Emrys Francys
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ryaloren.bsky.social
Emrys Francys
@ryaloren.bsky.social
91 followers 81 following 180 posts
✒️🏳️‍🌈⚧️

Queer nb fantasy author born 6 months into the 90s. I have 2 cats, an endless TBR, and sensory sensitivities.

The Cogs Turn Quietly - editing
The Pearl - editing

User picture and banner designed by the amazing @felinefero.bsky.social
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ryaloren.bsky.social
Excuse me, that "thing" is a complex character: at times, a fresh and delightful sunflower (who resents your tone, btw); at others, a void.
The shadowed shape of a house cat (features indiscernible) looms towards the camera, dominating the frame. The feral beast (note: he is only feral when he wants pets, such as now) is silhouetted by barred beams of a streetlight pouring in between the blinds of the living room window, and a rainbow-lit keyboard (because the human inhabitants of the house are gay af).
July 26, 2025 at 1:42 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
#fantasyindiesJanuary

28. Taru's goals shift from escapism to activism; Quincy's aren't quite so clear
29. See image: I have several, (including one that's almost exclusively NIN instrumentals) but here's 9 tracks from my 58 track "Write - General" playlist
Horizon of Memories - Bianca Ban (Eternal Eclipse) Festival of Light - Audiomachine The Outer Worlds Main Theme - Celestial Aeon Project Awakening - Johannes Bornlof Waltz for the Wicked - Eneide Altostratus - Franz Gordon History Maker (From Yuri!!! On Ice) - Celestial Aeon Project The Antique Store - Johannes Bornlof Something Familiar - Johannes Bornlof
January 29, 2025 at 3:20 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
The Cogs Turn Quietly is about Shudean engineer Taru Aether Charsen finally getting what she's always wanted and, as a result, questioning everything she knows about the world.

