YA urban science fantasy meets queer magical space opera in this sassy epic adventure, with the first book in a new hardcover edition featuring extra scenes, bonus material and custom interior formatting.
UPDATE: ✅Funded! 😍🎉✅Stretch Goal #1! 🖐️🎂 ✅Stretch Goal #2! 💕⚡✅Stretch Goal #3!🗄️🤐 Stretch Goal #4: If we get to $1300, backers at Truffle & above will get a three-month FREE pass to Kel's patron service on the Fabulous Fox tier 🔐🦊
Scholomance snark meets Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. secrecy in this YA urban science fantasy set in Australia
When 17-year-old chocolate fiend Gabby Whitehall stumbles upon a conspiracy to hide magic and the superhuman potential it offers, she has no idea she's become tangled in a plot to change the universe. But the truth about magic is hidden in layers of deception and lost prophecy, and unravelling the secrets she needs to save everyone she loves will come at a cost.
Darkhaven is the first book in the Lightless Prophecy, a contemporary science fantasy with magic, mystery, gods, other worlds and characters who eat a lot of chocolate when the universe is ending.
B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree (an award to distinguish outstanding self-published works, bestowed by indieBRAG)
What this campaign is for
Darkhaven has existed in ebook and paperback since 2021, and this campaign is funding the first ever hardcover edition and several bonus stories in ebook. Since there's so much chocolate in the story, we're making it a special edition too. Indulge your theoretical sweet tooth and let's get into Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload, exclusive to BackerKit!
About the story
Gabby is in her final year of high school and facing the Question: what does she want to do with her life? A shame ‘wizarding’ isn’t on the list of university courses.
Just as Gabby despairs that she’ll never find the answer, lightning strikes – literally. She uncovers a conspiracy, meets a mysterious boy, and finds out that maybe, magic might be real. But it comes at a cost, and now Gabby's faced with a decision that makes choosing a university as easy as choosing a favourite ice cream. (How is anyone meant to do that?)
Gabby makes a deal: help her new allies with a dangerous infiltration in exchange for not having to choose between magic and her friends. All she has to do is master her newfound abilities, complete the mission, and walk away with a whole new career option.
Piece of cake.
What to expect in Darkhaven:
Sassy female MC
Superhumans
Slow burn (sweet) romance
What to do after high school when you don't know what you want to do with, um, your entire life
With this campaign, Darkhaven is coming to hardcover, and it's doing so in chocolatey style!
Operation: Chocolate Overload is all about indulging our sweet tooth while doing dodgy espionage. Or chocolate tooth, if you like. Still with the dodgy espionage.
Special Edition Features
Author annotations on the sweet treats throughout the story
YOU get to contribute! Vote in the polls on your chocolate preferences. Results will be included in the annotations
Random sketches and illustrations as chapter headers
Bonus material: Recipe for a chocolatey treat*
Bonus material: chocolate shenanigans scene*
Limited edition
This edition will only be available via BackerKit, so grab it here and now! Pledge for a digital tier to get the ebook, or a physical tier to get hardcover and ebook.
*Printed in the hardcover, collected into a separate ebook for digital – more on that below
Hardcover Specifications
6" x 9" case laminate
At least 300pp
Dust jacket (extension of the cover shown above, art and design by me!)
Alternative case design (to be revealed, but it'll be sleek and secret-like, design by me!)
Custom interior formatting
Numbered and personalised for each backer
Examples of chapter headers
Please note these are drafts and subject to change! Sketches and art are hand-drawn/painted. Each chapter will have a unique design, although some artwork may be reused throughout.
Prologue art by me Chapter One art by Karimza
Paperback
There is no paperback for this special edition, but if you want to read Darkhaven in paperback, you can pick up the standard edition as an add-on. Pledge at the Choc Milk tier to gain access to add-ons or the Chocolate Truffle tier to get all the bonus material in digital format.
The bonus material: a.k.a. Secret Wafer Stash
Secret Wafer Stash is the bonus material collection! It'll include a Nutella-inspired recipe and a bonus scene with Gabby and her friends getting up to chocolate-based shenanigans. Depending on stretch goals, it may include more treats. Secret Wafer Stash will be printed in the hardcover edition as bonus material and distributed as an ebook for all digital and physical pledge levels.
Escape Artist Extraordinaires
Three bonus stories featuring various escapes from three main characters, collected into the Escape Artist Extraordinaires ebook (approx 60 pages).
The Inheritance Experiment: Donovan's origin story. Yes, there's a reason she is the way she is. It's grisly.
The Trouble with Magic: Keraun, our questionable 'God of Lightning' gets himself into trouble. And mostly out of it.
The Filigree Key: Gabby adjusts to life with a new puppy. It's a German Shepherd/Alaskan Malamute cross, so it's quite an adjustment.
