Hello good people,

Just touching base before the obligatory festive season radio silence. I hope your year is winding down with as little chaos as possible, or if it be chaos, it is at least the good kind of chaos.

Pledges have been collected. If yours didn't go through, don't worry, you'll be able to fix it when surveys go out in January. 

I've started on the annotations. First disagreement is with Gabby over roasted almond chocolate being the go-to crisis snack. Hazelnut is clearly superior.

And I'm about to release a book! (Because Past Fox thought publishing a book while wrangling a crowdfunding campaign was totally doable and a Good Idea.)



Angsty, whimsical, cheeky and with burgeoning feminine rage. It's book 3 in a series, but you can probably (maybe) read it first if you don't mind missing some of the backstory about the war going on. Or grab the whole series from the book's Amazon page! It's all in KU and drops on Saturday: https://a.co/d/eMy0KmL

That's all from me for the year. Happy holidays, take care and I'll see you in 2026!

Kel

Hello good people!

First, a HUGE thank you to all of you. I'm excited to bring the Operation: Chocolate Overload (OCO) edition of Darkhaven to you, and thrilled that you're part of the journey. It's the best thing about crowdfunding – being able to chat to you and personally put books in your hands, digitally speaking.

Time for some housekeeping; if crowdfunding is old hat for you, skip on down for the cat photo and some pretty covers.

If you haven't been charged yet, you will in the next couple of days. Please keep an eye on your BackerKit emails in case there are any problems and follow their directions.

If you haven't voted in the Chocolate Polls (Very Important Life Questions, results of which will be included in the OCO edition), now is the time to do it. The polls close on December 20. Find them all here. Voting isn't mandatory, but it is fun!

Then we all relax a bit! It takes a couple of weeks for funds to find their way to me, and what with the Christmas/New Year period looming, not much will be happening. Don't worry, I won't hassle you with surveys and the like over the holidays!

All going well, I expect to have digital goods complete around the end of January. Proofs of the hardcover will likely arrive towards the middle/end of February. If they're correct, I'll ship them asap; if not, it'll be late March for hardcovers.

This means backer surveys will come around the middle of January. Shipping will also be charged at this time.

Of course things might not go smoothly (I could, for example, be sabotaged by cat), but I'll keep you updated along the way.

If you like, find me on Bluesky or YouTube. Bsky I post erratically about book fairs, art and writing. YouTube is dodgy author vlogs where I ramble and flail about the creative process.

If you want to read something now, let me tell you about my romantasy fairy tale retellings! They're queer, they're angsty, they're dramatic AF and a little bit absurd. They're also set in the same universe as Darkhaven, which means there is a minor character cross-over! Oh, and miracle of miracles, they're short (unlike this update).


I love these books. Slightly smouldering* fantasy romance with some quirky adventure set against the backdrop of a devastating war and lots of dancing. Yes, I mix up all the vibes, it's my thing. These are very different to Darkhaven!

Start with Another World's Stars – enby/m Sleeping Beauty with portal magic, a lost dancer from Australia, a cursed prince doomed to destroy his world and kissing under mistletoe. Available on Amazon/KU books2read.com/AnotherWorldsStars

Note that the series is ongoing. As I Command releases in a few weeks, and I'm working on a sort-of sapphic (it makes sense, trust me, in as much as anything I do makes sense) Beauty and the Beast right now.

THANK YOU again, and I'll touch base before Christmas with any further news. 

Read and be weird :D

Kel

*It ranges; book 1 is just kissing, book 2 is fade to black after getting naked, book 3 has a cheeky bit with a mast and some rope, and who knows about the rest! No graphic sex, though.

Of course, you're all fabulous, really. No extra effort required! BUT.

If you haven't backed yet, now is most definitely the time. If you can't remember whether you've backed, click here and if it says 'Back It' on all the tiers, well. Back it, fox! (Receiving this update does NOT mean you've backed!)

We've hit Stretch Goal #3, meaning Donovan's and Keraun's confidential interviews will now be made available. And since we still have a day or so to go, I thought let's go for one more fabulous thing...

A three-month FREE pass to the Fabulous Fox tier of my patron service.



The pass will be valid for January-March 2026.

If you haven't backed yet, or if you've been thinking of jumping up from the support tier, now is definitely the time! Remember, this special edition is exclusive to BackerKit, which means you can't get it anywhere else... only if and when I run another Lightless special operations campaign!

Thanks, foxes!

Kel

Helloooo everyone!

We're closing in on the end – four days to go until Darkhaven "Operation: Chocolate Overload" ends. And we've done amazingly! The project is 200% funded, so lots of bonus material will be included :D

In case you're new here (welcome!) or have been hovering in the back, Darkhaven is a YA urban science-ish fantasy set in Perth, Australia, full of superhumans, sass, dodgy espionage and snacking. It's funny, but there's also lots of angst over high school utterly failing to prepare people for life after youth and some tricky mental health themes.

And it's about to be in a hardcover special edition featuring the Chocolate Polls – YOUR answers to life's great questions! While Gabby grapples with 'what am I going to do with my life', we're puzzling over how to eat Milo, which brings me to....

The final Chocolate Poll! Is Milo a thing in the US? It's a chocolate malt powder used to make a hot or cold drink and is, despite marketing efforts to the contrary, not healthy. But it is tasty!

Like Ovaltine, maybe?

Scroll down to see the Milo options! Do vote in all the polls – they're open to everyone, not just backers* – and if you haven't backed yet, please check out the campaign. If you have and would like to get that third stretch goal, please share with your bookish friends!

*I realised I didn't open the Malteser poll to everyone! Sorry. It's fixed now. Find all the polls here.

Thank you all and happy voting!

Kel