Only 14 Days Left on Kickstarter!
Today, with 14 days left until the end of our 2026 Kickstarter campaign, we’re 114% funded, 14% over our initial goal. If you’re one of our 120 backers and/or have shared our campaign on social media, we truly can’t thank you enough! 📖🍫💖
Just because we’ve reached our initial goal, doesn’t mean we’re finished yet. Typically, we do reopen our online store after a Kickstarter ends. But since our chocolate bars are all handmade in small batches, we do tend to sell out of flavors and are unable to make more bars until next year (after Valentine’s Day). Our brand-new flavors, as well as our seasonal flavors, tend to sell out the fastest, even though we increase the size of our batches every year. That’s why we say we have a FINITE amount of each flavor in stock. Some flavors might not be available (or only available in limited quantities) on our online store from October through the end of the year.
This is why we treat our Kickstarter campaign as a way for customers to preorder our bars or, in other words, to reserve flavors before they sell out. It’s also why we say our Kickstarter is “First Come, First Served.” We fill rewards chronologically from the first backer to the last backer. So the sooner you back our Kickstarter, the more likely you are to receive the flavors you want most!
RefashionedHippie Maggie Weber Tastes Our Chocolate & Interviews Open Book Chocolates Owner
Our connection with local Marylander and fashion queen Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie) all began with Key City Steampunk Festival in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This past March, I realized we would both be tabling at Key City in August. Watching her content over the years, I already knew she was a champion of small, creative, women-owned businesses. So I decided to reach out to her!
One thing led to another, and we at Open Book Chocolates were able to arrange a private factory tour for Maggie at River-Sea Chocolates in Reston, Virginia. There, Maggie received firsthand knowledge and experience of the bean-to-bar chocolate making process. You can watch her talk about River-Sea in detail on YouTube:
Maggie and the Chocolate Factory | River-Sea Chocolates Tour and Tasting
During her visit to River-Sea, Maggie sat down with me (Geri, Owner of Open Book Chocolates) to ask me about my business and what goes into making our literary-inspired chocolate bars. You can watch Maggie’s in-depth Open Book Chocolates tasting, as well as the interview (which starts around 19:34) on YouTube:
Unboxing & Review | Open Book Chocolates
I can’t thank Maggie enough for all that she’s done to help our small business grow. She is truly just a delightful, bubbly, enthusiastic, and authentic person. Thank you so, so much, Maggie! Your support means the world to us!! 📖🍫💖
Heavy Are The Years Story Collection
Open Book Chocolates is working with Bonedust Press (bonedustpress.com) and WildStar Press (wildstarpress.com) on their new illustrated story collection, Heavy Are The Years. We’re collaborating with these two small presses on a custom, limited-edition chocolate bar for their upcoming Kickstarter campaign.
They have 26 days left to reach their $11,000 goal!
“Heavy Are The Years is an illustrated story collection about the weight of time on our minds, our bodies, and our souls. Is it the looming, inevitable press of millennia across history changing even the most powerful beings in strange ways? Does time lose meaning or compound when it loops in on itself, trapping one soul within it’s grasp? And what does time mean when we’ve left our mortal coil, trying to grasp the slippery stream of mortal time to reunite with a loved one?
Explore all these themes and more as you dive into this collected trio of illustrated stories. Heavy Are The Years, once funded, will debut in early 2027 with three novella-length stories, each illustrated by an artist paired carefully with each writer. This book is a collaborative project between Bonedust and Wildstar Press, a Stardust Collaboration.”
Please click the button below to visit their Kickstarter campaign:
2027 Steampunk Events
As you may recall, in August, I wrote a recap of Key City Steampunk Convention (our second time there as vendors):
On September 5th, Key City Steampunk Convention announced next year’s dates and theme:
“The dust is rising. The skies are looking a little… questionable. And we’re not entirely sure what came through town last night.
August 13th through the 15th in Gettysburg, PA - Key City Steampunk Convention finds itself in the Weird, Weird West.”
We’re already polishing our bolo ties and cowboy boots in anticipation! 🤠
Furthermore, we’re looking forward to Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival 2027 (April 16th through 18th in York, PA). We weren’t able to attend this past April, but we’re hoping to go again and have already applied to become a vendor. 2027’s theme is Robert Louis Stevenson and “Treasure Island: Airships & Buccaneers.” Our Treasure Island (Rum and Coconut in Dark Chocolates) bar will fit in splendidly! 🏴☠️
What We’re Reading
Geri’s Picks
Have you ever read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson? I’ve been meaning to read it for over 20 years, and am now just finishing it. This bestselling nonfiction nail-biter effortlessly weaves together the history of architect Daniel Burnham, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (i.e. the Chicago’s World Fair), and the con artist/serial killer H. H. Holmes into a completely engrossing tale.
In a way, I’m glad I waited until now to read The Devil in the White City because, by mere coincidence, I previously read two novels that influenced my understanding and appreciation for this chapter in U.S. history: Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925), both by Theodore Dreiser. Early on in The Devil in the White City, Larson quotes directly from Sister Carrie to describe the city of Chicago in the late 19th century. In many ways, Carrie is just like the many victims of H. H. Holmes — a young, naïve woman on her own, lured to Chicago by the promise of work, independence, and a better life.
Later on in The Devil in the White City, Larson discusses Dreiser’s visit to the exposition. There, the young journalist accompanied the winners of a contest held by his newspaper, courted his first wife (she was nicknamed “Jug” for her penchant for wearing brown), rode the Ferris Wheel (invented to “Out-Eiffel” the 1889 Paris Exposition’s Eiffel Tower), and even attended Buffalo Bill’s show next door to the fair.
An American Tragedy, while not mentioned directly in The Devil in the White City, is sometimes credited as the first novel based on a true crime. Holmes was arrested in 1894, and his case was widely reported in newspapers. There’s no direct evidence that Dreiser was aware of or took any special interest in Holmes’s case. But I can’t help wonder what the journalist-turned-novelist might have thought of this prolific murderer.
Geri’s Additional Picks
Can we offer you a “Spooky Season” amuse-bouche?
Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu.
And Then There Were None (1939) by Agatha Christie.
Nightmare Alley (1946) by William Lindsay Gresham.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by Shirley Jackson.
The Long Walk (1979) by Stephen King.
Irene’s Picks
Irene is still on her Anthony Trollope-athon. Currently, she’s reading The Claverings (1867), and is awaiting copies of The Prime Minster (1876) and The American Senator (1877) in the mail.
Upcoming Events
Here at Open Book Chocolates, we’re very excited for our upcoming events September through November:
Saturday, September 19th: Pop-Up at My Big Finds in Kentlands, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Wednesday, September 23rd: “A Tasting: Telling Stories Through Chocolate” at the C. Burr Artz Public Library, Community Room (CBA), in Frederick, Maryland.
Saturday, October 17th: Pop-Up at My Big Finds in Kentlands, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Saturday, November 7th through Sunday, November 8th: DMV Chocolate & Coffee Festival in Boyds, Maryland.
Saturday, November 14th through Sunday, November 15th: DMV Chocolates & Coffee Festival in Sterling, Virginia.
Friday, November 27th through Sunday, November 29th: Maryland Christmas Show in Frederick, Maryland.
We will be announcing additional events as soon as more information becomes available.
If you’re a Maryland/Virginia/Washington, D.C. local, we hope to see you there!
Please visit our events page for more details:
Thanks again for supporting our small business! Please help us spread the word via social media and by word of mouth. 📖🍫💖
See you next time!
Best regards,
Geri
Open Book Chocolates