All backers of digital or physical pledge levels will also receive Escape Artist Extraordinaires.
Darkhaven is the first book in a galaxy-spanning adventure of magic and gods, love and betrayal, and a quest to find out what holds the stars together in the dark.
The Lightless Prophecy is best described as a YA urban science fantasy turns queer magical space opera (go on, get another genre in there Fox, I dare you). It starts with Gabby in the first two books, then expands to include a broader (and queerer) cast as the saga continues.
So far, three books are out, with three more planned, plus a bunch of side stories and novellas. Go on and grab book 2 (Everfire) and book 3 (Memory Weave) as ebook add-ons if you want to get stuck into the series!
Still curious? Find out more about the series, including blurbs and tropes for each instalment, here.
You can also pick up Who Will Hold the Universe, a prequel novella, for free by joining my newsletter here.
Darkhaven is single, first person point-of-view. Later books in the series also include points of view from Keraun and Donovan, so let's meet this unlikely set of superhumans!
Let's talk rewards! Since Gabby and I live in our respective versions of the land down under, prices are in Aussie dollars. For US folk, that means pledge amounts are lower than they look! Head over to Pledge Levels to see conversions in your currency, but please note these are estimates only and will change based on exchange rates at the time of pledge collection.
Support
Choc Milk
Love the concept but don't have room on your TBR? I get it! Any and all support is sincerely appreciated. Alternatively, use this tier to get your hands on the standard edition paperback add-on.
What you get:
Your name in the acknolwedgements of the Operation: Chocolate Overload ebook and hardcover edition
My eternal gratitude. So grateful am I that I vow not to put you in the book and kill you with chocolate (unless you want me to. In which case, see Death By Chocolate)
Digital Only
Chocolate Truffle
This one's for existing Lightless fans! If you've already read the book but don't want to miss out on the bonus content, here's how you get it.
What you get:
Escape Artist Extraordinaires ebook (three extra Lightless stories)
Secret Wafer Stash (the Operation: Chocolate Overload bonus material)
Any extra digital rewards unlocked with stretch goals
Your name in acknowledgements
Gratitude, eternal, no unwarranted chocolatey murdering, etc
Note: Escape Artist Extraordinaires and Secret Wafer Stash do not stand alone. They are unlikely to make sense if you haven't read Darkhaven first.
Chocolate Macaron
Digital readers! No shipping, no worries. Don't miss a thing with this comprehensive collection.
What you get:
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload edition ebook with arty flourishes and author annotations
Escape Artist Extraordinaires ebook (three extra Lightless stories)
Secret Wafer Stash (the Operation: Chocolate Overload bonus material)
Any extra digital rewards unlocked with stretch goals
Your name in acknowledgements
Gratitude, eternal, no unwarranted chocolatey murdering, etc
Tip for those on a budget!
Darkhaven's standard edition is available free on most e-retailers. If you can't quite make it to Chocolate Macaron, pledge for Truffle to get the bonus stories and pick up the book on your usual retailer. You'll miss the annotations and chapter header sketches, but you'll get all the canonical story material.
Physical
Chocolate Heart
True chocolatey goodness! Hold the Operation: Chocolate Overload edition in your hot little hands (don't worry, this kind of chocolate won't melt on you) and enjoy the arty bits, annotations and bonus material in physical form.
Escape Artist Extraordinaires ebook (three extra Lightless stories)
Secret Wafer Stash (the Operation: Chocolate Overload bonus material)
Any extra digital rewards unlocked with stretch goals
Your name in acknowledgements
Gratitude, eternal, no unwarranted chocolatey murdering, etc
Pledge pricing does not include shipping. Please see the Shipping section for details.
Death By Chocolate
Could there be a better way to go? I don't think so. All possible rewards, plus you get the special honour of being a character in an extra bonus story – with the option of meeting your untimely demise by way of chocolate misadventures!
What you get:
A bonus story written in your honour, with you in it!*
The Operation: Chocolate Overload edition is exclusive to hardcover and ebook, but you can pick up a paperback standard edition as an add-on by pledging for Choc Milk (cheapest option, AU$35) or Chocolate Truffle (ensures you get the bonus stories).
Pledge pricing does not include shipping. Please see the Shipping section for details.
Your clearance will be approved to read never-before-seen interviews between me and key characters!
I frequently chat to the wayward Lightless cast. They are infrequently helpful. For example, here's how things started out with Donovan:
Me: Hey Donovan D: Hey. Jerk. Me: Fair. We can discuss that another time. Right now, I need to know what you saw at the Taskforce. D: Not much. Me: What do you mean, not much? Didn’t you do the data analysis?
