Instagram story viewer> @alethearlyons> Posts

Alethea Lyons, Fantasy Sci-fi Author

@alethearlyons

2.9K

followers

4382

following

Stories on KU-short dark fantasy & supernatural York novel THE HIDING
Request review copies⏬️|Trans Rights are Human Rights|BLM|Ze/She|@secret.scribes

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Welcome to self-publishing by committee. Please consider signing up for street team or to be notified of ARC opportunities.

💙💜🩷 Folklore gets a futuristic twist in this cyberfae legacy of Tam Lin and Thomas Rhymer. 🩷💜💙

Legend of the Bard is a real passion project for me. I grew up on fairy tales and folk songs, but also scifi, and I really love combining futuristic tech and dystopia with folklore, fantasy.and music.

This book is also a bi-normative world and a bi4bi romance (also pansexual but bisexual fits my colour scheme). Plus I read really excited to write a genderfluid nonbinary MC in Legend and use my own neo pronouns for zir. Those boys are not up to committee debate!

If you know Manchester, you'll recognise a lot of places. Yes, it's very easy to persuade me to do tours.

Anyway, here's a bit more about the book. Thanks for your support. Love the writing community. Without it, my books wouldn't be as good and I wouldn't be out even to myself.

Character art by @kyruiart

🩷💜💙

In a world where music can reshape reality, one voice may hold the key to salvation or destruction.

Journalist William O'Shaughnessy has always rejected the Virtual - an AI-driven wasteland of uniformity and distraction. But his safe, analogue life shatters when a haunting folk tune plays on his computer, dredging up macabre visions linked to a murder he's just written about. A fateful trip to the library sets Will on a path that blurs the lines between madness and magic.

Discovering an ancient songbook, Will becomes entangled with Legend, a mesmerising Fae with secrets of her own. Together, they uncover Will's rare and dangerous gift: music magic. As scenes from the songbook come to life, the duo must navigate treacherous realms, face a manipulative Fae Queen, and unravel a prophecy tied to nuclear devastation.

With humanity's creativity and survival on the brink, Will and Legend must fight to complete a powerful ritual. But when betrayal strikes and Will finds himself a pawn in the Queen's twisted game, he must rely on the bonds of love, the power of story, and the transformative force of his own voice.

📚🧚‍♀️⭐️ by @alethearlyons

125

68

a month ago

I cannot get enough of this trend.

Meet Harper (and her found family sister, Grace). Book 1 of The Seer of York is almost all from Harper's POV, and the sisterly bond is a central theme. As someone with an adopted sibling, the bond is no less strong than being related by dna.

There are also a few chapters from the antagonists's POV. As a non-human character, she is one of my fave people ever to write. The Second page here is the start of her POV.

Art by the lovely and talented @theartofabirdy.

Books 1-3 available through @brigidsgatepress.

#Bookstagram #CharacterArt #IndieAuthor #FirstLine #DarkFantasy by @alethearlyons

74

7

6 months ago

#QotD Tell me why I shouldn't read your book

🗝indie author, indie book, fantasy, dark fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural, witch, shifter, magic, next read, dystopian, found family, diversity, queer, lgbtqia+ by @alethearlyons

103

17

5 months ago

Join us for the weekend at Fantasycon! It was absolutely fantastic this year with lots of exciting author panels, fun role playing games and readings. Plus Bar Con, although it would have been good to spend a bit more time there.

Participating was great and I think I’ve caught the bug 👀 hopefully I can do it again next year, if @britishfantasysociety will let me lol! I’ve certainly got enough inspiration and book recs to see me through to next year! It was a pleasure meeting up with old friends - no matter how briefly - and making new ones. It was a pleasure hanging out with @alethearlyons and @pscwillis and seeing @joaosilvawrites briefly (although 😭 no photos). Happy days.

#amwritingfantasy #BritishFantasySociety #fantasybooklover #Fantasycon #FantasyAuthor taken in Crowne Plaza Glasgow by @alethearlyons

3

4

2 days ago

Thanks to @pscwillis and @meljrey for providing some of these photos.

I did two panels at fantasycon, one on religion in SFFH and one of dystopias. Thanks to the lovely panellists! We had great discussions. Also did a reading and was lucky enough to be with several friends (and 1 new friend).

I've also included a couple of panels I went to, but I didn't always have photos.

Shout out to @abeaumontwriter and @stephanieellis7963, my publisher sibs.

Also to @sophiavahdati's new book cover. If you got a copy, please send her a photo.

Thanks to @britishfantasysociety volunteers for a fantastic weekend.

🗝indie, fantasy, writer, author, event, writing community by @alethearlyons

64

17

3 days ago

Before FantasyCon, @pscwillis and I spent Thursday afternoon and Friday morning being tourists in Glasgow. We visited the Necropolis, the cathedral, and saw some street art on day one. On day two, we used to morning to visit Queen's Park and glasshouse and to go to the Glasgow Zine Library (@glasgowzinelib) which I highly recommend and you should go visit if you're in the area.

🗝Indie author, travels, fantasy, vibes by @alethearlyons

33

0

4 days ago

If you're at FantasyCon, please consider our books so we don't have to carry too many home. We will love you forever.

🗝fantasy, indie, queer, dark, cosy by @alethearlyons

46

4

6 days ago

We're here in Glasgow for FantasyCon!

