Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Go on, vote. It's for science. 🍫🍫

And by science, I mean I have to know if I'm all alone in my weird corner of Malteser-eating land.

HELP A FOX OUT HERE 🦊

The Poll: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

@the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com

#sff #readingcommunity #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Screenshot of a BackerKit poll.
How do you eat a Malteser?
This could get interesting. Comment if you have alternatives!
Chew it. Savour the crunch. Mmmm.
Suck it. Feel the chocolatey goodness coating your tongue.
Nibble all the chocolate off, then eat the malt bit. Yes, really.
Put it in your damn mouth and eat it. Wtf is wrong with you people.
None of the above. See comments.

November 24, 2025 at 6:23 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Keraun, now nineteen (or 24, depending how you counted the years at the Vi Pilot Academy), still had a knack for finding trouble. – The Trouble With Magic, a bonus story included in Operation: Chocolate Overload!

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com 💙📚🪐

The Trouble With Magic
Operation: Chocolate Overload Bonus Story
Image - rough sketch of a young man conjuring liquid into a vial
Quote - The frustrating thing about magic was how it made everything look easy.

November 22, 2025 at 4:42 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Donovan. She's mean, she's commandeering, she's got a grudge (or ten).

But with magic comes heightened senses, and no one has sensory control like Donovan, so Gabby endures her lessons… at least until Donovan suggests jogging.

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

@the-book-bazaar.com 💙📚🪐

Old stained paper looking like a page from a classified file, laid over a thunderstorm background. Silhouette of a woman with bobbed hair wearing a tight shirt or singlet, military-type pants and work boots. Text on the file excerpt reads: Name: Esmerelda Donovan, Classification: rogue Eventer, Known Associates: Stephen May, Catherine Whittaker, Liam Croft, Notes: Dangerous. Do not approach. Text alongside the file excerpt reads: Esmerelda Bischoff Donovan is a 120-year-old (but looks mid-40s) superhuman ex-assassin with all the emotional fluidity of a glacier. She’s tough, blunt to the point of meanness and moves around like a tornado – noisy, menacing and ruthless. Proficient with blades, firearms and martial arts. Enjoys motorcyles, sports cars and ballroom dancing. But don’t be fooled – she has a kernel of care somewhere under all that ice.Probably you won’t get to see it until, oh, book five. Or six.

November 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

FOOD FIGHT UNLOCKED! 🖐️🎂😳

Stretch goal #2: Love interest POV 💕⚡

Keraun is Gabby's enigmatic 'god of lightning' love interest (not that she knows this), and he offers Gabby a (v. dodgy) way out of her magical dilemma as they bond over a jar of Nutella.

Pledge now! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

picture of a chocolate swirl next to the text 'Objective: $850 Unlock Alternative POV Scene - Keraun (romance)

November 20, 2025 at 6:06 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Gabby: Who are you?
Keraun: I told you.
G: You gave me a name. Who are you, really?
K: You wouldn't believe me.
G: Maybe not last week. Now? Try me.

Gabby's had a rough week and this guy keeps showing up in the oddest places. Can she trust him?

Back it & find out! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

Old stained paper looking like a page from a classified file, laid over a thunderstorm background. Silhouette of a man with short hair wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt, trousers and sneakers. Text on the file excerpt reads: Name: Keraun Thephyeu, Classification: unknown entity, Known Associates: Gabrielle Whitehall (?), Notes: Calls himself 'god of lightning'. Does not exist in any database. Text alongside the file excerpt reads: Keraun Thephyeu is 19 or 20-something, depending on how you count the years he spent studying at a magical pilot academy in another time differential. Self-titled ‘God of Lightning’. (I probably don’t need to tell you that this is somewhat inaccurate.) Has a habit of showing up at awkward times and losing his shirt – entirely not on purpose. On a mission from… well, not God, but someone higher up than he is.

November 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Ever wanted an inappropriate saxophonist to show up in your angsty romantasy fairy tales? Squilly Meen, Adventurer, has got you covered 😂🎷

a.co/d/bGJTyE2

💙📚🪐

Another World's Stars by Kel E Fox: enby MC, cursed prince, dancing, hurt/comfort, random saxophonist, sleeping beauty retelling, winter solstice, portal magic

November 18, 2025 at 2:07 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Woohoo! We're making this thing. Now. Stretch goals.

Tossing up between a bonus scene (FOOD FIGHT!) and art of some sort...

Pledge here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

💙📚🪐

Watercolour painting of chocolate cake with text Objective: 100% Funded. Who doesn't want a book full of conspiracies and chocolate? Let the overload begin...

November 17, 2025 at 7:12 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Operation: Chocolate Overload is nearly halfway funded already 😁 Time is running out to grab early bird rewards...

