It's our weekly update... how are all of your weeks going? The countdown continues until our July 21st launch date! Until then, we have more to share with you all~ 

Our stone-throwing neighbor Niamh was the winner of last week's character art poll! It was pretty close, though... (sorry, dear Austin). We decided to throw in an extra Mr. Tom for you, too, just for giggles.

Since we had some active discussion in the last thread, we want to make some notes on how to view concept art: please keep in mind that all of our concepts are... well, concepts! What that means is that these are early development sketches from artist, Corin.

Concept art is an integral part of the process--without starting somewhere, we would not be able to explore ideas, collect detailed feedback from K.F. Breene, or refine those notes into final illustrations. So, please consider all the preview artwork you see to be "not final" unless explicitly stated. We'll be adding a little note to images as well to make that clearer!

We deeply thank you for keeping your comments constructive and respectful, and remember that final approvals will always come from Queen Breene herself 😉

Additionally, there is always a real person behind all of the work you see here. This campaign is an ✨ AI-FREE ✨project, which means that every part of this campaign--from the writing and previews all the way to the finished products, will always be made by a real human (except for Katie, who we suspect may not be a Jane like most of us, haha).

Now that folks are trickling in and chatting with each other, new features have been unlocked... our project now has a Leaderboard on the front page! We like to sprinkle a little bit of bonus fun into our campaigns, so, you never know, there might be a few special thank-you's for the top folks on the board :] 

Our Key Upgrade unlock goal is over 2/3 of the way there! When we hit 3000 followers on this campaign, the unlock is applied to everyone who early-pledged for the keychain. I think we might hit it before the end of the month, what about you?

And, since we all love the creatures in Leveling Up... which one is your favorite? We've got a new poll for you to vote in, below. The winning creature might find their way into an upcoming reward for the campaign, so choose wisely 🦇

Our next update will be Thursday, on June 18, with some exciting news about Launch Day stream, including a special guest host who some of you may already be familiar with. See you then! 

Happy June, all!

Thank you all for your excitement about the upcoming campaign! We're just a few weeks away from the launch of the Leveling Up Collected Edition on July 21st. If you're just joining us, keep an eye out for author K. F. Breene herself poking her head in on occasion, too (yes, she's just that awesome).

Without further ado, we wanted to talk a bit more about what sets this new edition apart. 

We have a lot planned for this book, but one thing that will really set it apart from previous editions is the level of embellishment. This set is meant to sing on the shelf... not just from the outside but on the inside, too. After a lot of research to find out what makes a deluxe book stand out... you know what? We're doing all of it. YOLO, as the kids say. And, we're starting our features by chatting about our illustrations.

The inhabitants of O'Briens will be brought to life by a rising star in the comics space, Corin Howell, a fellow creator of paranormal adventure. Several months ago, Corin started concepting (aka creating early development art) places and characters who appear in the books. One of her first early concepts was for Ivy House itself. 

Corin is an excellent draftswoman and included many gorgeous gothic details, but there were still a few inaccuracies with this design. After a round of notes from K.F. Breene, Corin went back to the drawing board. We'll have the updated version to show off in a future post!

Corin also made sketches for many of the primary characters who play a role in Magical Midlife Madness, Dating, and Invasion. We couldn't not leave you with a sketch of our take-no-shit heroine, Jessie Evans.

We have to give huge thanks to K. F. Breene for writing these characters so vividly, as well as for giving feedback on visual development along the way. 

The art in the Deluxe Edition books will appear as scene illustrations which backers will get to vote on! And don't forget, reaching campaign milestones will give backers the ability to add even more original art illustrations (a town map would be nice, right?), and maybe even some illustrations with a bit more 🌶️

A reminder that the next few weeks before launch is your only opportunity to grab a special Ivy House Key. These keys will be unavailable after we launch, but the lucky ones who find this page before July 21 have the chance to sign up early and get this reservation gift for just $5.

Even better, once we hit 3,000 followers, everyone's key automagically gets a cute glittery upgrade. We're currently at ~1700 followers, and that number is climbing every day. So, share the link to the page and let a friend know to give us a follow. You can follow our progress bar, posted below!

If you're a project followers, you can look under the cut of this post to see a bonus concept of Jessie's female gargoyle form as well.

Our next update will be next Thursday, on June 11. Until then, we'd love to know... which Leveling Up characters are you hoping to get a glimpse of next? Cast your vote in the poll below to let us know ✨ 

Looks like we had a little bit of trouble with the comments section on our previous post... huge thanks to everyone who poked to let us know, and let's try this again!

