Novel Magic: The CurseBreaker

Irish roots and Korean folklore blend together in a debut novel by April Kelley Jones. Read more about her process and grab a copy.

Oh–and don’t miss all the freebies, sales, and giveaways going on in October. Links galore below.

Writing The Cursebreaker

by April Kelley Jones

As an undergraduate student, I stumbled across a collection of Irish folktales. They made it home with me but soon landed on my bookshelf to be neglected for several years. Fourteen generations have passed since my Irish ancestors immigrated to America, and while that number feels almost uncountable to me, I’ve always held a spot for Ireland in my heart. A couple of years ago for a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I decided to pull those folktales off the shelf. I perused several stories before I came upon the one that would serve as a base for The Curse Breaker.

For me, a big part of the fun in writing comes from the challenge of trying to put together a story of seemingly unconnected parts. So, when I sat down to write The Curse Breaker, I decided to see if I could take pieces from 19th-century Irish storytelling and mingle in modern Korean storytelling elements to form a fun story about a teenage girl with magic. Sounds easy, right? There were definitely moments where I sat in front of my computer scratching my head, but for the most part, this story knew where it wanted to go so I just had to follow it. I hope you’ll enjoy meeting Eris and Knox and let me know if you pick up the Korean or Irish tropes I used to tell their story.

Happy reading.

Eris’s sister is missing and nobody, not even their parents, can remember her, and so magic is definitely to blame!

Eris knows only magic can bring her back, but even as a Light magic-born, is she strong enough to find — and save — her sister?

In the capitol city, Prince Knox is cursed to spend his days as a corpse and his nights trying to find the prophesized girl who can break the curse. If he can’t find her by his 20th birthday, he’ll stay dead forever.

Eris and Knox will discover there are scarier things in their path than curses and half-truths. If the Queen of the Underworld has her way, everything and everyone will die. The only thing standing in her way is the curse breaker, and Eris will have to choose between saving herself or everyone she loves.