Catch the Scribe

Book #1 in the Tales of The Curse Breaker in NY Series & Book #1 in the Newsletter Adventures Series

Next Book: Book Battles

Synopsis

Catch the Scribe before she falls.

When grief threatens to overwhelm a lonely scribe, the fate of her fictional world hangs in the balance. If she doesn’t finish the book and get it into the hands of readers, all her characters will disappear forever.

And, her deceased sister’s last request will go unfilled. That’s one promise this scribe doesn’t want to break.

But there are shadowy forces who don’t want her story told, and they’ll use any means to stop her. She’ll need help from a fictional child and his father, the heroes of her unfinished book, to get her story back on track. But first, they need to escape their fictional world and enter the real one.

Catch the Scribe is a novelization of early stories from Melinda’s weekly, genre-bending newsletter adventures. Each episode is lovingly expanded and adapted by reader request.

Scroll down to read the first chapter now!

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Catch the Scribe

by Melinda Kucsera

The Enchantment Breaks (Chapter 1)

(The last scene from Curse Breaker Enchanted but from Ran’s perspective)

Ran hugged Papa hard because he needed it, and Papa returned the embrace until no more tears fell upon his head. Papa’s magic didn’t like water, so his tears had drowned their green glow, extinguishing it, and the sight was disturbing. 

Ran slid off his lap, and his knee broke the circle of shining leaves, shutting off the projection. Oops. Although, that might have been the right move since the sight had just depressed Papa. “Why does Shade get to climb on her?” By her, Ran meant the thousand-foot-tall silver-glowing Queen Tree standing on the hill framed in the—what was the light and the scene it had shown us? 

The Queen Tree had pretty silver star-shaped leaves, and they carpeted the stone floor of our cave from our last run-in with her a few hours ago. But she was gone now and so was that slice of another place and time. Anything was possible with magic, and that made Ran smile, but he flipped it into a frown because Papa was talking about serious things, and he didn’t want Papa to take his smile the wrong way. Ran wasn’t sure how to feel about Papa’s friend’s death, but he wasn’t as sad as Papa was. 

“Because Shade’s gone,” Papa said, derailing that line of thought. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, drying them, and their green glow crept back into them. Knowing his odd friend Shade was with the Queen Tree must make him feel better, or it did until he yawned. 

Papa gathered Ran, his blanket and bear, both of which Ran dropped when he helped him make circles on the floor with shiny silver leaves and crossed to the mattress. Then Papa just stood there staring at his teenage brother, Uncle Miren, sound asleep on it. 

Ran hid a smile and stifled a giggle. Uncle Miren would be livid when he found out what he’d been up to with Papa. Score one more for team Bear. Ran hugged Bear hard. He didn’t complain. But Ran loosened his grip before Ghost Bear noticed, and he undid the catch at Papa’s throat to release his magical cloak. 

Rather than locate a blanket for himself, Papa dragged his magic-infused cloak over them as he laid down still holding Ran. As if I would ever try to escape him. We’re a team, and I’ll remind him of that when I wake up. It was way past Ran’s bedtime, but there was one important issue he must clear up before he could give into the exhaustion creeping through him, and it had to do with the uncle snoozing away in ignorance beside them.

“Uncle Miren won’t unner—udder—” Ran whispered into Papa’s good ear, but the word he needed kept slipping away from him. It would have been frustrating if Ran wasn’t fighting a yawn. Adventuring was tiring work.

“Understand?” Papa suggested. 

“Yes, I mean no. He won’t get it. So, it’s a secret.” Ran smiled, “our secret.” 

But Papa frowned, not liking that as much as Ran did. But it was a secret, and Ran knew he’d keep it because Papa was a quiet man who didn’t like talking about himself. 

Content with the world, Ran pillowed his head on his chest while still smiling because he knew a great many things Uncle Miren would dearly love to know. 

While Ran gloated, Papa did something with his magic. Ran heard its timbre change and watched it flow away from Papa in waves of green light, but then they bounced back on him. Those waves tingled as they passed through Ran, but none of that magic stayed inside him. It cycled back into Papa. So not fair. Why did he get all the magic?

“Papa?” Ran lifted his head so he could see Papa’s face. He’d almost forgotten to ask his usual question, but tonight it had a special meaning. 

“Mmm?” Papa stirred, but didn’t open his eyes. 

“When you wake up—we’ll have an ad-ven-ture?”

“Yes, but I have to sleep for a while first.” Papa froze as those beautiful words fell out of his mouth confirming Ran would get his heart’s desire tomorrow. 

“Okay.” Ran grinned and snuggled close while hugging his bear. All was right in his ever-expanding world, but Papa remained tense for a long while as sleep took Ran away, and they filled his head with strange dreams. But Fate handed Ran another adventure before he was ready to enjoy it. That was such a mean thing to do.

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