Stories by Alethea Lyons
Short Stories by Alethea Lyons
For Want of a Soul
This is too Tense
Bag of Bones Press
August 2022
An anthology of second person present horror featuring For Want of a Soul.
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A short story about the inner turmoil of a brain-washed child. Forced to use his empathic gift to aid his country's questioning of so-called subversives, he feels his own soul and memories slip away.
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Proceeds from this anthology and its sister book 'Well, This is Tense' all go to children's charities.
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Amazon.co.uk - https://amzn.to/3c66NaH
Amazon.com - https://amzn.to/3CkSutx
The Price of Admission
Fire Anthology
Eerie River Publishing
November 2022
Eerie are doing a series of anthologies on the elements. Their Fire anthology will feature The Price of Admission, a dark fantasy short story.
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The Carnivale Incendio inspires awe and fear. Travelling the realms, it brings light and heat with its fire magic, but leaves heartbreak and horror in its wake.
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Pyromancers Stella and Mona summoned the carnival to provide entertainment for their wedding. It took Mona and disappeared.
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A year and a day later, Stella tracks down the Carnival and enters its dark domain, determined to be reunited with her lover and become the person she's always wanted to be.
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Amazon.co.uk - amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BLG5GHXG
Amazon.com - amazon.com/dp/B0BLG5GHXG
The Selkie's Mother
Apologue of the Immortals
Morian Press
TBC - Originally Spring 2023
This anthology of moral stories featuring immortals was a perfect fit for The Selkie's Mother.
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There was once a time when humans hunted selkies, shape-shifting sealfolk who appeared human when they came ashore and shed their skin. If a human could hide the skin, the selkie was trapped in human form and doomed to be their wife.
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After a human kidnaps her daughter, an immortal leaves her home and ventures ashore to rescue her child and seek revenge for all the harm humans have done to the sea.
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Amazon.co.uk - https://amzn.to/49Bs4S8
Amazon.com - https://amzn.to/3P0LY0u
Lost Beneath the Waves
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This one is completely free!
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Set about a decade before Seeking the Light, this story shows a little of Cass' crossover with the fae and why she's so wary of telling Jon anything about them.
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Having been told she'll meet her soulmate 'soon', sixteen-year-old Cass assumes that must mean within a few days.
When fellow 'vant Eluned arrives with the Baron of Davenport, Cass falls head over heels for her. She falls so hard, in fact, that she decides to take her new girlfriend/supposed soulmate to the secret library of the Tuatha.
But the library doesn't like uninvited guests and Eluned may well pay the price of Cass' rash assumptions.
Where Sorrow Dwells
Issue XVI
All Worlds Wayfarer Literary Magazine
September 2023
Bronach was born with Death Touch.
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It's destroyed her body, made her an outcast in Elven society, and killed the one person who ever loved her.
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It's also the only way to save her people from a mysterious creature that is driving the normally jovial fae to suicide.
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In this science-fantasy allegory for depression, Bronach breaches the lair of the deadly creature and faces the darkness within herself.
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This will be available on the publisher's website for free for a short time, after that it can be purchased on Amazon.
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Amazon.co.uk - https://amzn.to/3s12aq4
Amazon.com - https://amzn.to/3Q2OVx1
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Lore of the Forest
Issue VI
Livina Press
October 2023
Once upon a time, humans and the Great Forest Spirit lived in peace. She taught them the lore of the forest, including how to use the precious healing plants.
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Word spread and more humans came, stealing the life from the forest. The Forest Spirit vows to send a warning so no human will harm her domain again.
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With his village dying, a young hunter enters the forest to search for a miracle cure.
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But for both, winning could be a double-edged sword.
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This story was co-written with the amazing Jessica Ungeheuer, so please go check out her social media & website. As well as being a great writer, she's also a talented artist.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/phoenixfire110
Website: https://jungeheuer1087.wixsite.com/juwritingcorner
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Amazon.co.uk - https://amzn.to/3rT4pfh
Amazon.com - https://amzn.to/3S9SYKZ