What did he do to impress the man?
Hi and welcome back!
It’s been a rough week for the Scribe with so many arrangements still to be made. There’s a lot of paperwork involved when someone leaves this life and many details that someone needs to handle. It’s sad work, but necessary. So she muddles through as best as she can.
Melinda said goodbye to her father on Wednesday at probably the weirdest church service ever. (This isn’t just my opinion. The other attendees agreed.) What was so weird?
Well, it wasn’t the date. The funeral mass took place on Sept. 11, which is still a big thing in NY, especially in the NYC metro area where Melinda lives. But that wasn’t what was so weird. It was just a sad coincidence.
So what was so weird?
First, the priest was late. Okay, that happens. He’s human too. We could excuse that. But then he kept calling Melinda’s father Frank. But her father’s name is Alvin, not Frank. So that left us all wondering…
Who is Frank? And what did Frank do to leave such an impression on the priest?
Do you know Frank and what he did? Inquiring characters would like to know. So if you know, please tell us!
Melinda is not one to stay silent when someone gets her dad’s name wrong (or anything really because she corrects me all the time). So she and her family shouted “Alvin” each time the priest said, “Frank,” making the service a surreal experience.
But the weirdness actually started the night before the funeral mass. That evening, Melinda’s family held a wake at a local funeral home run by a young clone of Al Pacino from the Godfather movies, complete with the same NY Italian accent. Okay that wasn’t so weird since the area Melinda grew up in has a lot of Italian-Americans living there, and they all have variations on that accent.
(If you listen to our podcast, you can probably hear that same accent when my Scribe talks. Melinda doesn’t believe me, but she’s half Italian and spent a lot of time with that side of the family growing up. Plus, she’s lived in the NYC metro area all her life aside from a 5-month stay in London when she was in college. So I rest my case. But I digressed as I often do. Back to my story.)
So what was weird about the wake? Everything was fine but sad until Melinda’s cousin-in-law said there were cartons of cigarettes by the Keurig machine. Of course, Melinda didn’t believe that. It sounded even more far-fetched then the mouthwash dispenser in the bathrooms, but that did exist. So she followed him to the instant coffee machine.
But the cigarettes were gone. Her cousin-in-law was quite surprised and confused. He swore they were there a few minutes ago. Melinda didn’t believe him. So they headed back into the lobby and would you believe it?
There were the packs of Marlboros displayed on a two-level clear plastic stand on the front desk! So right when you walk in, you can grab a pack of cigarettes. Isn’t that weird?
Speculation abounded that the funeral home offered the cigarettes to acquire new customers. But that’s really playing the long game, so it’s probably not the reason. This is not the first time that Melinda’s family held a wake at this particular funeral home. 10 years ago, they held the wake for her sister there too. But everyone who attended both wakes claims the cigarettes were new and weren’t offered in 2014.
Is that weird or what? The front desk was unattended too even though NY state has a law on the books that you need to be 18 years old to buy cigarettes. I guess they assumed no one under 18 attended a wake that night?
Melinda’s dad must surely be laughing about all this in Heaven. That’s the only thing I’m sure about. But I’m also sure my dad wouldn’t laugh at this. Don’t worry. I’m working on his sense of humor.
(This is Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker Series, and I laughed with Melinda at these weird things because laughter is the best medicine.)
Now onto books news! And yes, I actually have some news about our books.
First off, Rogue Gift, book 5 of the Robin of Larkspur series, will publish to retailers on Oct. 25. All the retailers, including, Amazon, moved the due date out.
How is the book coming?
Rogue Gift only has 2-4 chapters left to write, so Melinda hopes to get some time in between working at her day job and helping her mom this week to finish it. She did a lot of the editing last week because editing is just rereading and questioning every comma and word choice. Melinda could do that in between things. So the book is 90% edited and 90% written.
There are just those closing chapters left and some notes she wants to write at the end. Then she'll need to edit those final chapters and send the entire book to be checked by someone else. So we hope that can happen this week. I’ll let you know next week how that went.
Melinda worked a little on the illustrated version of the Robin of Larkspur books before getting the call about her dad last weekend, and I have a screenshot to show you! The screenshot is from Rogue Ranger, book 3 of the Robin of Larkspur series:
Isn't that pretty? Melinda is trying to match the landscape pictures to the time of day in the story. Yes, there is character art, but there isn’t a huge cast so most chapters are from Robin’s or Sarn’s (my dad’s) point of view. How many pictures of them do you want staring at you?
So Melinda licensed some wintry landscape art, so some chapters will have character art and some will showcase the wintry wonderland they are struggling to hike through.
Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches. Books 1 & 2 have been fully illustrated and Melinda is about 2/3 through book 3. She finished most of that before she got the call last Saturday that her father passed away.
Also, the Rogue Gods Trilogy (the non-illustrated ebook version) is coming to retailers! Gateway to Hell, book 1 of the Rogue Gods Trilogy, publishes on Amazon on Oct 8, followed by Summon the Gods on Oct. 22 and Storm the Gates on Nov. 12. So if you missed it on Kickstarter or weren’t comfortable backing that campaign, you can still get your hands the trilogy and read all the magical mayhem.
So that’s where all the things are right now. Hopefully, we’ll have better news next week. We’ll resume Catching the Scribe soon. The main characters disagree about where it should go next, so we need to hash that out and come to an agreement before Melinda and write the next bit.
I hope you have a happier week full of only good things!
New Podcast Episodes & Videos
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No new episode this week. There was too much going on, but Melinda will be back with new episodes in Oct.
New Releases, Sales, & Other Book Stuff
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Love fiercely. Fight hard, but think harder. Defeat your foes and take what’s yours in 5 illustrated special edition books or 2 illustrated special edition omnibuses.
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