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 · 27 following
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.
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.
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.
Latest from the Creator
Sherrie Bakelar
5 days ago
Blog Post Update
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.
A Dragon for Darius' first Cover is finished - Teaser
The first part's cover is finished. Will I be revealing it? Not quite yet!
But when I do, it will be to backers and followers first!
I made a palette as a teaser. These are the colors that dominate the artwork.
The first part of A Dragon for Darius is the book of Zhu Que, the Vermillion Bird of the South. She represents Summer and Fire. She is Old Yang (peak energy).
This first part sets the stage and introduces the characters and their world.
Welcome to the Rebellion and There's a Follower/Backer Poll Out
I wanted to take this weekend morning (my timezone) to welcome my followers and say thank you for your interest in this project. Darius' story has been percolating in my brain since I was seventeen years old. I won't say how long ago that was but I will say, I didn't carry a phone, I carried a quarter in my pocket so I could make a call if I ever got in trouble.
Today's a big day. I have the full cover, front, back, and spine, for A Dragon For Darius' Part One. Keeping it under wraps for now, but I think I'll take the hummingbird off it and make some stickers as freebies.
August is a big time in the Book Bazaar world. We are solidifying tiers, rewards, and incentives. One such is the early bird-backer reward. For this project, it will be a set of eight postcards that Darius collected on her journey around the world. Backers and followers have the opportunity to choose where the postcards are coming from.
This link will take you to Jotform because the embedded polls in Backerkit don't allow for multiple checkbox answers. No personally identifiable data is being collected. The poll closes on September 30, 2026.
I've been having a day. I'm pretty sure I voted for a better one but sometimes you just roll with the punches. Then, I found a cover art sketch in my inbox for the first hardback!
It's going to be beautiful in color on a hardback book. Super excited to see three more matching covers!
We are closing the curtain on book three of A Dragon For Darius. Qinglong, the Azure Dragon of the East will be free.
If you were worried about backing the project because Sherrie doesn't usually write so fast, we are nearly down to one book away from completing the hardest part of this undertaking.
Does it get any easier for Sherrie? No. Does it get any easier for Darius? Definitely Not!
But it will be worth it!
We have been working in the background on additional achievements for backers of the project to work toward. We have been crafting stickers and bookmarks, and banners.
If you know anyone who would like to join us, send them our way!
We've been busy at the writing desk. Volumes One and Two have passed an initial read-through, and volume Three is at 34K words...about 2/3 finished. Meanwhile, we have been playing with novel formatting software, which is limited because we work on Linux but love it too much to leave it. Nevertheless, the books are going to be fabulous!
Going through the books with beta readers, I thought, wouldn't it be crazy if Darius' journey was actually a travelogue rather than a sci-fi adventure meant to save the world? See, in my research, I've been watching travelogues, so this thought is grounded in reality. While I won't be turning the book into a travel show anytime soon, I did want to announce an incentive for early backers:
A set of postcards from Darius' adventures. I'm thinking two places per book, eight total. Free for early-bird backers. But WAIT! Eight is such an odd number. Let's add an extra incentive. Backers at a special tier have the chance to add four more postcards for an even dozen.
You don't have to worry about backing anything yet. These are still in the making, and the project doesn't go live until the end of October.
But for you, my dear friends and readers, a special opportunity to choose where the postcards are coming from. This link will take you to Jotform because the embedded polls here in Backerkit don't allow for multiple checkbox answers. No personally identifiable data is being collected. The poll closes on September 30, 2026.
