t the full picture. I knew I was being tasked with filling in those gaps and showing a version of Chloe between her time with Max. I thought a lot about who that Chloe would be–a little harder, a little wiser, and also a little bit lost. I was also working with a Chloe who has a living mother, but feels the acute grief of having lost her all the same. It’s a very strange place for Chloe to inhabit, and I wanted readers to experience that dissonance with her.
One thing that helped immensely with capturing Chloe’s voice as an adult was listening to interviews with Rhianna DeVries, who I was told would be reprising the role. At the risk of sounding a little unhinged, I sought out clips with them talking about Chloe just to get their vocal quality into my brain so I could really hear Chloe when I wrote. I hope it worked!
Chris: When Chloe arrives at Sandy and Mandy’s place, you mention a gay vampire mystery novel. What made you think of such an oddly specific combination of genres?
Rosiee: Wow, I can’t believe you’re calling me out like this! I’ve always had fun adding little easter eggs to these books, especially on the bookshelves. In Steph’s Story, Izzie is a voracious reader and I loved filling her shelves with books about feminist theory and trans poetry. In Out of Focus, Sandy and Mandy are a Halloween-loving couple, so when the chance arose, I thought hey, why not? and put a little cameo of my own vampire murder mystery series into the book. If anyone wants to join the Sandy and Mandy book club, you can pick up a copy of Dead & Breakfast and its sequel Summer Coven!
I love sprinkling little details like this into the books, and there are a few other easter eggs in this one. When the crew visits Portland (my stomping ground), they stop in at some of my favorite places. Bash’s pick for a brunch spot is the delicious (but sadly now closed) Hunnymilk, Marisol’s tea spot is Portal Tea, and Izzie takes them to a little romance bookstore which is modeled after Grand Gesture Books.
Chris: See, I’ve got plausible deniability because the Brandt Foundation and the mysterious “Sam” mentioned on page 43 of Welcome to Caledon were both part of Double Exposure and Reunion’s original design documents. So the fact that the backstory to Fermi’s Progress features a character called Samson searching Earth orbit for a lost Cold War spaceship prototype made by a Professor Brandt might be a wild coincidence.
It might also be a coincidence that Safi and Diamond stop at a bar called The Artichoke in Norwich, Vermont, while I live down the road from an entirely different pub called The Artichoke in Norwich, England.
But I may have personally broken Rule 7 of Staying Safe on Campus.
And Rule 8.
Rosiee: Speaking of other books, what’s up next for you? Can you tease what you have coming out next?
Chris: I have written another defaced in-universe document, this time Split Fiction: The Art and Lore of the Game, which is out next year. This one was just a huge pile of fun to write – Split Fiction gives you fleeting glimpses of so many wildly different worlds, and this was a chance to go back and explore them in a bit more depth. I also got to write some extracts from Mio and Zoe’s draft folders!
That said, if you think playing a videogame to a deadline is hard, you should try playing a co-op videogame to a deadline…
Beyond the tie-in stuff I’ve written, there is also Fermi’s Progress and Fermi’s Wake, which are collections of novellas about a prototype starship whose FTL drive vaporises every star system in its wake. It’s a fun set of old school planet of the week adventures that’s great if you like old Star Trek or Farscape. And in a few weeks I’m releasing A Very Fermi Christmas! Because somebody has to do a sci-fi Christmas special this year.
How about you? Sandy and Mandy’s bookshelves aside, what have you got coming up?
Rosiee: Next up, I’ll be taking a bit of a break. This year has been a lot–I had three books out this summer, two one week apart, and another book due on the same day Out of Focus came out, so I am experiencing levels of creative exhaustion I didn’t know were possible. I do have another book out next year that I can’t talk about yet, but I’d love it if readers would check out my goofy vampire mysteries (Dead & Breakfast and the sequel Summer Coven are out now) and stay tuned for news about my 2027 roster!
If you want to dive into the Life is Strange universe from some new perspectives, Rosiee Thor’s Out of Focus and Steph’s Story are out now, as is Life is Strange: Welcome to Caledon University. There’s probably even some kind of handy “These items brought together” deal going on.
If you want to have a snoop around what Mandy and Sandy have on their bookshelves, you should also check out Rosiee Thor and Kat Hillis’ Dead & Breakfast and Summer Coven for all of your gay vampire mystery solving needs.
And for more Rosiee Thor, you should check out their website and sign up to their newsletter.
And just what was the mysterious “Sam” and the illusive “Brandt Foundation” looking for with Caledon University’s observatory? The answer is almost certainly not in this unrelated series of books about a prototype spaceship built from Cold War leftovers with an FTL drive that obliterates every planet it encounters. But you should read Fermi’s Progress (at Amazon or Scarlet Ferret) and Fermi’s Wake (also at Amazon and Scarlet Ferret) anyway, alongside the upcoming Christmas Special, A Very Fermi Christmas!
