Love Fiercely. Fight hard, but think harder

Sep 02, 2024

Hey,

It’s Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series, and I’m back with more book news! Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that Rogue Gift is done because it isn’t. The book is almost 100,000 words long and 40 chapters long so far. But it’s ain’t over yet.

I’m not sure anyone other my scribe is surprised by this. She did let the OwlCats into the story, so what was she expecting?

Thing needs space to spread his wings and dig his claws into everyone’s business. Plus, Rogue Gift needs to wrap up all the loose ends to end the prequel story arc and weave in things you saw in flashbacks in other books and give us context for them. Rogue Gift also needs to launch Robin and her friends on their own adventures far away from Mount Eredren so they can do things that don’t affect the Curse Breaker series in the future.

Why did Melinda think Rogue Gift would be shorter? Temporary insanity maybe? That’s all I can think of because the book needs to cover a lot of ground and do it quickly.

100,000 words sounds like a lot but that’s about average for books written by Melinda. She should just assume every book will be at least 40-50 chapters and around 100,000-120,000 words which is about the length of traditionally published novels in our genre.

(Ignore the extremely long outliers like the Game of Thrones books and the Wheel of Time books. They aren’t the norm.)

So that’s where that book is. But it’ll end soon. The story is almost at the big finale. But that finale might be bigger than anyone realized.

In other news, the prelaunch page for the Robin of Larkspur illustrated special editions was approved by kickstarter. So that’s up. Follow the campaign to register your interest.

Love fiercely. Fight hard, but think harder. Defeat your foes and take what’s yours in 5 illustrated special editions or 2 illustrated special edition omnibuses. (All the art on the prelaunch page could change in the final version. They are preliminary designs.)

And now without further ado, I bring you the next part of:

Catch the Scribe

by Melinda Kucsera

Chapter 2: The Shadow Monster

The Shadow Monster

Two Weeks Later

Shadows massed in the corners. They entered through a crack in the wall, which expanded as Ran stared at it. The wall had always been so sturdy. Why was it breaking now? It was too late to seal that crack up even if he had something to stuff into it. It had spread to the ceiling, and cracks were running off in all directions and raining rocks down on him. How rude.

Ran dodged those projectiles as the shadow monster crept closer. It didn't have to dodge anything though because those rocks went right through it, doing no harm to it, which was totally unfair. Ran felt around for Bear as he crabbed backward, but his fuzzy companion wasn’t there. “Bear? Where are you? Please, make the shadows go away.” But Bear didn’t do that.

Oh no, the shadows by the door merged together and swelled up to a man-sized blobby creature. Ran stared at them in open-mouthed shock. The shadow monster grinned at him, betraying a mouthful of jagged black teeth as it flowed toward him on a tide of darkness.

Ran scooted away from it as he scanned the shadowy cave. Where was Papa? Where was Uncle Miren? Why weren’t they here?

They never leave me alone. Someone always watches me, but there was no one here except me and the shadow monsters. Why was that? Ran hit the wall and cowered there. “Papa? Where are you?”

“He’s not here right now.” The shadow advanced slowly, enjoying his fear, and that was so unfair.

“Why isn’t he here? What have you done with him?” Ran raised his little fists. He might be small, but he was a tough tyke. Everyone said so. Although the ‘everyone’ was just two people, but that still counted. Other people would comment on his toughness one day when Papa stopped hiding all the time.

Since Ran was the son of a mage, he had a little extra something that regular folks don’t have. So he reached inside himself and grasped the shining cord connecting me to Papa. Of course he pulled with all my might because that’s what one did with cords even if they were magical. Promises created that cord and wove it out of love. Ran gave those promises a good yank. They’ll bring Papa to me soon.

I just need to be brave and hold on until Papa gets here. I can do that. I just need a shield. Where could he find one? Ran scanned his cave home until his eyes landed on a book covered table. That would do nicely. So Ran rushed behind the table, putting it between him and the shadow monster, but it just laughed.

“You silly boy. I’m incorporeal. I can walk right through that table.” Indeed, the shadow monster phased through the stool as Ran backed away, searching for some other obstacle to put between them.

While he scurried for cover, he gave the bond between him and Papa another tug, but he froze when he didn’t feel Papa at the other end. Did something cut that link?

Ran stared down at his hand even though he couldn’t see the broken chain of promises fluttering in the breeze. But he felt them, and he shivered. Papa never broke a promise. “Where’s Papa?”

Could he be at work? Papa did work nights, but if he was at work then where was Uncle Miren? His uncle always watched him while Papa was at work, but Uncle Miren wasn’t here, and that had never happened before. One of them was always with him.

“They’ve all gone away.” The shadow passed through the table and all the books piled on it, and it left inky stains behind.

***

Next week, we’ll be back with more.

Want to know what happens next? You can read the rest on patreon right now.

Have an awesome week!

New Podcast Episodes & Videos

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No new episode this week. There was too much going on, but Melinda will be back with a new one soon.

New Releases, Sales, & Other Book Stuff

Follow the campaign to register your interest:

Love fiercely. Fight hard, but think harder. Defeat your foes and take what’s yours in 5 illustrated special editions or 2 illustrated special edition omnibuses.

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