Drafts finished and art in progress
Hello Foxes,
IT IS DONE! I have officially finished the rough drafts of all three books in my romantic gaslamp Whisperers series, featuring the following…
Whimsical garden city brimming with magic and art
A society where you can’t tell a lie… unless you ‘Whisper’ it
Disgraced magician looking for love
Exiled spy running from everything but especially love
MF slow burn romance where one party is bi
Main characters in their 20s/30s
Political intrigue and deadly conspiracies
Still a way to go with revisions, but that first draft is the scariest part, so it feels great to have it done. I’m confident!
(Ask me again in a couple of weeks when I’m neck-deep in edits if that’s still the case)
I’m pressing on with exciting Kickstarter plans, which will pre-launch soon. The cover is very close to finished, and I’m working on interior illustrations. Some thumbnail sketches below!
Substack going forward
Given that I have some ambitious projects to complete this year, I’m no longer doing original updates across multiple socials as I was (failing to manage) last year. My focus is going to be right here on Substack! That means emails will come a little more often – no more than weekly – according to the following approximate schedule:
Fortnightly newsy update like this one
Alternating weeks - fortnightly vlog, also on YouTube
I’m planning a new free novella that will release here too, so when that happens, I’ll slot it in to one of the newsletter spaces instead so you still only have weekly emails at a maximum (although they might be different times during the week for launches and special events).
Next week will be a vlog!
If it becomes a Fox overload, you can update your preferences via a ‘Subscribed’ button or the unsub link down the very bottom, and you’ll get a bunch of choices like this:
You can pick any or all at any time! ‘Kel E Fox’ is this, the chaotic news/updates/art in progress/sometimes comics/book fairs. The rest should be fairly self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask :)
Speaking of book fairs
If you’re up to the third book in the Lightless Prophecy, you’ll know I have a fairly unconventional approach to family structure in my otherworldly civilisations. Keraun, for example, has three parents. As for relationships, Donovan is poised for what might be the slowest burning FF romance ever.
I’m also drafting a gender-swapped dark fantasy Phantom of the Opera retelling over on Ream, in which the Phantom and the Persian pursue a sapphic romance.
The world of the Whisperers is one of normalised queerness. Stories that interrogate social norms and issues are vital, but I love it when a fantasy world portrays all kinds of relationships as accepted and valid.
A run of great reading!
I’ve been totally spoilt with my reading lately in both print and audio. Scholomance by Naomi Novik, the London Charismatics by Jacquelyn Benson, Defiant by Brandon Sanderson and Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater have all been keeping me thoroughly entertained and raising my expectations for books everywhere. That’s a good thing, right?
Right. I’m off to do a workout, then start wading through the mountain of sketches and start refining some artwork.
And so I can keep my run of great reads going, what’s the best book you’ve read lately?
Happy reading,
Kel