Amazing cover art courtesy of @felinefero.bsky.social

It'll be out sometime this year, likely on RoyalRoad.
January 29, 2025 at 2:28 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
#fantasyindiesJanuary
24. Taru: oil and dust; Quincy: lemon and ginger tea, bergamot
25. (see images)
26. I work on one or two at a time but they're all part of a single series and are, therefore, liable to change according to one another
27. Air-carriage and air-omnibus. In Shude, anyway!
"Oh, Quincy," Lilyana sighed. "My entire reasoning behind keeping him with me was that my parents would be able to help with his upbringing but they... they simply refuse. If the problem can't be solved with hard discipline or emotional blackmail, they are at a loss." Taru’s muscles shook as she lay on her back, her shoulders aching and furiously itching. She sobbed a curse as she shifted them, chest heaving with her stuttering breaths. It was unbearable. The pain was unbearable. She tried to pull in a deep breath, but her shuddering throat wouldn’t let her. She swallowed the emotion down, trying to shove it away, but it escaped through her eyes, hot on her skin as it ran, cold when it was gone.
January 27, 2025 at 3:05 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
#fantasyindiesJanuary
15. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
16. Taru would rather forget that other people have parents; Quincy would rather forget his own
17. I was a pantser, then I tried planning, now I do a mix of the two
18. (see images)
19. Scenes where each character has an ulterior motive
Quincy laughed quietly. “I have been busy, you see, with the ins and outs of learning my role.” “You’ve been doing it on the quiet, then,” Winterbourne decided to interject. “The engineers I speak to on the regular say they’ve seen neither hide nor hair of you.” Quincy couldn’t help a sharp glance aside to his traitorous neighbour as he furiously formulated a reasonable excuse. He made sure to screw up his eyes in amusement to go with his subsequent chortle. “Quite so, friend, quite so. I confess, I’ve yet to visit the terminal. I had some books delivered to the Manor and I’ve been reading quite avidly.” Winterbourne narrowed his eyes and half-opened his half-hidden mouth. “In any case,” Quincy began loudly, turning back to Petra, “my sincerest apologies for not letting you know sooner. I didn’t want to write you. I thought in person would be best.” He darted a quick and admonishing glare aside at Lilyana. “Though I knew in public would be worst.” “Taru!” yelped Mary—a wiry custodian—from the front door. She hurried down the path as Taru awkwardly waved hello. “A welcoming committee?” Enna muttered, sounding amused. “They must be hungry, eh?” Taru chuckled and turned to say goodbye, but Mary grabbed her arm in a bruising grip. “Come on, love, let’s get you in’t kitchen. Thanks for bringing her home, Sire Charsen! Safe journey! Did you get the meat? You’re a bit late, in’t you?”
January 23, 2025 at 9:28 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
#fantasyindiesJanuary
7. Show don't tell
8. I don't watch TV or films sooo...
9. Taru would like to try leaving Shude; Quincy would like to try living
10. I get complimented on my descriptions
11. (see images)
12. 🐉⚙️💫🫖
13. The Chronicles of Narnia
14. Taru heals too quickly; Quincy's pain is psychic
William explained how the elevator worked as they descended through darkness, but Quincy would never remember. His breathing was coming fast and short and he was fighting not to succumb to panic as they plunged through such darkness that he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. The low drone of William’s voice, however, provided something else to focus on which Quincy sorely needed. Then, suddenly, light. Glaring daylight. Taru glanced past the pair of them to watch the kludde and Skye weaving in and out of the highly-decorated elders, play-fighting. The kludde was incredibly nimble, despite her size. More than once, Taru’s shoulders bunched, ready for a head-on collision with a trunk or the ground, but the kludde flitted around or changed direction quicker than Taru could.
January 23, 2025 at 3:05 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
4. Pride:
“I tell you,” Rovena began as the temporary trio’s heels tapped hollow, staggered noise on pied tiles, “the other nobles certainly noticed you were gone.” As Quincy smiled proudly to himself, they passed glass doors in which each pane was a puddle, the muffled clinks of teacups and hum of conversation and laughter behind them growing louder and quieter as each one went by. “I suppose there were plenty of chins wagging,” he said. “Oh yes very much so!” Rovena’s sly sidewards glance had Quincy’s smile losing the fullness of pride. “At first, anyway.” At the top of a gently curling staircase was a curving mezzanine overlooking a tea garden with trickling fountains and gold faelights. “I’m afraid you were gone for so long that they have grown utterly bored of being without you and moved onto other, more interesting topics of conversation.” “I was gone little over an accord,” Quincy complained. “Quite so, old chum, quite so. You were gone for a ball, a masque, and a whole season of feastdays.” Quincy tutted and rolled his hand through the air, saying, “Well, no matter. I suppose they simply have shorter attention spans than I expected,” while trying to smother the nugget of hurt that turned his tone petulant. Taru stuffed it into her rucksack, then looked towards the giant trees. Any pride she’d felt from the nearly flawless descent and receiving her gift dissipated into the writhing mass of shadowy figures.
January 22, 2025 at 5:09 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
#queerwriters #writingcommunity #lgbtqwriters
“Danger?” Enna laughed. “They’re no danger, Taru, they’re just bigots. Got gobs bigger than their fists, they have. Brains smaller than the top knuckles of their little toes, too. They’re no threat to no one except them-ruddy-selves.”
January 21, 2025 at 3:06 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
#fantasyindiesJanuary

