Hey, this week, I bring you something a little different. Why?

Because tomorrow is my scribe, Melinda’s, birthday! So today we wish her a happy early birthday and we should behave and not give her any trouble. But where would the fun be in that?

So we’re not doing that, obviously. I have a reputation to hold, and I’m known for magical mayhem, so we must more of that!

Who am I? I am Ran, the son and sidekick of a reluctant mage who’s also a curse breaker. My father is the actual main character of the Curse Breaker series and despite being reluctant and not interested in starring in books, he has now appeared in:

• 12 Curse Breaker books (Melinda is writing #12 now!)
• 7 books based on the portal-hopping stories in our newsletter
• 7 prequels
• 3 books about rogue gods (last I checked, my dad isn’t a rogue god, so I am not sure how he got into that trilogy)
• 5 books about his sister and the angels she gets into trouble with
• 1 christmas story written entirely in verse which will hopefully have an expanded prose version that is not written in verse sometime in 2027 (fingers crossed! We’re still setting up the plot reasons to make that happen.)

(We also have some cursed jewelry, which you’ll find out about in Curse Breaker Jousts.

I just thought I should mention that since the above list reminded me of the prologue in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. You get bonus points if you heard Cate Blanchett/Galadriel reading that list to you.

Will we have to find a volcano and drop our cursed jewelry in it while dodging orcs?

No, Sauron didn’t make our cursed jewelry, so we get to do something even cooler with it. Melinda says I have given out enough spoilers for today, but there can never be enough spoilers!)

So my dad has appeared in a whopping 35 books and counting! That’s pretty wild since he would rather not fight monsters or deal with rogue gods, alternative timelines, multiverse madness, portals, and ancient evil because that puts me and other people in danger.

He’d just like to raise me and that’s a good goal. But I like all the magic and mayhem, so I’m glad he has to deal with ancient evil sometimes.

It’s not every day. We get some quiet days where he can sit and think and I ask him lots of questions. Sometimes, he even answers me. Not last week though, but I tried!

How many books do I appear in?

If you guessed 28 books, then you’re correct!

I tried to get into the prequels, but I just couldn’t do it since they take place before I was born. So I must take the hit in my stats.

Fun fact: my dad wasn’t supposed to appear in the Rogue Gods trilogy at all since it’s set on an alternate timeline where he died when I was little.

For a reluctant guy, he certainly gets around. Not even alternate timelines stop him. But I’m glad they don’t because I wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t so persistent, and you probably wouldn’t be either because there would be no story without us.

Okay that was kind of depressing. Onward to happier news!

Book News

So how is Curse Breaker Jousts coming along?

Melinda wrote and published chapters 41-44 on Patreon and Substack last week. This week, she’ll write and release chapters 45-48 and release them to both places.

I know what you’re wondering. When will it end?

Soon I think. We’re at that point where everyone is trying to get their last hits in since we face a lot more monsters than usual. Seriously! The monster to heroes ratio was something like 3000 to 12.

The odds weren’t good but we do have a mage, but there were creatures that interfered with the mage’s magic, making it not useful. So that was a huge problem on top of the numerical issue.

That’s why the book is going on for more than 40 chapters and it will probably be around the same length as Curse Breaker Hidden.

So how many chapters are left?

No idea. There are things we need to do to appease the almighty plot, but it’s not clear to us what those things are since the creatures nerfed our mage but just for this book. Their effect only lasts as long as they are here. If they are destroyed or they leave, then Papa regains the use of his magic.

Just because he can’t use his magic, that doesn’t mean he’s out of the fight. Anyone would have walked away, but not him. So of course, I summoned some help for him. I’m not losing him because he’s got a big heart and he won’t leave until everyone who can be saved is saved.

Yes, Melinda said no more spoilers and yes, I slipped in more despite that. Since you open this email every week, I’m betting you’re not mad about that.

(Melinda isn’t either. We don’t have anyone else to talk about it with, but we have you. So the spoilers will continue until morale improves!)

That’s all I have for this week.

I wish my scribe, Melinda, a very happy birthday and that she spend many hours writing about me.

See you next week!

—Ran, son of Sarn, and sidekick to the actual curse breaker

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