We wish you many happy dragons!

Hi! In our last newsletter before the year ends, all the characters, and our scribe too, would like to wish you a happy new dragon… I mean a happy new year, and we hope that your new year will have many happy dragons in it!

If you find your new year lacking in dragons, then you should chase some dragons with us! After all, we are only chasing them to entertain you.

And now our nonexistent legal team requires us to remind you that you should leave the chasing of dragons to the professionals.

(Do we count as professionals? I would ask our legal team this but they don’t exist…so I guess we are professional dragon chasers by the end of the book.)

This is Ran, Sarn’s chatty son from the Curse Breaker series, and if you haven’t guess from all the dragon puns, I am here to talk about the next book in the Curse Breaker series, which is titled, Chasing Dragons!

How about that for coincidences? It’s like we planned this, but long time readers know we aren’t great at planning things. But we’re conscientious about defeating the villains so we try everything we can possibly try until something works. And who’s the villain in Chasing Dragons?

We actually have two villains! So you get two for one.

The first villain is the guy I have said I would give a piece of my mind if I ever saw him. (And I will do that, maybe in this book. Who knows?) That’s right. It’s Jerlo, the commander of the Rangers, and my dad’s boss!

He’s chasing dragons, and many of your favorite characters are chasing him because they don’t want him to anger the dragons and cause them to rampage through the underground city killing everyone. That’s a legitimate fear since he’s not exactly a people person.

Who’s villain number 2? Well, if you read the Rogue Gods Trilogy, then you already know one of the characters from that book comes to my underground home intent on harming my dad for something he thinks Papa did.

I should also point out that Papa doesn’t enjoy this book. But I have lots of fun for him, so that’s okay. Just don’t tell him I said that.

Chasing Dragons publishes on January 6th, so you can join us and let the chase begin!

And now back to our preview. The first chapter is ironically the only chapter where no dragons are chased and no mages are menaced. But I felt we needed one chapter where we catch readers up on what happened in the previous book since it ended on a cliffhanger. Who better to give you that refresher than me?

And Melinda is still mad about that cliffhanger… (My scribe hates cliffhangers, but we make her write the sometimes so she has to write the next book ASAP.)

But now, let’s get back to the first chapter so we can chase dragons next week!

Chasing Dragons!

by Melinda Kucsera

Chapter 1 part 2

(Missed Part 1? Read it here.)

“Hey now, don’t cry. Everything will be okay somehow. It always is. It’s just the how part that’s a mystery. But we’ll find out together.” Uncle Miren rubbed his back.

“I hope so,” Ran said into his uncle’s chest as the tears ebbed. They might return if Papa stayed away for too long. If I can get the crystal, maybe it’ll take me to Papa. I could hit the bad person’s butt too. But he was probably too short to kick it.

One day, he’d be as tall as Papa and Uncle Miren, and then he could kick butts if butts needed kicking. That thought dried his tears as Ran tried to imagine what butt kicking looked like. But he gave up on that and instead wondered how to get that crystal as a new thought struck him. What if Auntie Sovvan got called away?

It happened before, so it could happen again. Then Papa would be on his own. If I get that crystal, maybe I can see Papa in it. Ran didn’t know what he’d do then. But just having a plan made him feel better, so when Uncle Miren glanced down at him, he wiped his eyes.

“Everything will turn out okay. You’ll see.” Uncle Miren squeezed him again and Ran nodded because his uncle was probably right. He just wished everything was all right now, not later. But he must get that crystal to make it okay, so he tried to look like that cheered him up and not like he was scheming, even though he was.

Fooling Uncle Miren would be hard, but he must do it if he wanted to get his hands on that crystal because Uncle Miren wouldn’t let him. I just need to make sure he doesn’t guess that’s what I want to do. Ran tried to think of a way to evade his uncle, but nothing came to mind since the kitchen didn’t have a wall to divide it from the living area, just a counter, and all the bedrooms were off that room.

But to get to the room with a hole in the wall that led to the cliff required Ran to get from the kitchen through the living room to Papa’s room and then go through the hole in the wall. But he needed to do all that without Uncle Miren catching him. How can I do that?

“Are you okay now?” Uncle Miren let go and studied him.

“Yes, I just want Papa back now, not later.” Ran folded his arms.

“I know. I want him back too, so he can tell us what happened.” Uncle Miren picked up the glasses and headed for the sink. But he walked backward to the sink so he could watch Ran. That just wasn’t fair.

“Okay, let’s clean up while we wait, so Inari doesn’t return to a messy apartment.” Uncle Miren clapped his hands to get their attention.

Maybe during this cleaning thing I can slip away. Ran hoped so as he followed his uncle out of the kitchen into the living room. When he passed the bathing room, an idea struck him.

“We should clean up in here first. We tried not to make a mess, but Furball is very furry.” Ran pointed inside the bathing room where he and Furball cleaned off the flour.

Damp towels littered the floor. Ran picked up one as Uncle Miren scowled at the mess. He just needed Uncle Miren to turn his back for a few minutes. That was all. Then he could grab the crystal and see what Papa was doing inside it.

“Okay. Let’s start here. You wipe up the water on the floor. Okay?” Uncle Miren must have guessed his plan because he gently but firmly pushed Ran inside.

Darn it. There went that plan. Now he needed another one. Ran wiped the floor with a towel that was on the floor as he tried to come up with another plan to escape his uncle.

***

Get Chasing Dragons now to read what happens next. Have a happy holiday and a great week!

New Podcast Episodes & Videos

Listen to our podcast in your player of choice. Or Watch it on YouTube.

Listen to parts 1-11 on Youtube. The parts are also publishing to Spotify.

New Releases and Book Sales

Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches. The preview page has the latest cover mockups and previews of the illustrated pages.