Yeah I'm late to the game but time is a concept and this looks like fun, so I'm going to be cramming all my answers into the next few days because time may be a concept, but it's one I believe in and January is coming to an end.
1. Introduce yourself & WIP 2. A few books from your TBR 3. Free Friday or your/MC's hobbies 4. Saturday Snippet: Pride 5. Superstitions in WIP 6. MC sense of humour 7. Best & worst writing advice 8. WIP fancast 9. Something MC would like to try 10. Free Friday or your writing strengths 11. Saturday Snippet: Fight 12. Describe WIP using emojis 13. Favourite childhood books 14. Illness and injury in WIP 15. 2025 book releases your excited for 16. Things your characters would rather forget 17. Free Friday or are you a procrastinator or a planner 18. Saturday Snippet: funny 19. Favourite type of scenes to write 20. Religion or spirituality in WIP 21. WIP subgenres 22. Do your characters like to plan or make it up as they go? 23. How does your MC deal with confrontation? 24. Free Friday or what scents do you associate with your MC and/or WIP? 25. Saturday Snippet: emotional 26. How many WIPs do you work on at one time? 27. Travelling in WIP 28. MC Goals 29. WIP playlist 30. Preferred reading format 31. Monthly Wrap-up
January 20, 2025 at 9:59 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
For those who don't know, Quietly is currently on hiatus due to data-scraping concerns. In the interest of getting it back up ASAP, I have just sent an email to the site I was posting it to, asking a few questions about their AI policies and toolkit.
Concerns about Artificial Intelligence Data-scraping and Protecting Your Creators From: Emrys Francys (there is a photo of Emrys with one of their two black cats in the foreground) To: feedback@tapas.io (and various other addresses) Hello Tapas, I am unsure which is the right place to send this, so I am copying in the addresses I've found related to the subject of my inquiry. Some information on me: I have, previously, uploaded parts of my novel onto Tapas but, due to my concerns about this issue, I have taken it down until I am confident that my work will be protected. Recently, AI data-scraping and deep learning have developed at a staggering and unwieldy rate. I and countless fellow creators have increasing concerns regarding its use. Tapas' Content and Community Guidelines state, "AI generated content is not allowed on Tapas". We commend this statement but we would also like to know: 1. What tools are you using to identify AI works? 2. How accurate are these tools? 3. How are you enforcing this rule? Additionally, the security of intellectual properties hosted on your platform is (obviously) a priority to us and, we hope, to you. As such, we would also like to (The email ends here in this image) (Continuing from the previous image) Additionally, the security of intellectual properties hosted on your platform is (obviously) a priority to us and, we hope, to you. As such, we would also like to know: 4. How are you protecting creators' work from data-scraping and deep-learning tools? 5. Do you utilise or promote technologies such as Glaze, Mist, or Nightshade to protect comics? 6. Do you have a statement anywhere on the site which prohibits data-scraping of written work? Yours is a large platform, with a vast quantity of intellectual property stemming from a huge number of creators. The size of your platform means you have a big responsibility to protect your creators from IP theft. Any and all information that you can feasibly share with us regarding how you are working to do this would be greatly appreciated. If this is the wrong place to send this email, and you cannot see the correct place in the list of recipient emails, please inform me of the address I need to send it to. Otherwise, if it would be quicker for you to forward it on, please feel free to do so. Thank you for your time!
January 20, 2025 at 3:34 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 20

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin, illustrated by Charles Vess. The cover image is an embossed line-art of a young person stood with a staff, looking up at a dragon who is coiling around the person and looking down at them. Well, it's more of a wyrm than a traditional western dragon, but it does have big wings and little legs.
November 22, 2024 at 8:03 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 19

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien, illustrated by Alan Lee. The cover image is a huge dragon sat on an even larger pile of gold. Spoiler, ig.
November 22, 2024 at 12:04 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 18

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book Peter Darling by Austin Chant. The cover image shows illuminations of a open window with light streaming in hanging in the sky over a turbulent ocean in which there is a kraken-like creature to one side and a three-masted ship to the other. Over the kraken flies the silhouette of Peter Pan-esque figure, arms out to either side like a plane.
November 20, 2024 at 10:53 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 17

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo. There is a quote from Ali Smith that says, "Bernadine Evaristo can take any story from any time and turn it into something vibrating with life." The cover image is of a smiling, kind-featured older Black man in a well-fitting, plain three-piece suit. His waistcoat, by contrast, is jacquard and his tie is checkered. Hanging loose over the waistcoat is a medium-to-thick gold chain. The man's hat is narrow brimmed, with a ribbon running around the dome. Feathers jut out of the one side which is curled upwards. Behind the man is a brick wall.
November 20, 2024 at 12:19 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 16

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
This images shows the spine of the book Moonstone by Sjón. This image shows the front cover of Moonstone by Sjón, though it bears no text (hence me sharing a photo of the spine). Instead, all that is here is a calm beach on some kind of river or strait. On the far side is a steep, shadowy mountain, partially enshrouded in mist.
November 16, 2024 at 8:09 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 15

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book Little Gay Reykjavík: Queer History and Anecdotes by Gudjón Ragnar Jónasson. The design of the cover is simple: the bottom half shows the title and the author against a blank background. The top half is a rainbow drawn with oil pastels or crayons.
November 15, 2024 at 6:09 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 14

