This campaign will fund the production of a new series, A Dragon for Darius, a Story in Four Parts. Books in this special edition feature unique cover art that will only be available through Backerkit.
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A Dragon For Darius Limited Edition Cover Art · 37 following
You're the only one who can do this. The neural network implanted in our brain spies on us. To topple the All Fathers, you must do the legwork; you must take charge of the Four Auspicious Beasts.
Welcome! You have found your way to a story about how a young woman and her dragon saved the world. Born of dystopian fear and climate denial, the unquestioned power of religious fools, and their sycophants propping up greed, this story percolated and dreamed in the background of life for almost thirty-five years until at last it awakened.
A Dragon for Darius, a story in four parts.
This is the story of Darius, born during the collapse of civilization, into the darkness of the Evernight. It’s the story of Yùlóng, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, her immortal protector. It is a story told in four parts, four books that is.
Darius just wanted to live her life, a simple routine that kept her safe and fed on the streets of Chicago. When a murder interrupted that routine, a group of rebels hijacked her life and sent her on a quest to save the planet and overthrow the secretive religious cult that rules the world.
Darius Needs You!
Decades before, the cult had waged war against the planet, killing its guardian spirits and the champions of the natural world, including the Four Auspicious Beasts of Chinese legend. With the guardians gone, the leaders of the cult gorged themselves on the planet's lifeforce, slowly killing the Earth. Hoarding this power, the cult leaders sowed resentment amongst their soldiers. And when the soldiers discovered the souls of the Four Auspicious Beasts kept captive instead of killed, a rebellion formed.
Stealing the souls, the rebels fled. But when the loyalists caught up to them in Chicago, they attacked Darius' train, and in the midst of battle, Darius fled with the souls; their rebel protector slaughtered at her feet.
Now that she's protecting them, it's up to Darius to reawaken the Four Auspicious Beasts and save the planet. Accompanied by a bodyguard, a smuggler, and a couple of rebels, Darius sets off around the world, searching for fonts of elemental power strong enough to reawaken the souls.
However, as each beast is set free and the planet begins to tilt back into balance, the cult grows more desperate to stop her. Soon even a Guardian Dragon won't be able to keep Darius safe.
Know Before You Go
Content Warnings for the full series: alcohol, animal death, anxiety, assault, attempted murder, blood, cults, death, depression, drugs, gun violence, blade violence, infertility, homelessness, miscarriage, misgendering, murder, underage sex (suggested, off-page), poisoning, prostitution (mentioned), religion, devils, angels, attempted suicide, beheading, character death, torture, violence. Books 2 and 3 also contain Level 4 open door spice with a love triangle.
Latest from the Creator
Sherrie Bakelar
3 days ago
Xuanwu, Book Two
We are in the presence of the Turtle God. My artist has sent along sketches of the deep darkness for the water hummingbird!
It is going to be gorgeous! Are you following this Project? When it goes live, early backers will receive a set of postcards from Darius as well as a set of hummingbird stickers. Also, following and backing early will give you the best chance at the limited hardcover versions.
"WAIT! Limited hardcovers? Yes.
Have no fear, A Dragon for Darius will also be available in Paperback and EBook.
Keep in mind that shipping costs are out of my control, in flux, and added at the end of the project. Something to be aware of if thinking about Hardcovers or Paperbacks vs. Ebooks.
The Zhu Que Hummingbird Cover is scheduled for a reveal this weekend over on Read Indie Fantasy.com.
I'm hopeful that seeing the covers that these books will be clothed in will bring you all as much joy as it brings me! Once the cover is revealed, I'll be updating the launch page and releasing book trailers and other posts.
For those who are already following, the cover is available through the sneak peek posted just before this. We are also looking for people to take a sticker poll here on Backerkit and another linked in a previous post about postcards sent by Darius to you...but also to a mysterious someone.
Welcome fellow travelers. Our main event this weekend is a sneak peek cover reveal!
A Dragon for Darius is a weighty story encompassing many thousands of words. To alleviate some of the greatest difficulties facing chonky books, it has been broken into four parts. Thus, the title: A Dragon for Darius, A Story in Four Parts. Why four? Serendiptiously, it is about releasing the Four Auspicious Beasts from Chinese Legend to save the planet from a lifeforce-consuming religious cult.
Four souls, four books. ... Four hummingbirds? Yes! The Auspiciuos Beasts are in a right state when we first meet them, being little more than hummingbird-like creatures the hero, Darius, carries around in her messenger bag.
And today, we set the first one free!
These special edition covers are only available through this campaign. Cover art is by ArtworkbyEmily.
The sneak peek is only for followers of the project. If you haven't followed yet, now's your chance!
Look for a blue "follow" button on the sidebar. Or, if you'd rather, here's a link.
You may need to be logged into a backerkit account to access this content.
Just a quick announcement that the first cover reveal will be September 19th!
Stop by or check your email sometime after 10:00 am MDT to be the first to see Zhu Que's Auspicious Hummingbird, the cover for A Dragon for Darius, Part One.
Additionally, the cover artist, Emily Jackson from Artwork by Emily is hard at work on the second cover, Xuanwu, the Black Turtle of the North.
Remember, the reveal is exclusive to followers of the project. If you haven't followed yet, now's your chance!
What's not exclusive is our Sticker Poll. We will be creating stickers of the Auspicious Hummingbirds and are curious, what's the ideal size for a vinyl sticker? To vote, you will need to be logged into a backerkit account.
A Dragon for Darius Auspicious Hummingbird Sticker Update!
Greetings fellow travelers!
We are researching vinyl stickers this week as a special extra reward for backers of this project. The vendors offer several sizes, but what is the ideal size? Do you like smaller stickers or larger ones? They will be custom cut-outs rather than squares, meaning that wings, beaks, and tails may make them oblong. However, overall, which size should we get?
2 inches by 2 inches: Smaller for water bottles, laptops, etc. Collect them all, show them off!
3 inches by 3 inches: Still small enough for a bottle or a laptop but details are more visible.
5 inches by 5 inches: Car Decal, widescreen laptop, bedroom mirror.
It's been a crazy year. I started working on A Dragon for Darius in earnest in late January, 2026. It stood at approximately 8,000 words when I began. As I worked on it, I realized that the story was too big for a single book and I decided to split it into parts and create a series. Today, as I am nearly a quarter of the way through the fourth and final book, it stands at approximately 190,000 words. The final goal is four books of approximately 50K each, so we have some editing to do. It has been the most fun, the hardest, and one of the saddest books I've written. I'm excited to share it with readers. In fact, I have never felt more certain that people NEED to read a book than I feel about this one.
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