How many stars should we give?
Hi, it’s time to look back at 2024. I know everyone else did that weeks ago, but when have we ever done what everyone else is doing?
Never! This is Ran, Sarn’s chatty son and sidekick from the Curse Breaker series, and it’s time for our annual review of the Scribe! I don’t know if other characters review their scribes and score them from 1-5 stars but we try to review Melinda every year.
Why do we do this?
How will we know what the scribe needs to improve on in the coming year if we don’t review the work she did in the previous year? Am I right?
So let’s dive into the review!
For the most part, 2024 was a good year that ended with a lot of upheaval and sad events.
The GOOD STUFF:
Melinda welcomed a new niece on March 9, 2024 and gained a birthday buddy for life since her birthday is March 10th.
Kickstarter’s publishing arm invited Melinda to her first ever in-person author event and she talked about us because what else would she talk about?
She ran a kickstarter for a brand new trilogy, the Rogue Gods Trilogy to be exact in July, and the response blew us away. We’re so grateful to everyone who backed it.
(Book 3 probably could have been split into two books because the main characters were taking no prisoners in that one. They came to stop the villain and they weren't ending the book or the series until they stopped every damned thing. But we have a habit of not splitting up stories that could be split up. Case in point, Curse Breaker Enchanted could also be split into two books. But I digress as I do in every email.)
Melinda published 6 books in 2024! (How many did you buy?")
Stars & Angels Sing (Curse Breaker series)
Melinda also wrote three other books either wholly or partially in 2024 and they will be released in 2025 when finished:
Chasing Dragons! (Curse Breaker #11 is out already)
Chaos Rises (Riders of the Apocalypse #1)
Catch the Scribe (Tales of the Curse Breaker in NY #1)
How many of the above mentioned books star me?
(This is still Ran talking to you. I mean writing to you. You know what I mean.)
All of them! That’s right. I am in all nine books listed above. In some books, I have a larger role than others, but I still got my smiling face in there, and that’s what counts. I give the scribe 5 stars for that!
Papa is also in all of them and he might have a larger role than me in most of them. Where did you I learned how to break into books and force the plot to include me? For a quiet guy who doesn’t like to talk much, he’s really skilled at sneaking into books and making it impossible to write him out of the plot.
Don’t believe me? Read the Rogue Gods Trilogy.
Melinda tried to write a book that did not include him. The story even followed an alternative timeline where he died when I was small just to keep him out. But he still found a way into all 3 books and he dragged the problems from that trilogy plus some of its characters into our series!
So Melinda has given up trying to keep Papa out, and is embracing the fact that he will find a way into the story somehow. So she bowed to the inevitable and just made our next books a part of the Riders of the Apocalypse series.
That was a smart move since we spent four books setting up things so she would have to include us! What books were those?
The Queen of All Trees/Queen Shayari storyline that runs through the following books:
It’s almost like we planned it. You know what? We probably did. You can confirm that with the two queens. I’m not brave enough to ask them.
+ Melinda produced and released a full-cast recording of the first Rogue Gods book and you can listen to it right now for FREE or buy a copy to listen to later.
+ Our scribe interviewed a lot of other scribes and we obviously took notes. You can listen to all the interviews on YouTube or Spotify, etc.
The BAD STUFF:
Melinda’s father died in early Sept.
Her boss left the company she works for in Oct.
Another company bought the company our scribe works for in December, and so far, she still has a job.
So 20024 ended in uncertainty. But we hope 2025 will bring more good things and obviously more books!
We give Melinda 5 stars for effort and 5 stars for execution since she met the goal to write and published books last year.
You can give us stars too by reviewing our books. Reviews help readers to choose us when they’re looking for fun characters to adventure with. So tell them all about our magical mayhem!
Will Melinda get five stars next year?
2025 PLANS (So far*)
*We characters retain the right to change these plans whenever needed in pursuit of our primary goal: more page time! We want to star in all the stories!
We want Melinda to finish the Riders of the Apocalypse series and launch it into the world, so you can read our latest adventures. Here are the rough covers for all 4 books included in that new series:

Finally run the kickstarter for the special editions of the Robin of Larkspur series Melinda has been been working on for 6 months so she’ll stop obsessing over it and spend more time writing.
→ This is happening! It’s launching it on Feb. 3.
Why that day?
Because last 3 proof copies finally printed last week and they should arrive this week. So and that gives Melinda time to photograph them and check them over. We hope they look as awesome as the first 4 proofs!
Melinda wants to produce the audiobook for books 2 and 3 in the Rogue Gods Trilogy and release them. (This is already in progress. The first parts are already posted.)
We’ll find out next January if Melinda maintains her 5 star-streak or if she loses stars.
Have a great week!
New Podcast Episodes & Videos
Listen to our podcast in your player of choice. Or Watch it on YouTube.
New Releases and Book Sales
Iron & Rock: The second instalment of the Starfire alternate world epic fantasy trilogy, special edition paperback, hardcover, ebook and audio. Get it now!
Does Jerlo catch the dragon he’s chasing? Find out in Chasing Dragons!
Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches on Feb 3!