A New Hope Arises
The best book news, behind-the-scenes news about Melinda's job situation, and a decision I might regret. It's all inside this week's newsletter! Go read it.
Hi! It’s that time again, so I’m back in your inbox and I have lots of news about books and also some behind-the-scenes news to talk about.
(I’m Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series. I’m his sidekick-in-training. Although, I’m not sure he realizes that. But that’s okay. I’ve got time to become the hero and make him my sidekick. I think he’d be happier in that role.
You get a fun preview of what that might look like in Rogue Characters book 3 of the Curse Breaker in NY series. We hope to get all 3 books into your hands by the end of the year.
How is that possible?
I’ll let you discover that when you read the book. But Papa is definitely my sidekick in that book and of course, so is my uncle. So I have two sidekicks! I also use magic in the story, lots of magic! Papa isn’t thrilled about that, but he can’t really stop me. Okay, enough with the spoilers. Onto the news!)
Book News!
Last week, I shared that Rogue Characters is fully written. Don’t worry! It still is. The story ended in such a way that we can’t add more to it, and that was definitely by design. Melinda wanted that from the start so it would be satisfying, and she did that.
So this week, I stress tested that—I mean I helped to edit it. I had to test that the ending really was solid.
How did I test it?
I mean edit it. I absolutely did not put the book on a rock and throw magic at it.
Okay, maybe I did do that, but it was just a little magic. I swear!
The book survived everything that I threw at it and the ending stayed put. I couldn’t find any space to squeeze another side quest into, and I tried hard to get another one in there. But the story repelled all my attempts, so I gave up and set my sights on the book Melinda is currently writing.
We’ll send out the final edited ebook which includes several endnotes sometime this week to everyone who has been a paid subscriber for at least 1 month. So look out for that!
I say sometime this week because I might need to throw some more magic at it. I mean make some more edits. Those typos are tough critters.
What is Melinda writing now?
Her current work-in-progress is the long-awaited sequel to Rogue Spells. If you missed the announcement last week, Melinda is writing Storm Spells!
Storm Spells is book 3 of the Curse Breaker’s Companion series and it has a big job to do since it needs to tie up all the loose story threads from all 3 brand new books in the Tales of A Curse Breaker in NY series, (which includes Catch the Scribe, Book Battles, and Rogue Characters), and both books in the Curse Breaker’s Companion series, (which includes Dragon Spells and Rogue Spells).
That’s a big job. But don’t worry. I’m up for the challenge. I am bursting with main character energy! And I have help since I never travel alone.
You can read the first chapters of Storm Spells this week! We’re publishing chapters from Wed to Sunday this week instead of our usual Thursday to Sunday schedule because I am so excited about it.
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Paid subscribers get:
4 chapters per week of Melinda’s current WIP (Rogue Characters, book #3 of the Tales of the Curse Breaker in NY series)
New ebooks months before the public release
Behind-the-scenes updates just like this
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Kickstarter News
We heard from the printer. They confirmed that books are exempt from the new tariffs. There will be no tariffs charged on the fancy books we get printed in the UK.
So that’s a relief. We can still do the fancy editions with the gold foil and no one will get stuck with a bill for the tariff.
Originally, we thought about using a holographic foil. Since we couldn’t figure out how to mock that up, we mocked up the books with gold foil since we know how to do that. We also didn’t know how the holographic foil would look, and the proof copies are kind of expensive.
So we decided to stay with the gold foil we have been using. We know how that looks and all the images we used to promote the kickstarter used the gold foil mockup.
Many have asked about the tiers. We’re still working out how to structure them so there’s an option for everyone. In the coming weeks, we’ll publish them in here so you can take a look and let us know if we’re missing something you wanted.
Several authors suggested we create a ‘Choose Your Own Book’ tier where you can just select what you want from the addons to get what you want.
We didn’t know that was something we can do, so we’re looking into how to set that up.
Behind-the-Scene News
Last year, the company our scribe works for was bought out. In April, Melinda found out she would be let go later this year. Cue a lot of stress and worry about what will happen next.
Melinda worked for this company since 2009, so she was apprehensive about searching for a job and how that might affect us, her characters! We need lots of page time every week to survive, regular book releases, and one newsletter every week.
Okay, we might be a demanding bunch, but we’re a lot of fun. And we have magic and dragons!
But we don’t support our author monetarily. I tried to pay her bills with lumir crystals. If you’re a long-time subscriber to our newsletter, then you remember that adventure and how that mission ended in failure.
I still don’t understand why the bank wouldn’t accept lumir crystals. They have such a pretty glow. They should be this thing called ‘legal tender.’ At least lumir crystals are real unlike cryptocurrency. Oh well. It’s their loss. But I digressed.
That left our scribe with a problem. No job = no paycheck = no way to pay bills.
If our books don’t earn enough to buy groceries or pay for utilities or her mortgage on her tiny apartment, then how could she afford all that without a job?
Cue more panic. (We really did panic.)
But then something happened. Okay, it was more like 2 things.
We might have gone on a small buying spree and stocked up on rice and non-perishable things so our scribe could still eat.
What was the second thing that happened?
Melinda got an email from the company that bought the one she works for. And guess what? They offered her a full-time position. She met with HR this past week to go over the offer, and that’s why we waited to mention it.
We wanted to make sure it was a good offer, and that it really existed since Melinda discovered the offer when HR sent her a meeting invite. The invite didn’t say what the position would be, just that they were extending an offer to her.
There are still a lot of details to iron out, so we won’t know how many days Melinda will need to commute to the office or how that will affect her writing schedule a while yet. But this is still good news!
And now I have to figure out what do with all this rice… Maybe I should have waited before buying so much, but I wanted my scribe to have food to eat because adventuring is hungry business!
That’s it for this week. Have a great week and read some fun books.
—Ran, son of Sarn, writing behalf of my scribe, Melinda Kucsera
Other Bookish Things
Snow White & the Seven Dragons Deluxe HC Fairytale Retelling
A drunk fairy godmother, book dragons, a dim-witted princess, and an evil stepmother trying to help her to the Happy Ever After. Follow the campaign now:
Don’t forget to follow our campaign so you get notified when it launches. That’ll probably be in November since Melinda is writing the last book now.