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Hello, everyone, and welcome in! We're so excited to have you with us for K.F. Breene's Leveling Up BackerKit campaign! The campaign officially launches on July 21st, 2026, but every week we're going to treat you all to behind-the-scenes sneak-peeks, previews, and ways to participate in a special upcoming event featuring the queen K.F. Breene herself.

Whether you're already familiar or are here for the first time, we'll give you a quick intro: a crowdfunding campaign (like this one on the BackerKit website) is a way for backers to support their favorite projects and access special exclusive rewards. In our case, for readers can get their hands on the exclusive Leveling Up Deluxe Collected Edition.

This three-book set (and other treasures) will only be available through this campaign, AND are fully centered on you, our future backers. With your support, we'll be able to create an ultra-gorgeous, exclusive edition that will eventually include the entire paranormal fantasy, adventure--and, yes, romance--series Leveling Up, starting with the first three Magical Midlife books.

We know some of you may have backed K.F. Breene's standalone Book 1 crowdfunding campaign back in 2022... a special thank you for checking out this new BackerKit campaign! We've got something special planned specifically for you 💜

What will really set this campaign apart is that we want you to take home a little bit of the Ivy House magic for yourself. As the campaign continues to grow, you'll be able to collect keys to "unlock" your favorite Ivy House upgrades: that means, special backer-only polls that give you the power to add freebies to your reward sets! The more momentum we gain, the better everyone's rewards get, at no additional cost. It's going to be a lot of fun, and we want to kick things off with a little game to start.

If you're already pretty sure you're going to join the campaign, you can place a mini-deposit of $5 to reserve your early place in the campaign and receive an Ivy House Keychain, available only during this window before our official launch on July 21. If our project page reaches at least 3000 project followers before launch, all keychains will get an automatic upgrade to include an embedded stone from the crystal heart of Ivy House. Kinda cool, right?

Reservations can be made from the main Launch Party page. If you're joining us from the previous IGG campaign, we'll be reaching out today to let you know how to follow us at here our new home on BackerKit. 

Our next update will be on Thursday, June 4th... we're quite excited to show off some of our planned rewards, including more info about the interior illustrations. Until then, leave a comment* to say hello, ask a question, or even let us know what Leveling Up goodies you're looking forward to seeing most ✨

*here's hoping we've got the comment section all fixed up. Thanks again for bearing with our technical issues! 

Hello, everyone, and welcome in! We're so excited to have you with us for K.F. Breene's Leveling Up BackerKit campaign! The campaign officially launches on July 21st, 2026, but every week we're going to treat you all to behind-the-scenes sneak-peeks, previews, and ways to participate in a special upcoming event featuring the queen K.F. Breene herself.

Whether you're already familiar or are here for the first time, we'll give you a quick intro: a crowdfunding campaign (like this one on the BackerKit website) is a way for backers to support their favorite projects and access special exclusive rewards. In our case, for readers can get their hands on the exclusive Leveling Up Deluxe Collected Edition.

This three-book set (and other treasures) will only be available through this campaign, AND are fully centered on you, our future backers. With your support, we'll be able to create an ultra-gorgeous, exclusive edition that will eventually include the entire paranormal fantasy, adventure--and, yes, romance--series Leveling Up, starting with the first three Magical Midlife books.

We know some of you may have backed K.F. Breene's standalone Book 1 crowdfunding campaign back in 2022... a special thank you for checking out this new BackerKit campaign! We've got something special planned specifically for you 💜

What will really set this campaign apart is that we want you to take home a little bit of the Ivy House magic for yourself. As the campaign continues to grow, you'll be able to collect keys to "unlock" your favorite Ivy House upgrades: that means, special backer-only polls that give you the power to add freebies to your reward sets! The more momentum we gain, the better everyone's rewards get, at no additional cost. It's going to be a lot of fun, and we want to kick things off with a little game to start.

If you're already pretty sure you're going to join the campaign, you can place a mini-deposit of $5 to reserve your early place in the campaign and receive an Ivy House Keychain, available only during this window before our official launch on July 21. If our project page reaches at least 3000 project followers before launch, all keychains will get an automatic upgrade to include an embedded stone from the crystal heart of Ivy House. Kinda cool, right?

Reservations can be made from the main Launch Party page. If you're joining us from the previous IGG campaign, we'll be reaching out today to let you know how to follow us at here our new home on BackerKit. 

Our next update will be on Thursday, June 4th... we're quite excited to show off some of our planned rewards, including more info about the interior illustrations. Until then, leave a comment to say hello, ask a question, or even let us know what Leveling Up goodies you're looking forward to seeing most ✨