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Austin Worley

@amworleywriter.bsky.social

1.4K followers 720 following 790 posts

Author of Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Romance | Published Poet | Amateur Astronomer | Avid Reader

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 8d

Preorders for the new standalone “Hanging at Crosbhothar” are live on Amazon!

Carnomancy. Fanatical reavers. A bandit chief who’s more than a man. If she’s to see justice done for the horrors at Crosbhothar, Knight-Mother Arlise Dun must face them all.

#darkfantasy

www.amazon.com/dp/B0DH37SDXV

Hanging at Crosbhothar (Tales of the Watchers)

Hanging at Crosbhothar (Tales of the Watchers) - Kindle edition by Worley, Austin. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Hanging at Crosbhothar (Tales of the Watchers).

www.amazon.com

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 11h

Day 8 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Not often now, but Arlise was once active in the mounted archery, jousting, and horse racing scenes in the Marches.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

You can definitely weave in character-driven beats. It works for Imaro and Elric!

As long as there’s menace, mystery and action laced throughout the story too, I don’t see an issue there.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Arlise has also found love on her adventures, with the selkie Earc Mac Toghda. The start of their romance will be the subject of my next novel “Seven Tears on the Tide”.

Her duties often take her far afield, but she always finds her way back to Earc. The two of them have an infant daughter, Maira.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Her comrades include:

-Knight-Sister Elain Bowen, her best friend and mentee. Elain’s always been starstruck by her and harbors a bit of a crush on Arlise🤭

-Knight-Brother Robert de Vannen, a taciturn man with hidden depths of wisdom

-Knight-Brother Alexos Comos, whose service has made him jaded

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Since her initiation, Arlise has dedicated herself to defending folk from threats like demons or carnomancers as a form of atonement.

She’s risen through the ranks, from Watch-Sister to Knight-Mother, and now leads a small team of elite Watchers. They handle threats too much for standard patrols

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Eventually, it became too much, and she abdicated her title to seek a “good death” as a wanderer.

She never found it. Not as a shield bearer for a Prince, not as a sellsword, not as an adventurer or gladiatrix.

But she did find a good life with the Order of Watchers.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

At the Battle of Laufenden, she made the most fateful (and ruthless) decision of her life. It ended a devastating civil war…at the cost of 187 innocents caught in the middle.

Others called her a hero, but she was wracked by guilt and remorse over her orders.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

She doesn’t start off that way, though. Arlise was born into a noble family on the steppes of the Marchers.

Her father and mothers raised her to be the ideal warrior noblewoman, able to govern and fight and ride.

At 15, she was awarded command of a battalion of heavy horse archers, led to…

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Pretty much everything I’m writing at the moment concerns Arlise Dun and her world of Anura, which is comparable to 14th Century Europe+MENA.

Arlise is a member of the Order of Watchers, a militant monastic order dedicated to combating monstrosities and abuses of magic.

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Reposted by Austin Worley

Kira of the Wind (Erika McCorkle) @kiraofthewind.com · 1d

Request for writers who consider me a friend, especially those of you who do WIPSnips or other engagement posts talking about your wip:

If you have the time and energy, post here about your wip. Give me CONTEXT. Tell me who your characters are and their relationships. Tell me about your setting.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Day 7 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Woe aims to inflict maximum emotional torment on Arlise, both as retribution for its “death” at her hands a few years before “Seven Tears on the Tide” and as a means to feed on her emotions.

After all, it is a sorrow demon.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 2d

Day 6 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

A few monsters from “Seven Tears on the Tide”:

-Carmun, a massive crab-like monster who’s made her nest in Quiet Cove

-strix, birds of prey with a thirst for human blood

-an undead polar bear

-Woe, a demon of sorrow obsessed with Arlise

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 3d

10/5 #QueerPrompts

Depends. Some (like “He Who Sows”) are real scorchers the puritans out there would absolutely hate, some would get targeted for their LGBT rep, and my anti-authoritarian themes would be anathema to a lot of people.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 3d

Day 5 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Legend holds the Sea of Sands hasn’t always been a desert. Instead, it was a land of rich grasslands and small lakes forming a seamless connection between the Mklarite savannas and the steppes of the Helsan Marches.

(There’s truth to these legends)

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 3d

Day 5 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Arlise has a few fears:

-the idea she hasn’t actually changed and could fall back into utilitarian thinking in the right circumstances

-uncontrolled flame (because of her facial burn)

-her enemies hurting her loved ones to hurt her

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 5d

10/3 #QueerPrompts

All the time! I work a fair bit of body language into action beats; it’s a good way to hint at when a non-POV character’s feelings don’t align with their words.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 5d

Day 3 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Tarik clans who’ve settled down tend to build their towns into cliff faces, similar to the Ancient Puebloans.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 5d

Day 3 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Definitely proud of how the new standalone edition of “Hanging at Crosbhothar” turned out. Look at that beautiful cover by @rachelbowdler.bsky.social 😍

I cannot wait for it to release on Halloween!

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 6d

Day 2 #OctoberWorldbuilders

The risks of life in a desert as harsh as the Sea of Sands have led most of the native Tarik clans to be very insular, and the lack of resources means raids and wars are common, but their harsh environment has also made hospitality incredibly sacred.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 6d

Day 2 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Not at all for Arlise. She encounters enough scariness as a Watcher; more scares are the last thing she wants to deal with while off duty!

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

You’re welcome. Hope they were helpful!

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

Both! Also watched the first two seasons of the series on Netflix, but they went too far off the rails for me.

The books definitely have a different tone to them than the games. Not a lot of monster hunting outside the two story collections, for example.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

—widely considered bad.

Blood of Elves is also weak as a novel, IMO. A very slow burn whose climax feels like the end of Act One rather than the end of a book.

So it may be the books just aren’t going to be to your taste.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

You could make starting with Sword of Destiny work, but as for whether they get better…highly subjective.

Personally, I like Sword of Destiny a lot better than The Last Wish, but I also enjoyed The Last Wish.

A lot of readers consider the collections the best, and the English translation is—(1/2)

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

The Last Wish is definitely the place to start with The Witcher. The Last Wish, then Sword of Destiny, then Blood of Elves.

Too many characters and concepts are introduced in the two short story collections to skip them without getting lost. They’re not prequels so much as the novels are sequels.

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