Some sad news this week, but the story continues

Sep 09, 2024

Hey,

I have some sad news this week. This is Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series, and this news hits hard. So you know my scribe, Melinda. Well, her father passed away on Saturday morning.

So this week will be a tough one full of arrangements and grieving. I hope your week is a happier one.

Due to this, she had to push the preorder for Rogue Gift to October. We hope Amazon will move it. We sent them a note right after Melinda got a call about her dad. So hopefully, they will move it.

Melinda hoped to write the last few chapters of Rogue Gift, book 5 of the Robin of Larkspur series this week, but I don’t know if she’ll be able to with everything going on. I’ll let you know next week if she got any writing done.

I also wanted to share some screenshots from the Robin of Larkspur special edition. These pages are from Rogue Night, book 2 of the series:

Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches.

There were other things I wanted to talk about, but I don’t have the heart to do it this week. So that’s it for the updates.

I need to go hug my father now and talk him out of going to work today. The Rangers can get along for day without him, right? I think so.

Hug your loved ones for me!

And now, because I have a promise to keep, without further ado, I bring you the next part of:

Catch the Scribe

by Melinda Kucsera

Chapter 2: The Shadow Monster part 2

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

Ran shook his head, rejecting that lie as he backed away, seeking some escape, but the door was melting. I didn’t know doors could do that. Ran stared at the black vicious substance coating it. I wonder what that black stuff is? He wondered for a little too long because that black stuff crept toward him when it hit the floor. Oops!

Ran was trapped now between the shadow monster and the black gunk. So he did what he always did when he didn’t know what else to do, he squared his little shoulders and hoped he could bluff his way out of this situation. “You’re lying. Papa would take me with him if he left this place. We’re a team.”

“You were a team until your scribe stopped writing about you. Now, you’re just a fragment of a story, twisting in the winds of cyberspace, forgotten and alone and soon, you'll be erased too.” The shadow monster raised his gnarled hands above its horned head and pounced.

A pale glow appeared in Ran’s peripheral vision. It was the Queen’s mark. Papa put on their home to drive out the darkness a few weeks ago. But Papa hadn’t refreshed it, and its light had waned. But it was light, and any light was good when darkness closed in. So Ran hurried to it because dark things hated light of any kind, even weak light.

The shadow lunged again but missed Ran by a hair. His green cloak slipped through its fingers as Ran crossed the outer ring, igniting the symbol’s glow. Now a three-foot-wide glowing circle enclosed one-hundred and forty-three intertwined circles surrounded him. Light shot ceilingward as each ring ignited in turn. Ran made sure to stand in the heart of that silver blaze because the middle was always the safest place to be in any magical thing. One hundred and forty four columns of pure white light shined through the ceiling and united heaven and earth.

“Queen Tree! It’s Ran. You know my Papa, Sarn. I need your help,” Ran shouted over the screams of the shadow monsters.

That probably wasn’t the proper way to address Shayari’s mythic queen, but this was an emergency, so he hoped she wouldn’t mind. But maybe she did mind because something hard snaked through the light and wrapped around his waist as darkness ate the light. Maybe I should have called her by her full name, the Queen of All Trees. But that was a mouthful, and Queen Tree rolled off the tongue a lot more easily. But the world blackened before Ran could correct that mistake and call her by her full name.

***

Next week, we’ll continue with the next chapter. But you can read ahead on patreon right now. Have a great week!

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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.

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