Interview with a dragon + your host returns!

May 01, 2023

Hey,

Did you miss me?

This is Ran, the sidekick in the Curse Breaker series, and I'm back to reclaim my newsletter. I mean my Scribe's newsletter because this is actually her newsletter, not mine, but she lets me run it because she's nice.

(Melinda is not a fictional character although she has a few fictional doppelgangers, including one evil queen, but that's a different series.)

If you don't know who I am, I'm the son in the Curse Breaker series, and I missed you all a lot.

Let's not do another takeover for a long while, okay?

Now that I'm back, I have so much to tell you. But first I need to be nice and thank Robin for managing the newsletter for the last bunch of weeks. I hope you enjoyed her takeover but not too much because I'm your official host, not her.

And now onto the news. Book 10 of the Curse Breaker series, Shards For His Gift, is getting close to the last chapter, at least that's what our Scribe thinks. But I'm not sure 55 chapters are enough to contain the chaos.

We might need another 10 chapters to adequately cover it. Let's go live now to the scene in progress and ask the characters what they think.

Can you read this? I'm dictating this live from deep under Mount Eredren, in that maze of tunnels we affectionately call the Lower Quarters for no reason anyone has ever told me. That's just it's name, but I digress as usual, and you forgive me for it.

"Excuse me, big angry dragon. Yes, you in the gold scales. You're looking mighty fierce in this scene. Can you spare a minute and not spit fireballs so you can answer a question?"

"Yes, what's your question?" asked the dragon looming over me. She really was magnificent with her gold scales reflecting the light of the Andurai in the underground river burbling past.

"Do you think you can wrap this up in one chapter?" I waved to the cavern and other spoilery things like characters that I can't tell you about because it would spoil an important subplot that heavily features Jerlo. But I didn't tell you that. You didn't hear that from me!

"No. I need to stomp around and look impressive while people who play with dangerous items run from me." The big gold dragon turned to do just that, and I needed to find someone else to interview since I can't tell you about the dangerous item or who used it against my Papa.

Oh the shock and outrage! I feel it too, right here. I'm patting my chest, but you'll have to picture that since this is a text-based newsletter. I won't spoil it for you, but if you've read the other books in the Curse Breaker series, then you know a certain commander has an object that might interfere with a certain mage's powers.

I forget which book that's mentioned in. But telling you that is not a spoiler because Jerlo thought about that object in previously published book. He might even have mentioned it to Nolo, but don't you mention it to him. Right now, Nolo's upset about the object and the trouble it caused. So that's why I'm not asking his opinion on the book's length.

I'm not sure he knows we live inside a book series, and I'm not brave enough to tell him. Besides, if did get up the courage to tell him, then he might tell Papa, and I'd be grounded for life. We don't want that, so I'll just use the power of my job as newsletter host to whisk myself off to another scene toward the end of the book for more opinions.

Now I'm in my new home, and it's way more comfy than anywhere I ever lived before with my little family. It even has thick carpets and puffy pillows. I sit on the cushy couch and glance around. Uncle Miren and Nerule are eating the cookies I helped to make, but there's no sign of Papa still because a spoilery thing happened to him that I can't talk about because it would spoil the ending.

I don't want to ask my uncle's opinion, not while I smell like smoke from my interview with the dragon, so I guess that leaves myself. "Self, do you want the book to wrap up soon?"

I shake my head. "I want a few more scenes for my readers to enjoy. I'm always thinking of them, and they need as much time with my family and me as they can get."

And there you have it. 1/1 Rans and 3/3 dragons agree the book should not end just yet. Who are the other three dragons?

Well, there's my best friend Saveen, and he's a kid dragon. There's also the baby dragon we found at the end of Curse Breaker Hidden. That's not a spoiler since the book published in 2021.

I hope you enjoyed my interview with the dragon.

And Scribe, if you're reading this, you should give me more page time, especially after that twist in the last act with that character everyone's been wondering about since Curse Breaker Enchanted when she disappeared.

Yes, that character. She's back with a cameo and everything!

I'm just saying. Why can't this book have 4 acts? Or 5? Where does it say a book can only have 3 acts?

Oh and before you run out to start the Curse Breaker series or catch up on it before Shards For His Gift comes out because it will. Melinda will end it soon whether I like it or not.

I just want to say, in case you were wondering, that I don't take orders from AIs or LLMs or whatever these text generator things are. My track record of not listening to my Scribe, Melinda, or following her outlines should be proof enough that I do what I want, and Melinda writes it, not an AI.

She might use an AI to brainstorm ideas when I get into deep trouble after doing things that weren't on the outline, but that's a good thing. I don't want her to take a year to save me like she did when writing Curse Breaker Hidden. Yup, that really happened.

And I'll go one step further and let you in on a little secret. Come closer to the screen so Melinda doesn't overhear this.

Okay, here's the secret. If Melinda writes other books instead of Curse Breaker books it's because we did something wrong, and she doesn't know how to save us. So I'm all for anything that will help her solve the plot problem we, characters, caused quickly. But I draw the line at doing anything the AI says even if that creates a new plot problem.

So you have nothing to fear. A human writes our books, but that human is also a fictional character sometimes.

Oh no! Did we create a paradox?

I'll get back you next week about that. In the meantime, you can read all the spoilery things on our Patreon right now and leave comments asking for more page time for your favorite character. (That’s me, right?)

Have a good day!

Melinda’s Substack

Discussion about this post

Melinda’s Substack

Interview with a dragon + your host returns!

Deals, Giveaways & Other Cool Stuff

In Case You Missed It

Discussion about this post