1. Introduce yourself; who are you and what types of books do you write?
Hi. I’m Alethea Lyons (she/ze), though most folks call me Thea. I write various kinds of fantasy, novel-length and short stories. At the moment, I’m working on a dark fantasy series and I have a techno-romantasy looking for a home.
2. What are your books about?
My published series, the Seer of York, is contemporary dark fantasy. It’s set in an alternate York where magic is real but illegal. Harper, the main character, is a witch in hiding working for the church as an arcane archivist. When something supernatural starts murdering humans and stealing their organs, she and her foster-sister are asked to investigate. The series follows them and their magi-science Scooby gang to solve various crimes, usually with a large grey area about whether they should be on the side of the supernaturals or humans. I wanted to show that the ‘bad guy’ isn’t always obvious and that our differences are strengths.
3. What was the inspiration behind writing your first book?
For my first published book, the initial idea came from a scene from a dream where this disparate group of characters were basically just hanging out. The first novel I wrote to completion (i.e. it had a beginning, middle, and end with a conclusive story arc) was based on mixing up folklore with science and seeing what happened.
4. What did you learn while writing your second book?
Sequels are hard! There’s an expectation of both living up to the first book and improving. Your story, world, and characters all need to develop, but still be what people loved in the first place. There’s also so many little details to check to ensure consistency. I guess I learnt to take notes so I didn’t have to keep looking stuff up. I’ve also gotten better at plotting rather than just blah-ing onto a page.
5. What is the most rewarding part of being an author?
Having a story I like. It’s really gratifying when other people like it too, but even if they didn’t, I’d keep writing. It helps me maintain my mental balance and lets characters I love have a life.
6. What elements do you think make for a good story?
I don’t want to be too prescriptive, because I think storytelling can and should vary greatly, and what makes a ‘good’ story is really subjective. Personally, I like character-driven stories with deep world-building, conclusive (and happy) endings, and an element of having to put my own thought into it.
7. What is the hardest part of being an author for you?
Time. Especially with marketing. Basically, the hard part is all the stuff that isn’t writing. I love the writing part (although I could do without scanning my doc for however many hundreds of ‘that’ to remove).
8. What is your current writing project?
I’ve just sent a revised draft of the Seer of York book 2 back to my publisher. I’m drafting book 3 while I wait for their notes.
9. What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Let other people read your work and be open to their feedback, but don’t take it all to heart. There’s a balance between your vision and what other people see.
10. Where can readers discover more about you and your books?
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/alethearlyons
Newsletter sign-up: https://substack.com/@alethearlyons