Key City Steampunk Convention Recap
Friday, August 7th through Sunday August, 9th, we attended the Key City Steampunk Convention at the Wyndham Gettysburg Hotel and Conference Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This was our second time at Key City Steampunk, and our fourth steampunk event. We truly enjoy the steampunk community, and it’s wonderful seeing faces both familiar and new at each event.
Our friend Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie) was a special guest of the convention. We’re so thrilled she had such as wonderful time at Key City. And the steampunk community seemed to welcome her wholeheartedly!
This was our first time trying out our new indoor event setup. We have two new tall pegboards with shelves for chocolate bars and other products. Plus, we have a new bar table, that’s so much lighter than our other event table and has two shelves in the back for us to store items like gift bags and menus. I was a little bit nervous about the new setup, but it worked even better than I had hoped. (We’ll still be using our old setup for outdoor events, since the pegboards would probably roll around and fall over outside.)
Kickstarter Pre-Launch: The Odyssey & The Time Machine
🫒 🌺 This Kickstarter = Our Two Newest Flavors
Be the first to get your hands on our two newest flavors, The Odyssey (Olive Oil and Rosemary in Dark Chocolate) and The Time Machine (Hibiscus and Jasmine in Milk Chocolate). Supporting our Kickstarter campaign will help us create these new chocolate bars!
Please click the button below to visit our Kickstarter 2026 Pre-Launch Page:
🔔 CLICK “NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH” TO BE FIRST IN LINE!
🚀 LAUNCHING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2026.
The Brady Readery: Literature Can Save The World
On Friday, August 14th, we visited The Brady Readery in Laytonsville, Maryland. This brand-new, woman- and veteran-owned bookstore is so fun and cozy, we could just hang out there all day.
The owner, Michelle, is truly an amazing human being! We brought over chocolate samples for her and her daughter to taste. They were so excited and enthusiastic about our flavors and packaging. We’re absolutely thrilled for The Brady Readery to carry our chocolate bars!
Periwinkle & Prose Romance Bookstore
On Monday, August 17th, we got a little sneak peak inside Periwinkle & Prose, a queer- and woman-owned romance bookshop opening in downtown Frederick, Maryland. We brought over chocolate samples for co-owners Amber and Sara to taste; then they selected which flavors they wanted to carry in store. It’s an honor to have our literary-inspired chocolate bars included in this whimsical indie bookstore!
On Saturday, August 22nd, we popped by Periwinkle & Prose to celebrate their grand opening. And, wow, it was busy! We arrived a few minutes before the official ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m., and there was already a line down the block. I know Amber and Sara were worried that no one would show up on opening day; I’m absolutely thrilled that so many people were there to support this new indie bookstore. Congratulations, Amber and Sara!
VoyageMaryland
Earlier this month, I was interviewed about Open Book Chocolates for VoyageMaryland — an online publication featuring local small businesses, independent artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs.
To read the interview, please click the button below:
Kickstarter Pre-Launch: Heavy Are The Years Story Collection
Three illustrated SFF novellas in one collection exploring the theme of time and how it effects us.
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.
“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 Pre-Launch Page:
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 (September through December) 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:
We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday, September 1st for the launch of The Odyssey and The Time Machine Chocolate Bars on Kickstarter! 📖🍫💖
See you next time!
Best regards,
Geri
Open Book Chocolates