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book Literature as Exploration by Louise M. Rosenblatt with a foreword by Wayne Booth. The cover illustration shows some kind of abstract painting that the original poster cannot make heads nor tails of. There is what at first seems to be a marble statue, but upon closer inspection it's wearing grey trousers. In front of that, and in the middle of the image, is an easel with a technical sketch/illustration of the intersection of some buildings. It is all lines and no colour. On the other side of that is a shadowy archway and above that is... I don't even know how to put this without getting flagged... it looks like it is possibly something that one might find at the tip of the external primary sexual characteristic of a person for whom testosterone impacted the majority of their pubescent development. Or it could be the back of a bald person's head.
November 14, 2024 at 8:29 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 13

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book The Inferno by Dante, published as part of the Wordsworth Classics of World Literature. The cover is illustrated with an illumination of a great and powerful figure looming over a slighter, yet incredibly muscular one. The slighter one is facing away from the camera and wearing a crown, though their face is in profile. The great and powerful figure faces the camera but looks down at the slighter one with tilted head.
November 13, 2024 at 8:20 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 12

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book The Fairy Queen (part 2) by Edmund Spenser. The cover shows a painting of a woman who, if she is not Elizabeth I, looks very much like her, with curls piled high upon her head as well as tumbling around her shoulders. She has a tall peacock-tail-shaped, stiff lace collar, pearl and ruby necklaces, and a quilted cape over one shoulder.
November 12, 2024 at 8:31 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 11

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the books Sebastian O by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell, published by Vertigo. The cover shows four figures: one large figure at the back reading a small book; another wearing a suit with a thigh-length overcoat and a bowtie, looking into the camera; a third sits in an armchair with a pipe, wearing a sport-style suit. The final figure stands front and centre, wearing a three-piece suit with a bow-tied cravat and a flower button-hole, hair styled in curtains, smoking a cigarette in a cigarette-holder, and holding a thin walking cane.
November 11, 2024 at 3:54 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 10

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows the book The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, published by Panther Science Fiction. A fake sticker says, "Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for the year's best S.F. novel". The cover art shows a brutalist-esque structure - a palace or city - with lots of hard angles juxtaposed with gradual curves rising out of still water or, more likely, a lake of ice. The structure stands stark against a starry night's sky and a giant moon.
November 9, 2024 at 10:11 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 9

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows a book containing two stories from Tales of Narnia by C.S.Lewis: Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The cover of the book shows a teenage boy with mid-length hair, dressed in fine velvet and jacquard clothes, a horn and a cloak, riding a horse as his cloak blows in the wind. He looks nervously to the side.
November 8, 2024 at 6:49 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 8

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows a book called The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. It is noted that it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007, was an international bestseller (at time of print), and is thought to be 'Beautifully written... more exciting than any thriller I've read for a long time' by Philip Pullman. The cover illustration is of a man looking out over a city skyline from within an archway. He wears long thin clothes, suited to a hot climate, and is holding sunglasses in his hand.
November 8, 2024 at 2:31 AM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 7

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows a book called The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. The tagline says "It's never too late to follow the dream" and there is a fake sticker with an endorsement from V.E. Schwab saying "Simply perfect". The cover illustration is of a large, fancy brick house with a patina roof and a tall chimney. It sits atop a cliff, the underside of which has been worn away by the sea so that where the house sits at its peak hangs precariously over the water. In the gap between cliff and sea, the sun is sitting neatly on the horizon. The top of the cliff is covered in grass, there are a couple of leafless trees, bending away from the house as if they have grown constantly blustered by strong winds. Between them and the house is a square car and a narrow drive. To the side of the house is a round pavillion.
November 6, 2024 at 1:46 PM
ryaloren.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 6

#BookSky
#Books
#BookChallenge
💙📚👀
The image shows a book called Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov published by Everyman's Library. The cover image is a head and shoulders photo of a man with a narrow face and long features looking into the camera. He is wearing a narrow rimmed hat and a heavy coat over a scarf and a suit. He looks a little tired or maybe sad, but mostly he looks simply blank. Behind him, on an otherwise plain wall, are chunky marker doodles of butterflies and leaves, with some lines sparking off the man's hat.
November 5, 2024 at 4:26 PM