Here's where you can find me. I'm also selling books (so please help me sell at least the 3 I need to break even on the table fee 🥹 🫶). I can also take orders and so stuff to people once I'm home to save suitcase space. 🤣

💜💜💜

Writing religion in SFF

Moderator - Noor A Jahangir

Panellists - Meg MacDonald, Alethea Lyons, MH Ayinde, Finn McLellan

10-11am Saturday Panel 3

💜💜💜

Writing Dystopias in a Dystopian World

Moderator - Alethea Lyons

Panellists - John French, Siobhan Murphy, Lorraine Wilson, Gavin Smith

1-2pm Saturday Panel 3

💜💜💜

Reading group 36 - Fantasy

Melanie Reynard, Alethea Lyons, Sarah J Daley, Katie Bruce

7-8pm Saturday Malin readings/talks

💜💜💜

Here are also some pictures of the necropolis. by @alethearlyons

50

20

8 days ago

POLL BELOW!

Self-publishing by Committee is a little series I've started for my cyberfae book, Legend of the Bard. My indecisive self is leaving certain decisions up to the lovely folks of social media.*

*With some veto rights.

What kind of covers do you like? I've made some random very rough ideas.

A. Large character art
B. Whole scene with small characters
C. Silhouettes or cut outs / fades of characters
D. No character art
E. Comment with something else

Character art used here is by @kyuriart as that's art I already had for marketing from the publication that got cancelled.

Folklore gets a futuristic twist in this cyberfae legacy of Tam Lin and Thomas Rhymer.

🗝Fantasy, scifi, cyberpunk, SFF, indie, help me decide, cover art

Yes, one of these is for an entirely different book. 😹 by @alethearlyons

40

47

10 days ago

Poll tomorrow, but please leave some comments in the mean time.

QotD: What makes you pick up a book?

The colour scheme is non-negotiable 💜🩷🩵 but the elements are very much up for debate.

I think the biggest one is character art or no character art. Also style, e.g. realistic, cartoon, basic, fancy, artistic, etc...

Side note: I'd love to consider people who interact with the post, but my budget is very limited to non-existent so not sure if I'll even hire someone or not. Anyone who cold DMs me without having chatted here and asked is going to be an automatic no though.

Here's a temporary blurb to help you decide what kind of cover matches:

Folklore gets a futuristic twist in this cyberfae legacy of Tam Lin and Thomas Rhymer.

In a world where music can reshape reality, one voice may hold the key to salvation or destruction.

Journalist William O'Shaughnessy has always rejected the Virtual - an AI-driven wasteland of uniformity and distraction. But his safe, analogue life shatters when a haunting folk tune plays on his computer, dredging up macabre visions linked to a crime he's just written about. A fateful trip to the library sets Will on a path that blurs the lines between madness and magic.

Discovering an ancient songbook, Will becomes entangled with Legend, a mesmerising Fae with secrets of her own. Together, they uncover Will's rare and dangerous gift: music magic. As scenes from the songbook come to life, the duo must navigate treacherous realms, face a manipulative Fae Queen, and unravel a prophecy tied to nuclear devastation.

With humanity's creativity and survival on the brink, Will and Legend must fight to complete a powerful ritual. But when betrayal strikes and Will finds himself a pawn in the Queen's twisted game, he must rely on the bonds of love, the power of story, and the transformative force of his own voice.

🗝 Indie, self publishing, self pub, cover design, bookstagram, booktok, help me decide, self publishing by committee, sci fi, fantasy, SFF, cyberfae, cyberpunk, folklore, music by @alethearlyons

46

24

12 days ago

It is weird that the categories in the rankings are not the categories selected by the author/publisher.

Are you an author who has picked categories? What did you go with?

Any suggestions for mine based on the blurb below?

💜🩷🩵
In a world where music can reshape reality, one voice may hold the key to salvation or destruction.

Journalist William O'Shaughnessy has always rejected the Virtual - an AI-driven wasteland of uniformity and distraction. But his safe, analogue life shatters when a haunting folk tune plays on his computer, dredging up macabre visions linked to a murder he's just written about. A fateful trip to the library sets Will on a path that blurs the lines between madness and magic.

Discovering an ancient songbook, Will becomes entangled with Legend, a mesmerising Fae with secrets of her own. Together, they uncover Will's rare and dangerous gift: music magic. As scenes from the songbook come to life, the duo must navigate treacherous realms, face a manipulative Fae Queen, and unravel a prophecy tied to nuclear devastation.

With humanity's creativity and survival on the brink, Will and Legend must fight to complete a powerful ritual. But when betrayal strikes and Will finds himself a pawn in the Queen's twisted game, he must rely on the bonds of love, the power of story, and the transformative force of his own voice

🗝 Self publishing by committee, indie author, scifi, SFF, fantasy, cyberfae, cyberpunk, fae, folk music by @alethearlyons

35

30

15 days ago

Welcome to Wednesday's Writerly Words of Wisdom, featuring the lovely @poeticrainbow9 and her flash fiction collection Sandcastles.

Lily has been described as the poet for people who don't think they like poetry. Go follow her for lots of flashes of wisdom. She writes poetry, flash fiction, and fiction for younger readers. She also has a prompt book to help out other writers a whole lot more.

Go follow Lily, and comment/like/share/save so you see need week's words of wisdom. by @alethearlyons

57

20

16 days ago