Chaos Rises is HERE & Book Battles is almost yours!
Hey, it’s Ran again! You know, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series. What have I been up to? I’ll tell you in a bit. I promise!
What about Melinda. What’s she doing? Well, Melinda has to go to the office on Monday and Tuesday for meetings, so she's a little stressed. But only partly about about her job even though that’s coming to and end.
Since I’m a good character, I’m looking for more adventures to go on so she’ll have plenty of stories to write. Aren’t I nice? After all, we’re halfway into the year and I haven’t rearranged her writing queue yet. I know what you’re thinking. Since she’s prioritizing books that star me, I don’t need to do that. But what happens after she finishes the books that star me?
Melinda still hasn’t decided which book she’ll write after she finishes the books currently in her queue. What books are those?
Rogue Characters, book 3 of the Tales of a Curse Breaker in NY series (and we do actually go to NYC in that book, not just the metro area where Melinda lives and works.)
Storm Spells, book 3 of the Curse Breaker’s Companion series
???? There are multiple books fighting to be next, among them Magical Mayhem Online #1— the gamelit/LitRPG idea Melinda had, the sequel to Relic Hunter, or Chaos Reigns —book 2 of the Riders of the Apocalypse Series. Which book will win?
No one knows, and that’s the problem. I don’t know how much page time I can get in them, so I don’t know which book to tell my scribe to work on after Storm Spells. I’ve got time to decide.
So that’s what I’ll be doing, scheming for more page time. There’s never enough, in my humble opinion. So let’s go to some book news next while I think about this.
Speaking of the LitRPG/gamelit book, the results of last week’s poll are in.
What YOU Want
Thank you to the 24 readers who cast their votes in our recent poll! Your feedback is invaluable, and I think Melinda can move forward when I let her.
A clear majority of you (over 60%!) expressed a preference for subtler game mechanics where stats are mostly implied, and there is a light UI or minimal game UI with just names of skills or spells mentioned. This is great because Melinda was a bit daunted by the idea of creating stats. I volunteered to help her but that didn’t make her feel any better.
So she can relax now and focus on a story-first approach, where game elements provide a light framework, not a heavy rulebook. She can definitely handle that since the focus will be on the epic fantasy part, and she knows how to write that.
So get ready for an adventure where the lines between game and reality blur in unexpected ways!
Book News
First up, I’ve got good news for anyone who missed out on the His Angelic Keeper Series Kickstarter. If you were uncomfortable pledging on Kickstarter, you can now grab a copy of Chaos Rises, the first book in the new Riders of the Apocalypse series, in our shop. The ebook will be delivered by BookFunnel, so you’ll own it forever instead of licensing it from Amazon.
Grabbing your copy from our shop is a great way to support the books you love directly, without all those corporate middle-men taking a cut. Plus, I get to keep a closer eye on things there. Go on and check it out!
In other news, Melinda finished the formatting and design for a special edition for TJ Muir’s book, Winter Mage. And they celebrated by ordering a proof copy as one does. So that’s coming soon too.
Since Melinda worked on the sprayed edges design, she now knows how to do that. So one of her future books could have fancy edges! Maybe our next one will have them.
Can We Chat?
I convinced my scribe, Melinda, to sit down and chat about all the cool things happening this summer. I even recorded it. So you can watch it on YouTube or listen on Spotify. It’s the same chat on both places, so pick whatever's comfy for you and find out what’s on Melinda’s mind.
New Books Coming
Okay, now for the really exciting news for my VIP readers!
Book Battles, book 2 of the Tales of a Curse Breaker in NY series, is in final edits this week!
That means it’s almost ready to send to you. An ebook copy will go to all paid subscribers sometime this week. Melinda probably won’t finalize the edits until the end of the week because she’s doing a lot of commuting Monday and Tuesday. But as soon as she pushes that button, it’s coming your way from BookFunnel!
And guess what? My scribe is writing Rogue Characters, book 3 of the Tales of the Curse Breaker in NY series, right now! VIPs will get an ebook copy hopefully in August but that depends on how many side quests I need to complete the main quest, and I haven’t decided that yet.
If you’re not a VIP, you can get your hands on the whole trilogy sometime in October. The Kickstarter will hopefully run in September, and we hope to fulfill it in Oct, but that’s dependent on me, so I’ll just let you know.
Want More Right NOW?
This week, Melinda will publish Chapters 9-12 of Rogue Characters on both Patreon and Substack! If you want to read those chapters right now before anyone else, you know what to do.
Here’s the deal:
If you sign up as a paid member on either Patreon or Substack and have been subscribed for at least one month, you’ll get an ebook copy of Rogue Characters when it's done!
I hope that will be around the beginning of August, but that is dependent on me not running away with the plot and refusing to end the book. (Sometimes I need more adventure, you know?)
If you use code BCD9D for Patreon, you can get 10% off an annual plan. Or click here to get 10% off an annual plan for Substack because they don’t do codes.
That’s it for this week! So much is going on!
— This is Ran, writing on behalf of my scribe, Melinda, signing off!
Coming Soon
Will you catch the scribe & battle for the fate of your books with some rogue characters?
Get the brand new Tales of the Curse Breaker in NY series which transforms our early newsletter adventures into 3 brand new novels! Follow the campaign for details. (Estimated launch date is early September 2025 but this is dependent on Ran not going off on too many side quests in book 3.)