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Austin Worley

@amworleywriter.bsky.social

1.4K followers 730 following 820 posts

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

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 24d

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 · 22h

Day 23 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Arlise would probably go as herself from back when she was a gladiatrix in Tyria under the stage name of “Sunna the Savage”.

Maybe something similar to what she wears at the start of “He Who Sows”, if she were feeling daring.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Day 22 #OctoberWorldbuilders

I don’t have a ton of art, but I adore this piece I commissioned from @tori_goggin over on Twitter

She did a fantastic job bringing Arlise to life😍

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 1d

Day 12 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Late last month, I actually wrote a horror drabble, “The Goatskin Codex”. It’s still under consideration at a contest, so I can’t share it here, but I may circle back to this prompt sometime👀

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 2d

Just a week and a half to release day for "Hanging at Crosbhothar"!

Carnomancy. Fanatical reavers. A bandit chief who's more than a man. If she's to see justice done for the massacre at Crosbhothar, Knight-Mother Arlise Dun will have to face all of them...and worse.

See 📌

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 2d

10/22 #QueerPrompts

There hasn’t been an opportunity for this to comes up in-story yet, Knight-Brother Robert de Vannen (who plays a supporting role in “Hanging at Crosbhothar” and “Seven Tears on the Tide”) is asexual.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 2d

Day 21 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Tarik who’ve settled down instead of leading nomadic lives build their homes into natural rock formations and cliff faces. Sometimes they also take advantage of existing cave systems, which is especially useful in combating the desert heat

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 2d

Day 21 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

While I’m not one for most horror movies, I loved the Nosferatu remake from last year. It’s excellent and, honestly, probably a better Dracula adaptation than any Dracula movie ever made. Highly recommended!

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 3d

Hey, it’s out there! Not super common, but it definitely exists. Amanda Clover and Jay Aury would be names to look at in that niche.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 3d

Looks like finishing “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden” before the extraction on Wednesday isn’t in the cards, but I’ve made some serious progress on Scene 4.

I’ve also streamlined my outline, so the end is very much in sight, even if I probably won’t get there until early November.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 3d

Day 20 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Many roads, aqueducts, bridges, sewers, fortifications and more were built under the Old Tyrian Dominion on the backs of slaves, domestic taxes, and foreign tribute.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 4d

Pseudo-medieval, about to the level of 14th Century Europe+MENA. There’s some stuff a little more advanced: telescopes, the printing press, plate armor coming into fashion, etc.

Enchantments filled some functions of technology, but the more advanced ones failed and were last 1k years back.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah, I’ve also got the more typical medieval systems in parts of the world the Tyrians never conquered or colonized, and almost all rural areas are at that level.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 4d

Day 19 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Tyria and cities the Tyrians built elsewhere before the fall of the Old Dominion have sophisticated Roman-style sanitation systems. Excellent sewers, bathhouses, running water, etc.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 4d

Day 19 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

“Shiver” sees Arlise fall under carnomantic mind control. The helplessness of watching your hands move of their own accord and murder your lover is core to the horror of the drabble.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 5d

Day 18 #OctoberWorldbuilders

No electricity or steam, but there are wind and water mills. Enchantments can fill the role of certain technologies, but they’re rare, expensive, and many were lost to ancient shifts in arcane laws.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 6d

Day 17 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Subsistence agriculture remains the order of the day in most of Anura. Coastal cultures like the Tyrians, Vyspans, Sansiwayans, etc. weave in a lot of seafood, and hunting is widespread, but farms and herds provide most food.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 6d

Day 17 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Free Friday: Kinda got lost in the shuffle earlier this week, but I received acceptances for five stories on Monday🥳

-Shiver
-A Mouthful of Water
-Born of the Moons
-On the Roadside
-Sacrifice

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

Day 16 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Depends. In the southern nations, nobles police their domains against bandits, poachers, etc. while commoners raise the hue & cry over low-level crimes. Bucket brigades deal with fires in most communities, and hospitals tend to be run by holy orders

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 7d

Day 16 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

Arnen Rauch, villain of “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”, is so well-known for trickery and deception he’s been nicknamed the Smoke Wolf. In the story, he has one of his huscarls wear his armor while he tries to flee disguised as a common freeholder.

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Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 8d

Day 15 #OctoberWorldbuilders

The main trade routes in Anura:

1) Down the west coast, from Tyria to the Colonia

2) Down the east coast, from Tyria and Sansiway to Mklaria, Corhiel, Vyspa, and Ciria

3) Overland from Mklaria across the Sea of Sands to the Marches

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 9d

10/14 #QueerPrompts

“Seven Tears on the Tide” includes a bunch of spirits.

-Wisps on Ruby Isle

-A tattered benevolent spirit that the main characters

-A demon of hunger possessing a polar bear

-Woe, demon of sorrow, who takes several forms, like the ghost of Earc’s mother

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 9d

Day 14 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

For “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”, Arnen Rauch has a few dozen mounted huscarls with him and has managed to rally several hundred soldiers from assorted houses and mercenary bands after his army was obliterated at Graufurt.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 10d

10/13 #QueerPrompts

For “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”, the Helsans are indigenous to the Seven Marches. In fact, they’re so inextricably tied to the steppes that, before unification, the Seven Marches were known as the Helsan Marches.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 11d

Day 12 #FantasyIndiesSpooktober

For “Seven Tears on the Tide”:

Arlise thinks Woe is the most dangerous demon she’s ever faced. Devious, sadistic, and relentless.

Woe hates Arlise for killing it once before and views her as an ideal food source because of her sorrows/regrets.

Austin Worley @amworleywriter.bsky.social · 13d

Day 10 #OctoberWorldbuilders

Can’t get more competitive than bloodsports, right? Gladiatorial combat is the most popular sport in Tyria, with some matches restrained to minimize the risk of death while others are total free for alls.