That book I mentioned

Nov 20, 2023

Hey,

I hope you enjoyed the sale before it ended. And now for the cover reveal I promised you. This will be the cover for the Christmas book I mentioned last week:

Now you know what Papa looks like when he gets silent and intent and stares off into the middle distance. You're welcome.

He drives me crazy when he does that because I can see he’s thinking hard about something, but he's not saying anything about it.

What's Stars & Angels Sing about?

We find out about Christmas, and I dive into that head-first so I can enjoy all the things from trimming trees to eating cookies!

My thoughtful Papa wants to understand the reason behind the season. Since I go where he goes, I join him on that mystery.

But all isn’t glowy lights and sugary cookies because we’re staying with Nolo and his family, and things are still tense there.

Why’s that? Well, Papa is indentured, and so is Uncle Miren. Someone owns their debts, (the Lord of the Mountain). Since he’s often away from Mount Eredren, he left Jerlo, the commander of the Rangers in charge of Papa.

But as you saw in Curse Breaker Darkens, Jerlo didn’t want that job. So he passed it on to Nolo.

So things are a little awkward now that we live with someone who can order Papa to do whatever he wants, and Papa can’t disobey him. His white magic won’t allow it because he promised to obey orders in exchange for Uncle Miren to go to school.

(Nolo found out about me in Curse Breaker Revealed when a little adventure I embarked on went awry.)

And since Papa is indentured, he can’t legally take custody of me. So I am kind of in limbo, but the me in this story doesn’t know that.

(Yes, this is Ran, Sarn’s son. That’s probably obvious but I still like to declare it once in every newsletter just so you’re sure.)

But Papa gets some help figuring out what this Christmas day is from an iceman, some fairies, Santa Clause and a surprise guest that you’ll have to read to find out about.

Stars & Angels Sing was written before any of the Curse Breaker books existed, so it’s a self-contained story about our adventure to find out what Christmas is.

Stars & Angels Sing is written as a series of poems. But it is a full story. I just want to be clear about that so you know what you’re getting.

When can you get it?

Due to circumstances beyond our control, I might not know until Thanksgiving when I return for our annual holiday issue.

They promised an answer for our technical issue tomorrow. So we can only wait and once the issue is resolved, we can finalize things, then wait some more for their review. It’s annoying, but when you’re at the mercy of other companies, you just have to roll with them. Worrying about it won’t help.

We have something special planned for Thursday. But you’ll have to wait until then to find out what it is.

And now for a writing update!

The Rogue Gods trilogy is going well! Melinda hopes to write the final chapters for book2, Summon the Gods, this week!

Assuming the characters cooperate with that plan. They might not choose to do that. But I hope they will because I have a list of stories I want the Scribe to write in 2024.

You can read Rogue Gods book 1, Gateway to Hell, and book 2, Summon the Gods, on Patreon. And if you choose to sign up for that, you’ll get to read the first drafts of all three books and get finished copies of them.

I wanted to tell you we had some new art for the trilogy, but our search for some additional art took a dramatic turn.

After the designer ghosted us for weeks, they slid into our DMs (which I manage for our Scribe) and requested payment. They were putting the finishing touches on the art, and it should be ready in a few hours.

That was good news! So I asked for a screenshot. I wanted to see what the art looks like. We sent a lot of reference images, and we hired them for 4 pieces of art, not just one, so I needed to know which one was ready.

The designer wrote back that we only agreed on one image for X price. The price was not what we agreed on for the 4 images, but it was reasonable for one image.

(Please remember I am a fictional character, and it seemed okay price-wise to me. I didn’t show the price to Melinda because I was now invested in this drama.)

I felt like I was talking to a different person. They had no memory of the original agreement. Since they didn’t send a contact, I had nothing in writing about it except a bunch of DM messages.

But the price was still within our budget, so I could proceed and not bring down the wrath of the Scribe upon myself.

So I asked again for a screenshot so I could see what the image looks like. I said it could be low res. I just wanted to know which of the four images they created. The designer agreed and said they’d send it in a few hours.

Well, that didn’t happen. It’s been more than a week since then. In that time, the designer posted ~30 bunch premade covers in their group, then posted that the art was now on a deeper sale. Then they posted again that they were really sick and in bed.

Papa raised me to be a nice, caring character, so I commented on the post and wished they get well soon. I also asked again very nicely for that screenshot when they get a chance so I can pay the invoice.

The designer replied. They said they were sick in bed and couldn’t send it until they were well. That was the last contact we had with them.

At this point, I think I will we’ll stick with the art we have. I’ve had enough drama for one book, and this didn’t even happen in our book!

So if you’re hiring anyone to do anything, get a contract before any work begins. That’s the lesson I learned from this.

See you Thursday!

If you like rogue gods, morally gray characters, cinnamon rolls looking for redemption and a witch who will either save the world or destroy it in her quest to fix the future then follow the kickstarter to get notified when the trilogy launches so you can get your hands on them.

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