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

Part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

<alt>Back in the first 48 hours and get a free printable bookmark! Picture of front and back of bookmark, which incorporates watercolour paintings of desserts and the quote "I'm going to go home and consume chocolate until I die and the whole problem goes away"</alt>

November 13, 2025 at 2:40 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

SOOOOOOOOOON

(last chance to get the pre-launch bonus!)

www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

Darkhaven - Operation: Chocolate Overload is part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com 😁

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Kel E Fox's world building skills are tremendously creative and immersive. – RaeGrams
Darkhaven
Kel E Fox
Watercolour painting of a heart shaped chocolate on a coffee-stained paper background

November 12, 2025 at 6:18 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨1✨(woohoo)
🍫DAY🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
'Whatever they’ve told you is a lie'
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
My muscles turned cold and my skin went clammy. How could he possibly know about Darkhaven, unless … I shook my head and pressed my lips together, fighting off the urge to turn and sprint from the room. The suits behind me looked too much like the men who had nabbed me in the park. It had to be the Taskforce. I shot Dad a quizzical glance.
Dad lifted his deep brown eyes to my face. ‘Those people are terrorists. Whatever they’ve told you is a lie.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 11, 2025 at 3:28 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

art in progress and it's making me happy 😁

watercolor on paper and some mixed media with pen work, charcoal and oil pastel thrown in

#artsky

various watercolour pieces in various stages of completion, mostly trees and abstract art

November 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨2✨(aaaaaaaaaah)
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
‘This sounds like a lot of risk,’ I said.
‘It is,’ Donovan said. ‘It’s a shit plan.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
A sly idea slipped into my head. I cleared my throat over Stephen and Donovan’s discussion of extraction tactics. They stared at me, mid-argument.
‘This sounds like a lot of risk,’ I said.
‘It is,’ Donovan said. ‘It’s a shit plan.’
Stephen implored me with his eyes. ‘It’s not much of a plan, I know, but you’re the first chance we’ve had to get right into the Taskforce, Gabby.’
‘I understand,’ I said. ‘And I’m willing to do it.’
Stephen’s face relaxed. Donovan looked suspicious.
‘But I want something in return.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨3✨(squee!)
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
Quite possibly magic. The words settled over my racing heart like fairy dust.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
I attempted to sink back into the unyielding sofa. It was kind of how my brain felt about all this information. But it had happened in front of my eyes. The cat behaviour. Donovan’s regeneration. My throat tickled and I coughed. ‘It’s like magic,’ I whispered.
Stephen gazed at me levelly. ‘Quite possibly. As I said, we don’t fully understand it. We can’t rule magic out.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘But we don’t know how to test for it either.’
Quite possibly magic. The words settled over my racing heart like fairy dust.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨4✨ (really?)
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
You only say that because you have outdated ideas about what a lady is.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
‘I’m closer to fifty than forty.’
My mouth fell open. He looked about twenty-five. ‘Donovan?’ I pressed. I’d have guessed her to be mid-forties. But if Stephen was forty-something…
‘Now,’ she said, smirking, ‘it’s not polite to ask a lady her age.’
Stephen snorted. ‘You are hardly a lady.’
Donovan turned over a page and slurped more coffee. ‘You only say that because you have outdated ideas about what a lady is. I was born in 1896.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 8, 2025 at 4:20 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨5✨(raar)
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
'We want a symbol, an unmistakable sign that what we are about to do is right.'
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
‘Sometimes, our intuition works against us. We get so used to relying on it for little things – how much milk to add to a batter, whether a plant is suited to a particular spot, how a friend will react to some news – that we take those nudges for granted. When the time comes to make a major decision, we expect it to do something it doesn’t do. If we have all these small, accurate feelings for small situations, we think the bigger problem warrants a bigger feeling. We want a symbol, an unmistakable sign that what we are about to do is right. We stop paying attention to the little signals our body and spirit are sending us.′ He rested his elbows on the table, interlacing his fingers. ‘There are two things that can mask your intuition. Any idea what they are?’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨6✨ (eep)
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
Perhaps my mind just filled in the impossible blanks.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
The air around me erupted in a white-hot blaze. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing anything, or hearing anything. It might have been white fire or black flames, it might have been a stupendous roar or deafening silence, it might have seared across my skin and burned through my shoes and dropped me to the ground where my knees grazed the concrete path, but I don’t know for sure that I was aware of anything. Perhaps my mind just filled in the impossible blanks.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 6, 2025 at 4:07 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨7✨ (yeeaah somewhere I missed one lol)
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
His hand tightened on the steering wheel. ‘God.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
‘Who are you?’ My voice was dry.
‘I told you,’ he replied. Way too innocently.
‘You gave me a name. But you show up at my school. Then at Darkhaven, and you know my full name and about the antiserum. You just appeared at the beach on Saturday. And now you break me out of a secret government facility. Don’t play dumb. I saw all the security cameras. How did you get in? Who are you working for? Did you leave the note?’
‘You wouldn’t believe me.’
I scoffed. ‘Maybe not last week. Try me.’
His hand tightened on the steering wheel. ‘God.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 5, 2025 at 3:29 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨9✨
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
The ball exploded in a puff of glitter like tiny stars, a miniature elliptical galaxy bursting into life and fading from the room.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
Mesmerised, I extended my hand, wondering if it was ridiculously foolish to touch it, but before I could bring myself to move closer the ball exploded in a puff of glitter like tiny stars, a miniature elliptical galaxy bursting into life and fading from the room. Nothing remained except an empty parchment envelope resting in my hand.
I stared at the space where the orb had been, then inspected the envelope, but it contained no further clues. Was it a message? More importantly – the effervescence in my gut intensified – was it…
I couldn’t let myself believe it. Magic.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Cover by me!

