Chris Kanther joins Crimson Fox Publishing!
Some Personal News: The Nine Kingdoms Are Coming
Jewel Fans, I have news of my own for once, and it’s the kind I’ve been waiting most of my life to share.
If you’ve spent any time around the Archive, you know me. For over a decade now, this project has been my love letter to a storybook world — the magic, the friendship, the found family, the earnest belief that kindness is a kind of power. We’ve dug through production archives, tracked down cast and crew, and preserved every scrap of Avalon we could find, because stories like this matter, and somebody ought to keep the lights on for them. This site is living, breathing proof of that.
Here’s something I’ve only hinted at on the Archive: when I started this project, it was always meant to be in tandem with my other creative works as an author. While being keeper of someone else’s storybook world, the desire was always to someday be the builder of my own.
What are the Nine Kingdoms?
Picture the turn of the century as a fairy tale remembers it: enchanted department stores with moving staircases, dragon-run banks, supper clubs where the ceiling is a false night sky. It’s a crystal-lamp-lit, storybook world where fairy tales grew up, got jobs, and kept their magic anyway — cozy, queer, and full of found family and second chances. If you’ve ever loved a world where friendship is the strongest magic going, I built this one with you in mind.
Here’s how Crimson Fox described the book in their announcement:
Ten years after the dazzling Madame Norma plucked him from an orphanage and mysteriously vanished, Grey, a young man hiding his unregistered magic at the Nine Kingdoms’ most spectacular magical department store, must confront his past when Norma suddenly returns.
Every wish has a price. Every trinket has a tale. And the customer service is, I promise you, impeccable.
You don’t have to wait until 2027
Two Nine Kingdoms short stories are available free right now, and they’re the fastest way to see whether this world is your kind of cozy:
→ Get both free stories at chriskanther.com/free
You’ll also get first news of the novel — cover reveal, release date, first chapter, all of it — before anywhere else.
And if you’d like something even sooner: a third Nine Kingdoms short story, starring Grey and his sprite friend Puck, appears in Once Upon a Rhyme, the fairy tale anthology from Snowy Wings Publishing, out October 6.
How GORGEOUS is this cover?!
About Crimson Fox – and a familiar name or two
Crimson Fox (Snowy Wings Publishing’s sister imprint) is an author-run cooperative — a group of independent authors who pool their efforts to help each other publish and promote their work, while each author keeps full ownership of their books. It’s a model that suits me down to the ground: independent, collaborative, and built on genuine friendship rather than gatekeeping.
Longtime listeners of the JRA Podcast will already know some of the people involved. Lyssa Chiavari and Jane Watson joined us on the podcast a while back to talk about Snowy Wings Publishing and if you missed that conversation, it’s a great listen and a good look at how this whole corner of indie publishing works:
Getting to publish alongside them now is one of those full-circle moments I don’t entirely have words for.
The Archive isn’t going anywhere
Let me say this part plainly, because I know it’s the first question some of you will have: the Jewel Riders Archive continues exactly as it always has. The preservation work, the podcast, the deep dives — we are not going anywhere, or shuttering. I’ve just added a second world to look after.
And honestly? This community is the reason I believed I could do this at all. Running the Archive taught me that a small group of people who genuinely love a story can keep it alive for decades — and that I’d rather spend my life among those people than anywhere else. Whatever happens with these books, you all were the proof of concept for the whole dream.
Thank you for that. Truly.
Come visit the Nine Kingdoms sometime. The doors are open, the staircases are enchanted, and the first stories are free.
→ Read the full Crimson Fox announcement
Friends Together, Friends Forever.
Chris Kanther