Stretch goal #2 – Love Interest Alternative POV scene (oooh) Achieved! 💕⚡
Keraun is Gabby's enigmatic 'god of lightning' love interest (not that she knows this), and he offers Gabby a way out of her magical dilemma as they bond over a jar of Nutella.
Fun facts about Keraun: - He's from a much older human civilisation on another planet - He attended an academy for magical intergalactic pilots - He's on a secret mission from a power much higher up than he is - He pretends to be cocky and confident, but he's actually pretty nervous a lot of the time
Does he enjoy eating Nutella from the jar? Are they soul mates? We'll see if we unlock an alternative POV of one of the couple's scenes together…
Stretch goal #1 – FOOD FIGHT! Achieved! 🖐️🎂😳
Food Fight is an extra bonus scene inspired by a Bluesky post I made on a whim:
WHO: Gabby and supersoldier mentor Donovan.
Gabby throws a cup of Milo. Donovan, after a moment of stunned bewilderment, retaliates with vodka. Gabby picks a strawberry off the pavlova and hits Donovan's eye. Donovan, regretting having thrown her vodka away, hurls the whole pav at Gabby's face. And is immediately mortified that she has stooped so low as to be in anything as ridiculous as a food fight. FFS.
(Gabby meanwhile is smirking and licking her fingers like the cat that got the cream) I've designed this campaign to be as internationally friendly as possible, which is to say ALL stretch goals will be available to digital backers too so those who wish to avoid shipping costs don't miss out!
Well, who doesn't want ALL the chocolate? But I must inform you that the following books contain slightly less chocolate. Don't get me wrong – there is still plenty of delightful food. The best ginger biscuits in Europe, for example. Gabby has a run-in with some garlic. Arron nurtures everyone with his excellent cooking. But it's not quite oozing off the page.
Anyway. Add ons. Pledge at any level and avail yourself of the following!
Dig into the saga
Pick up ebook copies of Everfire and Memory Weave and sink your teeth into the first half of this exciting, genre-defying series!
So you know, I do hope to give these books the special ops treatment too. But they're good to go, and if we do get to that stage, there will be plenty of extra content, so why wait?
Pick up a paperback
If hardcovers aren't your thing or you like to keep them pristine and read paperbacks, you can get a standard edition paperback to cover in chocolate crumbs. Or read like a normal person without making a mess what kind of monster spills chocolate in their books? (Not me. No. Neverrr.)
Note: Add-on pricing does not include shipping. Shipping is collected after the campaign in Pledge Manager.
I've teamed up with A. E. Zeigler, author of romantic fantasy Chains of Deceit (book 2 of the Stitchbinding Chronicles), to bring you some exclusive art!
The Stitchbinding Chronicles and the Lightless Prophecy have quite a few things in common…
Broody main male character (mine doesn't get a POV til book 3 though)
High stakes
Morally gray antagonists
Badass female protagonists
Multiple couples falling in love
Bound by magic romances
If these things sound like your jam/chocolate sauce, back both projects and get a FREE download – printable bookmark art! Check out Chains of Deceit here.
Welcome to The Book Bazaar, a celebration of all things indie and small press! We're collaborating to help make each creator's dreams come true with their publishing project. The more you back, the more goodies you earn. Here's how you can earn more:
🌟 Back five projects, get an exclusive reward. We're offering an exclusive The Book Bazaar reward to anyone who goes all out and backs five or more projects. The Book Bazaar 2025 participants are putting together a one-of-a-kind anthology full of unique and never-before-seen stories. Claim your anthology by showing your support now! Your anthology reward will ship separate from other rewards.
Shipping is collected at the end of the campaign and is in addition to your pledge. This ensures you’re charged accurate rates.
Current estimates in local currencies are:
♦ US ~$4 ♦ CA ~$20 ♦ UK ~£4 ♦ EU ~€12 ♦ AU ~$10 ♦ NZ ~$20 ♦ IN ~₹1200 ♦
All shipping estimates are based on pricing and exchange rates at the time of writing and may vary at the time of pledge collection. If your locale is not listed, please reach out and I'll get you sorted.
Further shipping and fulfilment conditions are detailed in the FAQ here.
I'm Kel (also answers to Fox), an author and artist based in Perth, Australia. I write gritty and whimsical stories about finding love, family and self-acceptance amid complex personal and political dynamics. Always with magic, art and/or dancing.
I've had short stories and poetry published with Deadset Press, Breach Zine, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and Pen & Paw International. In 2023, I was shortlisted for the SFF First Chapters Plaza Prize.
When I'm not writing, painting, or melting under the air conditioner, I enjoy ballroom dancing with my partner and getting caught in the rain. And when we're not doing that, we answer to the whims of an obstinate Alaskan Malamute, a pair of diabolical ginger cats and a long-suffering robot vacuum cleaner that only occasionally asks for pats.
