Fantasy

We’ve been printed

Hi Readers,

We have some exciting news!

Our boxed set, Curse Breaker: Books 1-4, is now available as a gorgeous paperback in addition to the ebook edition which came out last year. It’s 700 pages and is 7 x 10 inches, which is larger than most paperbacks.

Why’d we go larger?

  • Because we wanted our first four books to be readable. There’s a finite number of pages the printer can cram into the book.

Here’s a little montage we put together to give you a peek at what’s got us so excited about this:

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(Note: the cover is greener and more vibrant in reality. Our scribe’s phone camera leaves much to be desired quality-wise. I also might have dropped it a time or two while adventuring in your world.

Okay, okay, stop giving me the hairy eyeball. It might have been more than a few times. I am little and cute with small fingers, and phones are slippery devils. I might have dropped it a more than a few times, like maybe a dozen times, but it still works.  Please don’t tell Melinda about that.)

You can get your copy of the paperback version here. It’ll run you $6 per book or $23.99 from Amazon, which is less than if you bought all four paperbacks by themselves. You can grab the ebook version here if you like to read on the go.

You’re welcome.

What else is going on?

I’m glad you asked that. Our scribe is working on our next book, in which, I get kidnapped. (This is Ran, Sarn’s son and as you can imagine, Papa is pretty upset about the whole kidnapping thing since I’m just a baby. But other babies are snatched too, so I’m not alone, and Papa has help from their distraught parents to find me—I mean us.)

That story will be told in the forthcoming Hunter’s Night, which is part of the Rogue Skies Boxed Set.  Right now, you can pre-order Rogue Skies only on Nook, iBooks and Kobo, but it’s coming to Amazon soon so we can read it on our Scribe’s Kindle app.

Secrets of the Sea is also coming to ebook on May 31 featuring a swashbuckling tale on the high seas from our Scribe, Melinda. I do not star in it, but it’s an interesting start to a possible new series.

I feel another crossover coming on. We have two crossovers this year, Relic Hunter, which should be on sale for 99 cents today through June 4. I say *should* because the Newsletter-Dragon flew off yesterday to make that change in all stories across the web, but you know her. She’s always trying to impress those eBook-Dragons. We can’t fathom whyever for, but we’re neither digital nor dragonish, so who knows?

Our other crossover this year is the forthcoming Hunter’s Night. I’m not going to count the forthcoming Curse Breaker: Hidden as a crossover because really, Auntie Sovan’s series (His Angelic Keeper) is the sister series to the Curse Breaker series. So both casts are free to come and go in the telling, and that’s not going to change.

And lastly, our scribe (and the cast too) is getting ready to welcome a new addition to the family. Any day now, our scribe will become the proud aunt of a handsome baby boy!

Who knows? Maybe someday he’ll become a character in too. 😉  It could happen. Anything can happen in fiction.

And that’s why our out-of-book adventures have been a bit curtailed of late. Our Scribe’s been helping her brother and sister-in-law anyway she can, so we’ve cut her some slack. Even the Newsletter-Dragon has calmed down, but it won’t last. I see the smoke rings rising from her den of code.

I’ll just leave the dragon and her lair alone and return you to part 5 of our extended preview of Relic Hunter, our newest release and first official crossover because His Angelic Keeper doesn’t count.  We hope you are enjoying it.

Relic Hunter

(Missed a part? Catch up here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 or grab a copy of the swashbuckling adventure now.)

 

The Master of the Mines clapped a hand against the nape of Sarn’s neck, and his rings pinched Sarn’s skin as the man applied pressure. As always, the Master of the Mines was flanked by a lithe woman in black who looked seconds away from cracking some heads open. The lumir light made her deep chocolate skin glow like a hero from a bard’s tale. But a real hero wouldn’t stand there staring daggers at the Master of the Mines while her hands hovered over her concealed weapons.

No, a hero would save him. Another tear fell, and Sarn didn’t care if she noticed.

“You’re not listening, boy, and we can’t have that, now can we?”

The Master of the Mines’ grip tightened, and he shoved Sarn head-first into a barrel of glowing red stones. His shoulders hit first, and the rim of the barrel cut into them. Next came a blast of heat that dried his eyes.

“Burn, burn, burn,” whispered the red stones an arm’s length from his dripping nose. Fire danced in their hearts, begging for release.

“I asked you to find the white stones that glow. The kind that brings light not heat, but you bring me red. Red lumir crystals are useless. They make heat, not light,” the Master of the Mines said, and his breath tickled Sarn’s ear as the man’s thumb dug into the nape of his neck, too close to the spot where the magic massed under his skin. “It’s the white ones everyone wants. The reds are too common, too easily obtained and the market for them was glutted by short-sighted fools long ago.”

Sarn recoiled from the Master of the Mines’ touch, and the guards tightened their hold on his upper arms. Despite his writhing, he couldn’t wriggle free. So he begged the only entity who might listen—his magic—and hoped he hadn’t imagined its interest: please don’t. But it was too late.

The ground shook, probably the walls and ceiling too judging by the echoing screams. They went on and on as Sarn repeated his silent plea—don’t crush us all.

“Not all, not you, we’ll save you,” said the stones around him, but no one else heard because Sarn was losing his mind.

Rocks couldn’t really talk in his head. It just seemed that way sometimes. Sarn blinked to relieve his dry eyes.

Had he imagined the red lumir crystals, which were uncomfortably close to his face, had dialed back their glow, and their heat, so they didn’t bake him anymore?

Sarn looked again. Their glow was softer. They were barely giving off any heat at all now. He no longer felt faint since the stifling heat of the barrel was slowly dissipating. The Master of the Mines had not won yet nor had that dangerous man lost. Sarn must tread carefully.

“You have one more chance. There’s something I want, and you’ll find it, or I’ll kill your brother. I know where you hide that useless whelp.”

The Master of the Mines rested his hand on Sarn’s shoulder, and a leather-clad finger traced the column of his throat. Sarn swallowed involuntarily as terror squeezed his chest. With his free hand, the Master of the Mines reached into the barrel, grabbed a nugget of red lumir and slowly brought it close to Sarn’s face.

He can’t mean to blind me. Yes, my eyes are unnatural, but I can’t find what he wants while blind. Nor could Sarn escape either. Though his eyes had caused him much grief in his short life, they were the only eyes he had. Unfortunately, the irises of both his eyes glowed a vibrant green all the time now.

Sarn struggled but couldn’t break the grip of the guards holding his head in the barrel, not even when the ground bucked under his feet, releasing them.

“Run,” it said.

“I can’t.”

While Sarn argued with an inanimate object, that red glow dominated his vision. Its heat dried his eyes and reached massaging fingers into his aching head that soon turned scalding as the rock neared. Fire danced in its heart begging for something to burn, and its heat seemed to intensify as if it were feeding off the Master of the Mines’ will.

How was that possible?

***

Find out next week or by taking advantage of the sale we arranged with the Newsletter-Dragon. Grab Relic Hunter for 99 cents.

*It should be 99 cents everywhere today. If not, blame the Newsletter-Dragon.

Actually, don’t do that. She’ll barbecue you if you even think about blaming her. If it’s not $0.99, just check back tomorrow, and it should be there. We did our part. The rest, unfortunately, rests squarely on the Newsletter-Dragon’s spiny shoulders, and she’s a tad unpredictable.

Uh-oh, she overheard us talking about her. I’d better skedaddle before she decides to make a nice bite-sized snack out of me! Please send calming vibes the Newsletter-Dragon’s way.

“Papa! Get those shields up. We’ve got an angry dragon inbound.”

–This is Ran, Sarn’s son, signing off before I get barbecued.

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