Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Sooo I was debating this for a banner image, but it might give the wrong impression 😂

Sexy - no
Awkward af - yes (what else is being a teen for)

Last chance to back this upper YA urban science fantasy with mortifying high school moments www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

@the-book-bazaar.com 💙📚🪐

Quote from Darkhaven on urban background
‘Hey Gabby!’ Samantha called. ‘Do you masturbate?’
The whole class fell silent.
Awkward.
That's high school for you.

December 3, 2025 at 5:53 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

🍫CHOCOLATE POLL ALERT!🍫

Is Milo a thing in the US? Ovaltine, maybe? This is the LAST poll, and a hot chocolatey drink makes a good winter reading beverage, so go vote!

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

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

#yafantasy #sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

How do you consume milo?
You might think this is a simple hot/cold beverage question, but you would be incorrect.
Milo in glass. Pour milk CAREFULLY. Drink off the milk. Eat the milo with a spoon.
Stir the Milo into the hot/cold milk, the rest of you are maniacs
Fuck the milk, just eat the Milo from the tin
What happened to that chocolate-coated Milo bar, that was amazing

November 29, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

I lied about the no spice. There is spice in the mulled wine.

But otherwise this is a kissing-only angsty enby/m romance with two worlds and a heartbreaking time differential as one character goes to war.

www.romancebooklovers.com/fantasy

#sff #readingcommunity #romantasy #queerbooks #ku 💙📚🪐

Romance Book Blast 99c Black Friday Event, Nov 28 - Dec 1
hosted by indie authors featuring indie authors
Fairy Tale Retellings, spicy and sweet
Book covers of Another World's Stars by Kel E Fox, cursed prince, dancer, Sleeping Beauty, Winter Solstice, heat level - no spice
Romancebooklovers.com

November 29, 2025 at 9:24 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

I had no idea what to do after high school. Teachers advised things like 'get an arts degree', 'go into STEM', 'take a gap year and go backpacking'.

My similarly undecided friend was told to consider having a baby 😳

Gabby is one of us. 🌩️

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 long hair wearing a shirt, trousers and heeled boots. Text on the file excerpt reads: Name: Gabrielle Whitehall, Classification: subject, Known Associates: Jon Whitehall, Alex Whitehall, Keraun Thephyeu (?), Notes: Receptive to chocolate. Not transitioned. Text alongside the file excerpt reads: Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Adele Whitehall is 17, finishing high school, and has no idea what she's doing – but she's going to do it while snacking. Sassy, indecisive and passionate about... something. Will know it when she finds it. Secretly hopes magic is real, despite feeling rather that she’s supposed to have stopped believing by now. Never had a crush on a person before.

November 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Books everywhere! The Romance Book Blast has over 950 indie authors, all with books at 99c. But look – I've picked out the fairy tale retellings for you 🧚💕

Go get lost in boooooks: www.romancebooklovers.com

#sff #readingcommunity #fantasy #romantasy #romance #romancelandia 💙📚🪐

November 28, 2025 at 3:34 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

Grab the first half of the Lightless Prophecy (sassy YA urban science fantasy turns queer magical space opera) as part of this ENORMOUS bundle of fun!

itch.io/b/3410/creat...

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

@aimeecozza.com

Check out the LIGHTLESS PROPHECY in the Creator Day itch.io Bundle!
From midnight to midnight
Pacific Time on November 28th, creators will receive 100% of their profits. Snag a bundle to show your support.
$50 for 70+ ebooks, audio books, short stories, games, and more.
bundle organized by Aimee Cozza

November 28, 2025 at 6:42 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

🎨45 CREATORS✒️
🎧74 ITEMS📚
🎉✨82% DISCOUNT✨🎉

This weekend, support independent creatives! This bundle is ENORMOUS. So big it has attained awareness and now it wants to be yours.

That sounds creepy.

Anyway. Give it a home: itch.io/b/3410/creat...

big thx to @aimeecozza.com
#CreatorDay2025

Huge Creator Day Bundle
ebooks, audiobooks, games & more
70+ items
reduced from $293 to only $50
Pictured is a fiery background with book covers and promotional graphics

November 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

In The Filigree Key, Gabby deals with the belligerence of a German Shepherd/Alaskan Malamute puppy, Salt. Salt is the main reason this collection is called 'Escape Artist Extraordinaires'.

Get it here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

Escape with @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com 💙📚🪐

The chapel was suspiciously quiet. I pursed my lips and stared at the frayed end of the 'unchewable' leash, the over-turned water bucket and the wet paw prints disappearing back out the doorway. The doors themselves – solid, wooden affairs with inlaid stained glass – lay on trestles in the middle of the room, their rusted hinges in a pile on the floor. Even in the cool of the old chapel, the water evaporated quickly, erasing the trail before my eyes. I followed the marks before they vanished completely.
Too late. By the time I reached the front door of the building, the prints were gone.
The Filigree Key
Operation Chocolate Overload
Purple watercolour background with a chocolate sauce swirl

November 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

To be fair to the soldiers, no one is as physically strong as Donovan. Pick up The Inheritance Experiment as part of Operation: Chocolate Overload on BackerKit!

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

Check out @the-book-bazaar.com on @backerkit.com
#sciencefantasy 💙📚🪐

At first, some of the soldiers were suspicious, but most couldn’t believe that a woman could be so physically strong. And she wasn’t alone. Bischoff found Kadett Krenn washing her bloodied underwear in a hidden pool. They joked that in a war as bloody as this, of course it would be a little blood that would give them away.
The Inheritance Experiment
Operation: Chocolate Overload

November 26, 2025 at 6:19 AM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

'The Inheritance Experiment' is another bonus story included in Operation: Chocolate Overload. First printed in 2018, it won the publisher's Editor's Choice award.

And yeah. While Keraun's tale is fun shenanigans, Donovan's is grim misery all the way down 😢

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

💙📚🪐

She washed the blood off her hands and arms in the Holy Water font, discarded her clothes on the floor of the baptistry and donned one of the spare abbot robes hanging in a closet in the office. ‘Donovan’ was stitched into a label on the inside of the collar.
It was as good a name as any.
The Inheritance Experiment
Operation: Chocolate Overload

November 25, 2025 at 2:54 PM

Kel E Fox

@kelefox.bsky.social

No, Darkhaven isn't on Netflix. But it'd make a hell of a good show!

In the meantime, we have to settle for books. And by settle, I mean bask in superiority. (Nothing against film/TV. But the book is *usually* better)

Back it now: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/k...

@the-book-bazaar.com 💙📚🪐

November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM

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...

💙📚🪐