The Maps Made Us Do it! (in Epic Fantasy Books)

Well, I told my scribe by brilliant plan to solve the plot problems in Chaos in Chains, the book she’s trying to finish. I want her to finish because the next three books in the writing queue are Curse Breaker books. So I have a vested interest in the timely finishing of her current WIP.

(This is Ran from the Curse Breaker Series. I’m the son in the books.)

To my surprise, Melinda didn’t like my idea. I don’t understand why. I just offered to wish away the plot problem and through hand wavey magic, it would just be gone. But she didn’t like that.

So I asked how would she resolve it?

Melinda said: “the characters got themselves into this mess, and they’ll have to get themselves out of it. I’m not just going to hand wave that. They need do the work themselves even if that means the book goes over the word count I thought it would have.”

So there you have it from the mouth of my scribe. She won’t fix the plot problem for the characters. They need to solve their problems themselves.

That’s totally fair, and I can’t really argue with that since that’s been her stance for almost 10 years now. But I had to ask especially since if she finishes it sooner, then she can start the next Curse Breaker book sooner, and who doesn’t want that?

You do want that, right? You want me to grow up and for my papa to master his magic.

Okay that last one might be hard since his magic will keep growing until his 49th birthday and we’re kind of far from that. But once he gets to middle age, he can look forward to actually knowing what he’s doing with it. So there’s that at least.

What are the plot problems the characters in Chaos in Chains got into?

I could tell you, but it would be a big spoiler. Ask me again next week when hopefully they will have figured out how to get out of the situations they are in. I don’t want to give them any ideas since they’re supposed to figure it out for themselves. Instead, I’ll keep all my ideas for our next adventure!

But you can find out if you read Chaos in Chains. Melinda has posted chapters 25-28 last week on Patreon and Substack. You can read them now!

Before we can go onto the next book, we need to release the ones Melinda already wrote.

If you’re keeping score, then you know that my scribe has 2 books that are written and working their way through editing. What do I mean by that?

They were edited, but Melinda wants to do another edit because she’s paranoid about typos slipping in. But typos now prove that she wrote the books. (She did write them. You can read the rough drafts on Patreon and Substack. Patreon has more than Substack because Melinda has been publishing 4 chapters a week there for many years. But you get the idea.

How did Melinda take my comment?

She kind of glared at me and went back to writing. So the hunt for more typos will continue.

Curse Breaker Jousts Status

Melinda wants another edit for Curse Breaker Jousts and I understand that because it’s a book very close to her heart. She had the original idea for it back in 2012 and wrote a draft that year. It almost became the first Curse Breaker book, but that didn’t happen. She set up some of the events that happen in it back in book 1, Curse Breaker Enchanted and set up the villain/climax starting in book 7, Curse Breaker Fallout.

Ironically, it’s the only book in the Riders of the Apocalypse Series that has a multi-book set up. So we face down one of the most cunning and manipulative wraths in Curse Breaker Jousts.

(We also attend a joust! We like to do what the title says, so we get in some jousting action too.)

Remember those maps I mentioned?

Melinda spent all last week working hard on them and we have 3 maps! That’s right. We’re going from no maps in any books to 3 maps so far in Curse Breaker Jousts!

We’re going to make sure every backer gets copies. So if you like ebooks, don’t worry. We’ll give you printable maps in a pdf so you can follow the action if you want on the map. If you back the print books, you’ll also get the maps in the book and also as a pdf so you can print them if you wish. Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches.

The maps pdf will be high quality and print ready. I don’t know what that means, but my scribe said to mention that. So everyone gets a map! Isn’t that exciting?

And now you’re wondering if you can get a preview of the maps. Why yes you can!

Right to Left: A more detailed map of the joust, Jerlo’s map of the joust (exists in-story), floor plan for Nolo & Inari’s apartment.

So that’s a preview of the maps in Curse Breaker Jousts.

Chaos Reigns doesn’t have any maps yet, so I’ll just keep you posted on that. Chaos in Chains will have some maps, and they will be wildly different from the ones in Curse Breaker Jousts. That’s all Melinda has said about them so I’ll just keep you posted.

That’s all I have for you this week! I hope you read a good book this week. I’ll see you next week with more.

—Ran, son of Sarn, writing on behalf of my scribe, Melinda Kucsera

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