He was polishing his sword
Hey,
Another week flew past. Thankfully, it was relatively quieter. What have your favorite characters been up to this past week? I'm glad you asked!
I’m Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series and Guerren, the morally gray, "I will help you if there's something in it for me," ex-war god has been hanging around this week, polishing his sword.
No, that’s not a euphemism. He’s been polishing a real sword and smiling that “I know something that you don't” smile a lot. But he’s not doing either of those things in a threatening manner. He’s just doing them while standing in a Captain Morgan style pose with one foot resting on a chair for no reason I can see. But I’m just a kid from a fictional story just trying to get some page time.
What does he want? Guerren wants what every character wants for you to read his story. I don’t know what he thinks I can do about that. I can’t make you read his story even though I have a part in it or rather a version of me from the future has a part in it.
Melinda sent all the ebooks yesterday to backers of the Rogue Gods Kickstarter, so he needs to be patient. They might have other books on their TBR ahead of the Rogue Gods Trilogy.
We also ordered the final proofs for the paperback and hardcover versions of the Rogue Gods Trilogy to check that the art and other things added to the three books from unlocked stretch goals looked okay before ordering copies for backers. The proofs should arrive in a month. That's the quickest the printer could do.
We wanted to send the ebooks sooner but all the versions of the Rogue Gods Trilogy include a backer thank you page, even the non illustrated version, and I wanted to give everyone at least a week to fill in their survey so I could include their name on that page if they wanted to be included.
If you missed the Kickstarter, you can late pledge and you'll get all the rewards too.
And now back to the Guerren situation. I finally turned to him and I said, “do you have to do that here? I’m trying to get some page time and you’re unnerving my Scribe.” Here is my Scribe’s apartment in New York. Begging for page time is hard work, and I need total concentration for that.
“Yes, I do because war is coming. I feel it in the air,” Guerren said as he stared off and his eyes misted over like he was thinking of an old friend.
“What war? What are you talking about?” I asked. To my knowledge, there was no war coming toward my home under Mount Eredren. There was just a joust we keep putting off, but I’m not sure why we’re avoiding that. Still, that’s not a war. A joust is like a game I think. We might have to do that story so I can find out if I’m right about that.
“War is coming. Mark my words. It might not affect you or maybe it will. When it happens, we’ll find out.” Guerren shrugged and ran the cloth along the flat of the blade again.
“What war? Who will fight it?” Not Papa. I wouldn’t let him. He was a peaceful man anyway. Was I? I didn’t know since I was still a kid.
“Whoever wants the throne.” Guerren sighed.
“What throne? Where is this throne?” I didn't see one anywhere.
Instead of answering me, Guerren tossed the cloth into the air then vanished.
Well, that was cryptic. I think he's trying to get more page time. I need a plan to stop that because I was here first. So I should get all the page time, right?
Thank to everyone who brought the Rogue Gods Trilogy to life because it is also partly my story. But somehow, that made Guerren’s ego grow so big, I'm not sure how we both fit in my scribe's apartment. I guess that was a risk we didn’t know we were taking when we ran the campaign.
Guerren's not even the only main character in the trilogy. I'm pretty sure Rosalie gets way more page time than him if you add up all her chapters across the trilogy. Maybe Argeaneal too since he's unstoppable when he sets his mind to something. Thankfully, he made up his mind in the right direction.
That's all great but what about new Rogue Gift & Chasing Dragons?
Melinda still plans to finish Rogue Gift first because the Rogue Gods Trilogy interrupted her grand plan to complete the prequel series last year, and I'm still mad about that. But I haven't come up with a plan to change her mind yet, so I'm stuck with it.
My scribe says she's had the end of Rogue Gift sitting in the back of her mind since 2019. Robin is finally in a position to do that story (and she agreed to do it). Melinda says she's not missing her chance to get it out of her head.
That's great for her, but what about me? I want her to finish Chasing Dragons. The Rogue Gods Trilogy interrupted that book too, and that is the only reason she stopped writing it.
But the events in the Rogue Gods Trilogy require her to go back to change some things in Chasing Dragons and rearrange some other scenes so they match what's in Rogue Gods Trilogy. So I guess that explains why she wants to finish Rogue Gift first.
That book wasn't interrupted and doesn't need any changes because Melinda didn't write much of it before she got interrupted. But I still feel like I’m being punished, even though I’m not.
Rogue Gift story feels like it's at or near the halfway point, so I think Rogue Gift is about 50% done.
Chasing Dragons is more 75% done and that's why I want her to finish it. Look, I'll talk to Papa and convince him to do the joust storyline Melinda has wanted to do since she came up with the idea in 2012. Maybe I can bribe her with that?
I don’t know, but I’ll might try that this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Have an awesome week!
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