Operation: Chocolate Overload edition launches soon 😁 www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

November 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨10✨
🍫DAYS🍫
📚UNTIL📚
Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches as part of @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com!

Get notified: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Text on a textured maroon background with chocolate drips and a stack of chocolate squares.
I’m going to go home and consume chocolate until I die and the whole problem goes away.
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

Text on a coffee stained background with a row of chocolate squares.
‘So,’ Cecelia said, between carrot sticks, ‘which uni are you going for?’
I sighed and bit into a muesli bar, the kind coated with yoghurt and full of chocolate bits. ‘I don’t know, Ceel. I have no idea what I want to do after school, and it’s like if I don’t make that choice now I’m doomed. I’m going to go home with this stupid thing’ – I stabbed a finger at the handbook poking out of my bag – ‘and consume chocolate until I die and the whole problem goes away.’
Darkhaven
Operation: Chocolate Overload
Kel E Fox

November 3, 2025 at 3:08 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Having some fun with my Fancy Fox patrons ✨🦊

The ICS came about after seeing the frankly absurd list of stopovers a parcel made getting from one side of my city to another. Figured parcels must go through multiple dimensions.

Did you think your mail was delivered according to linear time?

Open letter, visible letterhead reads: Interdimensional Courier Services - We Make time. Sitting on top of the letter is a folded letter with a gold wax seal.

Interdimensional Courier Services - We Make Time - Memo.

To: Courier PO7
From: Penelope Brown
Cc: Wyndelia Jones
Date: 31/10/2025
Re: Your job

SQUILLY MEEN, STOP GOING ON RANDOM ADVENTURES AND DO YOUR BLOODY JOB. NO, I DO NOT CARE IF A SPY WAS STUCK IN A DUNGEON OR A PRINCE NEEDED DANCING SLIPPERS.
GET THESE PARCELS OUT ASAP OR STEVE WILL HAVE BOTH OUR HIDES –P

November 3, 2025 at 8:09 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

✨quote with your: cover + first page + link ✨

a.co/d/fIpQFNt

Cover of Another World's Stars by Kel E Fox. Tagline reads: Tear the universe asunder.

Chapter 1: No stranger to magic
I am about to die.
I stand in a pool of light on a steel platform suspended by chains shackled to a truss high above me in the curve of the big top. Below me is a stage of shattered ice, and below that is a deep pool of deathly cold water. Outside, thunder smashes the air, and the wind ripples the vast tent around me.
The steel platform splits in half, and I stumble, fall – and am caught by my wrist. I look up and meet Jairo’s eyes. The show master is resplendent in top hat and tails, a sheen of sweat making his stage makeup shine. His eyes are wild. No doubt my makeup is the same. My eyes, too.
We hang for a moment, suspended in space, perhaps even suspended in time. But I know what is going to happen.

November 3, 2025 at 5:42 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload launches in under two weeks! Follow now to get a bonus download – Character Confidential, where I interview MC Gabby and she throws food at me.

www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

#booksky #sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Screenshot of a document.
THE TARNENVERSE FILES DECLASSIFIED AUG-25
CHARACTER CONFIDENTIAL
An interview between Kel (the author) and Gabby Whitehall (a Lightless
Prophecy MC)
START OF RECORD
Gabby slouches on a sofa, eating jellybeans and not reading the biology
textbook open in her lap. Kel knocks on the door. At Gabby’s nod, Kel sits
on one of the armchairs. Sideways, because Kel has never been known to sit normally on chairs.

November 2, 2025 at 5:11 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Operation: Chocolate Overload features brand new bonus stories!
- A young woman escapes a nightmare and a war.
- A foolhardy god escapes first from a lab he's broken into, then from his mother.
- A puppy escapes from, well, everything. All the time.

#booksky #yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

Ebook mockup of Escape Artist Extraordinaires (Lightless Prophecy Stories) by Kel E Fox. Cover features line art drawings of a smug puppy, a woman running and a man running in opposite directions.

November 1, 2025 at 5:24 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

The Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload experience wouldn't be complete without actual chocolate! I can't ship chocolate to you, sadly, but I can provide a glorious recipe: Nutella biscuits 😋🍪

Follow now! www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

💙📚🪐

Photo by Ben Stein

Photo of freshly baked chocolate chip biscuits

October 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM

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