Who stole the scenes?

The answer may surprise you!

May 15, 2023

Hey,

I’m back again! This is Ran, Sarn’s son and sidekick from the Curse Breaker series, and yes, I need to say that every time because how else will you know it’s me?

Papa (Sarn) could decide he wants to talk to you. Technically, he is the star of the series since he has the most page time out of all us, characters, and he’s also my scribe, Melinda’s, favorite character.

Did you know that Sarn (my Papa) appears in every single book she’s ever written?

He does, and I can prove it!

Buckle your seat belts because this might be a bumpy ride.

Obviously, my dad’s in all 10 of the Curse Breaker books since he’s the official main character of the series, and he appears on every single cover.

But did you know that Papa also shows up halfway through Spell of Shadow & Light? He couldn’t steal all the scenes because my fluffy buddy, Furball, already stole them all. Papa might have met his match in that book.

Let’s see how other series fare.

In Relic Hunter, Papa shows up in chapter 2 and steals the story. Let’s not even pretend anyone else is the main character of that book because they aren’t. He has the most page time by a wide margin.

(Melinda just realized this when she started pulling together her notes and outlines for the sequel, and her reaction was so funny. I just had to laugh while Melinda stared at the screen. Do you know what was on it?

The outline she created for all the chapters in the first book, Relic Hunter, and Papa’s name appeared more times than anyone else’s. But he wasn’t supposed to be the main character in that book!

So yes, let this be the official announcement that Mage Hunter and Demon Hunter the long-awaited sequels for Relic Hunter will probably land on your reading device sometime in the second half of 2024. That’s Melinda’s plan, but we’ll see how well the characters in it cooperate given our distrust of outlines and rules and anyone telling us what to do... More news on that soon!)

Back to my little rant. Did you know Papa’s also in all three Robin of Larkspur books that are currently published?

He tries to steal the spotlight in all three books, and Robin lets him get away with it!

Papa will appear in Rogue Rescue and Robin’s 6th book, Rogue Gift, too! He’ll probably try to steal every scene in those books. We’ll see if Robin lets him. Bring your popcorn and highlighters!

I wouldn’t let him steal every scene if those were my books, and I don’t in my companion series (Curse Breaker’s Companion). I hog the spotlight in those books, and Papa is fine with it.

There will be more books in that series. It’s hard to set dates for them because Melinda works full-time and writes when she can, and we, characters, don’t stick to outlines or follow instructions or take suggestions some days.

I don’t know how she gets us from the first page to the last page without losing her mind in the process, and I’m living the story as she writes it.

But I talked about that in previous emails. You can read back issues on our blog if you missed one. There are some gaps in the archive for 2015-2018 because the stories in those issues were published, and a certain store had issues with that even though the books were substantially different.

So we had to take those posts down. Other than that, our archive is free to read and it includes all issues from the last seven years, including our battle with a couch monster.

But I digress. Let’s get back to our world wind tour and see if Papa’s streak holds up.

Since Papa will have to show up in book 5, Rogue Gods, since a thing I can’t talk about is happening right now in Shards For His Gift. But I can tell you that a certain character from Rogue Rescue who has a large part in Rogue Gods just showed up and demanded vengeance against my dad for something that happened in Rogue Rescue.

Is my dad guilty? What did he do years ago when Rogue Rescue took place?

If you’re on any tier on Patreon, then you’re watching that drama unfold in real time! And you’ll get the answers as I do.

Back to my rant. There’s only one series where Papa can’t steal the scenes or run off with the plot as he does in the books I already talked about besides my companion series.

Do you know which series that is?

If you guessed the His Angelic Keeper series, then you’re right!

That series stars my aunt, and she prefers to share the spotlight with an ex-goddess of Fate and several dragon shifters instead. Papa and I often appear in her books too, but we’re there for support. Auntie Sovvan or her co-stars drives the action in her books if she’s busy helping us.

We’ll see if that trend continues in Chaos Rises later this year.

And that brings me to the end of my rant. It was a long ride, but we made it. But now I need to confess that I actually have more page time than Papa in Shards For His Gift because he was wounded in the previous book (Curse Breaker Revealed).

And you know I can’t just sit around and wait for him to heal. That’s not my style!

So I get into some trouble in the book, but it wasn’t my fault. I am 100% innocent this time. The trouble found me. I didn’t go looking for it. I learned my lesson from the last book and didn’t set foot outside the apartment where we’re staying while Papa recuperates.

But trouble darkened our borrowed door anyway, and I might have let it in. At the time, I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. So I’m still totally innocent and not at all at fault. I didn’t know the gift on our doorstep was cursed.

I just picked it up like a good boy and brought it inside because that’s what you do with a strange present that appears on your doorstep. You bring it in and unwrap it.

But only do that if it’s for you. Stop and check first, so you don’t open someone else’s gift. If it’s not for you, don’t open it just in case. You don’t want what’s inside to stick to you. Sometimes magic is sticky. I’m not saying that’s what happened, but I’m not saying that didn’t happen either.

And I think I dropped enough hints for one email. Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers out there. And you thought I forgot because I didn’t say that straight away.

Well, I didn’t. The entertainment you got from my rant was your present, so I wanted you to read that before I sent you best wishes from all the characters, not just me, and from our Scribe too. Happy Mother’s day.

I might be back with more next week. Who knows?

I hope I’ll return next week as your host. Until then, have a magical day!

—Ran, Sarn’s son & chief ranter, writing on behalf of my Scribe, Melinda Kucsera

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Who stole the scenes?

The answer may surprise you!

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