Rough days and Write Nights
Hi and welcome back!
It feels like a long time since we talked since we sent last week’s newsletter on Sunday instead of Monday. Occasionally, we have to do that when we participate in big things. But we’re back to our regular schedule now, and new podcast episodes start on Oct 5. So that’s exciting.
(As always, this is Ran, the son of the Curse Breaker, and probably his biggest fan since he is my father. And now back to my update!)
There was some upheaval at Melinda’s (my scribe’s) day job unrelated to my father's death that led to an increased workload, leaving her so exhausted by day's end that she didn’t write as much as I’d like her to. I’m not a harsh taskmaster, but I do expect her to get some words down, preferably about me.
And some words written this week were about me! So I at least got my wish granted. (If you read the Rogue Gods Trilogy, you know all about me and wishes. if you don’t know and you want to know about my special relationship with wishes, then rush over to Amazon and get your copy of the Rogue Gods Trilogy now. I’ll wait.)
On a sad note, this is the third week since Melinda’s father died, and she misses him a lot. He used to bug her to write a book about his roulette theories, but she always told him no because she like to write epic fantasy adventures obviously.
I don’t know why he thought she should write a book on gambling. What would I do in a book on roulette?
Can you see me in a casino? That would be a disaster!
But her father was undeterred. He would ask Melinda every time she saw him to write a book about roulette. He even said he would help her. She didn't need to know anything about the subject. So Melinda told him to write that book. She would edit it of course and help him publish it.
Do you know what he said?
"No way! You're the writer in the family. You write it!" — Direct quote from Melinda’s father.
To which Melinda said, “no, I don't want to write a book on gambling.” And round and round they’d go!
My scribe misses those conversations even though they always ended the same way. But now I digress again. Melinda was talking about this, and it seemed like a nice story to tell you.
Admit it. Now you’re wondering what I’d do in a casino if I somehow ended up there. Oh the chaos I could cause!
The great thing about writing is that words add up, and if you add some every day, which my scribe does because I don’t let her not write, then you end up with a book eventually. And that's what happened.
Melinda finally finished Rogue Gift, book 5 of the Robin of Larkspur series. Yes, you read that right.
She actually just finished writing it on Saturday. Rogue Gift clocks in at 59 chapters totalling 124700 words, not counting front or back matter since the file doesn't include that yet, making this the largest story starring Robin. So that should tell you how much trouble she got it--way more than anyone expected.
And she’s not the only one who got into trouble! She dragged 9 other people into trouble with her. Who were the lucky 9?
Not me unfortunately because I’m a baby in the book, but I get a scene at least.
Rogue Gift doesn't end on a cliffhanger at least Melinda doesn't think it does. We'll see what her editor says. It has a proper epilogue, but it does leave one question unanswered because there was no way to answer it in this book. You can thank the Rogue Gods Trilogy for that. If you've read the third book, Storm the Gates, then you know what I'm talking about.
(If you didn't get the trilogy, you can get the Rogue Gods trilogy on Amazon now.)
So we'll see Robin again. I just don't know when since Melinda will edit Rogue Gift this week and send it off to be edited by someone else. Then she’ll go back to finish Chasing Dragons, which stars me! And Papa and Uncle Miren are in it too as you’d expect since it’s a Curse Breaker book.
But some characters do chase dragons, and that causes a lot of mayhem as you’d expect. One can’t go around chasing dragons and expect peace and sunshine to result. Life just doesn’t work that way, sorry to say.
In other book news, I have some covers to show off for the Robin of Larkspur series Kickstarter, which is not happening until for a while yet. Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches. The preview page has the latest cover mockups and previews of the illustrated pages. Nothing is final yet, but you can see the direction it's going.
The image above shows almost all the covers. The two omnibuses have 2 covers each since they are available in hardcover, one on the dust jacket shown on the promo image above this note and one on the actual physical book, also referred to as under jacket art, which is what’s shown in the promo image further down in this email.
And that’s it for this week. Catch the Scribe will be back soon. Melinda is hoping things will settle down to the new normal in the next month, so she can have more time to write books and entertain you!
That’s it for this week.
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New episodes coming on October 5!
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*Robin of Larkspur Books 1-3 and Books 4-5 are only available in hardcover because 600+ pages is hard on the spine. So they have two covers, one on the dust jacket shown on the promo image with all the books and one on the actual physical book, also referred to as under jacket art, which is what’s shown in the image directly above this explanatory note.
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