Hi, this is Melinda, I’m taking over my own newsletter today. Ran is not happy about that.

But it’s my newsletter, and I should get to speak for myself once in a while. Today is that day. Ran will get over it since I’m writing a Curse Breaker book next and hopefully, starting that this week, fingers crossed!

So I’ll bribe him with more page time! 🙂

Podcast Update

I was supposed to interview two authors about their debut—an Indian mythology inspired fantasy book. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to join me since they are trying to fund a campaign for a game based on their books. Hopefully, they’ll join me in the future if their schedules allow.

Since I didn’t find out they weren’t coming until after I set up to record and waited a half hour, I went ahead and recorded a short podcast about Chaos in Chains. So you can hear me talk about it over there and get all the spoilers I won’t let Ran talk about yet.

Listen on: Apple, Spotify, Youtube.

More episodes are coming!

I put a call for fantasy authors and about 20 signed up to come on the podcast.

I’ll do two interviews a week, so you’ll get to meet them and hear about their books ASAP.

Expect 2 episodes to drop every week, starting today. I’ll keep going until everyone who signed up has been interviewed. And now for some book news!

Book News: Wrath Lore

I’m still mad that Sovvan didn’t stop the apocalypse completely in the His Angelic Keeper Series. I know it’s been years now since that happened, but it wasn’t supposed to happen. So the Riders of the Apocalypse Series wasn’t planned.

For the first book in that series, Chaos Rises, I went with the obvious. A rider who had an ax to grind. So it focused on the ex-goddess of death and her attempts to destroy Fay (the ex-goddess of fate) and her family.

I didn’t know what to do with the others until Metalara, the Agent of Order, who released the second wrath, known as War, crossed paths with Queen Shayari in Curse Breaker Fallout. I wasn’t surprised when War ditched Metalara and possessed the much saner and much more powerful Queen Shayari. So that took care of War.

She’d use Queen Shayari to attack Mount Eredren and thus I could do the joust story that had been sitting in my drafts folder since 2012. So War would be fought and hopefully defeated in Curse Breaker Jousts. (I was so excited for that!)

But that left 4 other wraths: the unquiet spirits, the wrath of the lamb, Pestilence, and Conquest. (Sovvan bound the seventh one and accidentally absorbed it at the end of His Angelic Keeper Tempted.)

I added the unquiet spirits one into Chaos Rises to get rid of it since it’s just one sentence in the Book of Revelations. I’m not sorry about that. I had a lot of wraths to manage.

Conquest took over Chaos Reigns and went after Misriah. I didn’t expect that, and it was a wild ride writing that storyline, which concludes in Chaos in Chains.

The Wrath of the Lamb appeared in Chaos Reigns, unexpectedly, and she changed what I thought I knew about the wraths.

Pestilence showed up at the end of Chaos Reigns so he was dealt with in Chaos in Chains in the opening chapters, and he was straight out of the Book of Revelations. That was a refreshing change.

Did I get my big battle sequence?

Yes! I got my big Avengers-style temp-up battle against evil in Chaos Rises, Chaos in Chains, and Curse Breaker Jousts. One book ended in a quieter way, and that was Chaos Reigns and at the time, I was unhappy with that. But there was no other way to end it since it was book where all the characters were fighting on their own both external threats and their own personal demons. But it set the stage for a really fun ending in Chaos in Chains, so I’m not upset about it anymore.

Is Chaos in Chains Done?

Not yet. There are still 2-3 chapters I need to write.

Last week, I reread the book so far to check for plot holes, so I could make sure no characters fell into any. That’s all fixed now, and I confirmed that I wrapped up everything except the apocalypse plot line which I planned to do in the last 2-3 chapters. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t need to add anything to wrap up any other plotlines.

I published chapters 45-48 on Patreon and Substack, so head on over to read them!

What were those other plotlines? (Spoilers Ahead!)

Thaniel, Argeaneal, Guerren (the ex-god of war), and N’talli decided we needed to deal with the abyss. The abyss is all that was left over after the universe was created. I don’t know why it’s in Hell. It showed up in the third book of the Rogue Gods Trilogy, and I was just going to leave it there.

Since the Adversary is trapped in the frozen place of dead timelines , he can’t access it. An angel was guarding it, and that was good enough for me, but not for them. (That all happened in Storm the Gates.)

So in Chaos in Chains, they bring the matter to the Council of Angels and all Hell literally breaks loose. I get a big battle, so that was cool. But I think the Council’s decision will cause a lot of problems down the line.

The Flying Island

After I watched K-pop Demon Hunters last summer, I had a strange dream about a flying island. I wrote down as much as I could remember about the dream and set it aside to come back to in a future book.

The characters (Fay, the ex-goddess of fate) decided the apocalypse wasn’t enough. Dealing with the abyss wasn’t enough. Capturing manipulative horse-shaped wraths wasn’t enough.

No, what Chaos in Chains really needed was a flying island and an aerial battle, starring our resident dragon shifter, Faylon. (She likes to quip while she fights.)

So that’s in there too. You’ll never guess who runs the island or what they want. I didn’t know until the very end either.

The crazy thing is that both unexpected plotlines do relate to the main plot, and the events surrounding them test our heroes in ways I did not think we would we doing in Chaos in Chains. But they leave this book more resilient and with stronger bonds with their friends and loved ones, so I can’t complain. It’s an emotionally satisfying conclusion to an unplanned apocalyptic event.

What’s Next?

I need to finish the editing, write those last 2-3 chapters, send the book off to my editor who is patiently waiting for it. (She expected it two weeks ago, but she’s kindly moved my slot.)

I also need to change the dialogue in Curse Breaker Jousts to match what’s in Chaos in Chains since I didn’t think Sovvan had captured as many wraths as she did when the two stories collided. That’s my fault for writing Curse Breaker Jousts first, but I thought it would take place before Chaos in Chains, not during it.

I was wrong, and I need to fix that. Thankfully, it’s not published yet, so I can fix that. Only a handful of people have read Curse Breaker Jousts, and I warned them that might I might need to retcon it.

For some reason, the characters enjoy proving me wrong. They delight in having me renumber things, add extra books, and rearrange things. What did I ever do to deserve that?

That’s it for this week. Ran will be back next week, and he may complain about this takeover. But sometimes, I need to say my piece. Have a great week!

New Books & Special Editions

Curse of the Fey Duelist: Court of the Scorched Throne FOIL!

Dark Fantasy Special Edition novel in the epic fae series. eBook, pb, or HCw/foil, painted edges, and more! +a new novella, 4th book! Back Now!

Forest of Stone: A Deluxe Epic Fantasy Hardcover

New release special edition for Book 1 in a dark epic fantasy trilogy with foil, sprayed edges, and exclusive interior artwork. Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches.

Riders of the Apocalypse: Complete Epic Fantasy Book Series

An angel, an ex-god, & a dragon take on the riders of the apocalypse in 4 humorous epic fantasy adventure books. Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches!