Ashley Capes

@ashcapes.bsky.social

1521 Followers 1668 Following

Australian writer of fantasy fiction, free verse poetry, haiku and other stuff. See more at his website below: www.ashleycapes.com

eBook cover for "Isola D'Ambra" by Ashley Capes - showing main character Never, who holds a raised lantern in a dark cavern, revealing an expression of some concern.
Never and Rika share a look of worry where they stand before a tower of white and rose that stretches into the blue sky
Never is trapped on a throne in a dark room, vines pinning him to the stone
Never stands before a glowing stone doorway, wings spread and hands set in blazing fists
Tsolde faces the viewer as though sitting for a character portrait. Her red hair tumbles down to her shoulders
Three warriors search a bamboo forest, with a winged figure lurking high above
Never hovers in the blue sky above a city far below, his dark wings spread and his naked torso revealing a glowing leaf motif on his chest
Never stands on an outcrop of stone during a golden sunset, his arms folded as he stares into the distance
Never has drawn a dagger where he sits within a rowboat, a look of determination on his face
Never pauses while traversing a pale forest, one hand resting on a branch
Never holds a raised lantern in a dark cavern and wears an expression of some concern
Never is clinging to the exterior wall of a keep, a map held in one hand
Picture of the paperback, featuring main character Never holding a lantern and wearing an expression of concern. Behind him, the dark wall of a cave appears in a vague honeycomb pattern.
A young man without a face and wearing a robe and cloak of blue stands before a moon burst in a night sky eBook cover to "The Faceless Moon" by Ashley Capes
A bundle picture of 8 eBook covers written by Ashley Capes: Never A Drifting Sun Small Town Lazarus The Raven's Price Knee-Deep in Cinders The Fairy Wren Crossings The Phoenix of Kiymako
A bundle picture of 8 eBook covers written by Ashley Capes: Never A Drifting Sun Small Town Lazarus The Raven's Price Knee-Deep in Cinders The Fairy Wren Crossings The Phoenix of Kiymako
Image of a two-picture meme format that combines two stills from the film 'My Dinner with Andre'. In both pictures, Wally is pictured standing at the train platform. Picture one text: "When I was young, all I thought about was art and music" Picture two text: "Now I'm 36, and all I think about is Biscoff". My childish joke was essentially to change the last word in the second quote. The last word in the film is 'money'. The original subtitles as quoted in the images are yellow and I have changed the word 'biscoff' to a orange/red colour that approximates the brand's packaging.
A screenshot from the 1980s 'Astro Boy' series. The imposing figure of Atlas, an orange/gold robot wearing a black toga, sits astride a white horse with a spiked mane.
Cover art for "Imperial Towers" by Ashley Capes. A winged man hovers in the air, high above a cityscape. His wings are dark feathers and his torso is bare, revealing a five-pointed leaf symbol in glowing white.
Cover art for 'The Raven's Price' by Ashley Capes. A figure in armor and blue robes, who is also wearing a mask, stands before the silhouette of a city. Raven's wings are faintly visible in the background.
Collage of album covers: Eloy - Planets Anri - Timely!! Leprous - Aphelion Eurythmics - G/H Cowboy Bebop - OST Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know The Power Station - Self Titled Gillan - Glory Road Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day Cult of Lilith - Mara Blue Oyster Cult - Heaven Forbid Cradle of Filth - Dusk and Her Embrace Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked Ray Manzarek - The Golden Scarab Sepultura - Against Roxy Music - Avalon
B&W photo - most of the frame is taken up by a field of young pine, with mature pine trees visible in the background
b&w photo, showing a close up of pods on a pine tree. The depth of field is shallow, so pine needs in the background are blurred.
Three-panel style ebook cover for the Exiles series by Ashley Capes. Each panel shows one character: a young woman with blonde hair, an young man without a face and an older man with a grey beard.
Screenshot of an "ISBN Dashboard". The screenshot shows that there are a total of 140 ISBNs (not shown individually, of course :D)
Cover for 'Dark Fang' by Ashley Capes. In a jungle setting with dark leaves and pale orange sky, three characters are surprised to come across a giant dragon, whose golden eye stares down at them.
Norman Rockwell’s "freedom of speech" painting, showing one man standing amongst a crowd, as if ready to speak
Logo for the "Epic Fantasy Audiobooks" Youtube channel, featuring bold text within a pale circle, with a waveform running below like an underline
Map of a large landmass with surrounding islands of varying sizes. The landmass is dominated by a central mountain range and surrounded by forests and rivers. The colours are soft and the detail is vague :D
Collage of 6 eBook covers "The Bone Mask Cycle" by Ashley Capes. Each shows a robed and masked figure posed before the silhouette of a coastal city.
"The Moss Dragon of Brittlekeep" by Ashley Capes, eBook cover A close-up of a dragon with many horns, whose scales are soft, deep green of moss. His golden eye gazes at the viewer.
Still from the film 'The Dark Crystal', showing a close-up of one of the mystics with a gentle expression.
B&W photo: Low angle shot of paved stone in a circular pattern, and two stone steps with a grate set into one of the steps, off-centre
Crossings by Ashley Capes At night, a young woman holds the severed head of a kangaroo. She is back-lit by headlights from her 4-wheel drive.
The 10 February 1953 issue of Krokodil magazine ran a Ganf cartoon titled 'In America - At This Restaurant Only One Person Is Served'. It shows a restaurant where waiters serve piles of money to a soldier, labeled "War". Judging from the types of money they serve, the four waiters represent four Western countries. The man with the knife slices U.S. dollars, hinting that he is an American, perhaps former U.S. President Harry S. Truman (who was already succeeded by Dwight D. Eisenhower by the time this cartoon was printed in Krokodil). The obese man with monocle serves British pounds and could either be then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill or the British national personification John Bull. The man with a whole plate with money, decorated with smelly cheese, is a Frenchman, possibly French Prime Minister Antoine Pinay. The wrinkly green man with swastika badge is West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer (who ironically was active in the German resistance movement during World War II). While 'War' is fed with delicious Western financial nutrition, four other customers wait in vain for service. Their tables are labeled 'Education', 'Health Care', 'Libraries' and 'Art'...
Banner image of 3 ebook covers: The Red Hourglass The Ruby Heart A Crimson Wolf by Ashley Capes. L-R: Two figures holding rifles stand upon a red desert beneath a blue sky. A giant tank-like construction blocks a sunset. An airship passes before a massive, pale moon in a dark sky.
The Amber Isle by Ashley Capes A man holds a lamp with an expression of concern. The warm glow lights a dark, honeycombed wall behind him.
The man leaned forward and the stench of his breath thickened the air. Somehow, it was worse than the capital’s sewers. It also seemed something had died on the front of his tunic. “I said, you’re sitting in my seat. Move.” “I’m really quite comfortable here; how about we share?” Never offered. His brow furrowed. Perhaps the man was unable to comprehend what was happening, how someone could refuse him. No doubt he was used to getting his way. Or at the very least, to people getting out of his way. Some of them fainting probably. “Custom would suggest you get angry now,” Never said. “What?” “Why don’t you sweep my drink from the table?” He smiled. “Or you could roar something obscene, that’s always fun.” The drunkard finally realised he was being toyed with. He growled as reached for his blade, raising it level with his face so it caught light from one of the torches. It did look wicked. “Last chance, funny-man.” Never sighed. Another evening ruined – thanks to his own pig-headedness, in truth.
Collage of cover art for ebooks by Ashley Capes: Never A Drifting Sun small town lazarus The Raven's Price Knee-Deep in Cinders The Fairy Wren Crossings The Phoenix of Kiymako
It is utterly decadent, in a world gone out of joint, to behave as though everything were in perfect order, as though all that mattered was to repeat, with every kind of polite flourish, what the classics had once expressed with the full force of their originality as the true experience of their age. Ernst Fischer (1959, The Necessity of Art)
Close up of cherry blossoms at Meguro River in Tokyo. The blossoms are mostly white, and the branches are black with some green buds. The canal is visible in the background, with petals floating on the water.
Blood of the Guardian by Ashley Capes Before a rose-tinted tower stretching up into blue sky, a man and woman share a look of concern
Scales of Fire by Ashley Capes Five characters follow a dirt path through faded green hills, toward a giant dragon bone upon a ridge. A blue sky full of clouds rests above the scene.
Dark Fang by Ashley Capes Three characters in a deep green jungle stand before an enormous dragon, whose golden eye looks down at them.
Headline reads "Replace Greg Davies and drop the comedians: how to fix Taskmaster"
In a jungle setting, three figures stand in awed surprise before an enormous dragon, whose golden eye stares down at them.
Banner image for the 'Bone Mask Cycle' by Ashley Capes. Each book features a robed figure standing before the silhouette of a city.
The Fairy Wren by Ashley Capes Against a pale background, a vivid blue fairy wren appears within a splash of similar colours
Cover art for the 'Sol Bianca' OVA (1990s) Two women in white and red armour stand before a background of mostly black space, along with a sleek spaceship
A young man holds up a lantern in a dim, crumbling temple to reveal a goddess robed in blue and yellow feathers. The book is titled "War Heart"
The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer
Cover art for 'The Fairy Wren' by Ashley Capes. Upon a paint-splattered background of blue, white and grey, sits a superb fairy wren with a calm expression. Art and text design by Vivid Covers
Full cover for supernatural suspense novel 'Crossings' by Ashley Capes. The back cover shows a red-bellied black snake in a dark forest with a distant moon. The front cover shows a young woman with an expression of concern, holding a kangaroo head; also at night.
Paul Chowdhry on the set of Taskmaster, smiling at either Greg or Alex (both of which are off-camera)
I hope the haiku still makes sense if you read French - but as a warning/apology, I don't have the accents in place, and I only assume I didn't make any typos when I re-typed these : brise printaniere - I'odeur des ordure duex etages plus bas je roule les serviettes de plage la memoire du sable papillons qui se dispersant a chaque pas je surveille la circulation plus de feuilles rouges les impermeables emplissent la rue a traversles herbes hautes qui sifflent dans le vent le pas prudent d'une grue disparaissant dans la Lumiere du matin un chant d'oiseau
The Boy who Breathed Disco Eric’s waiter was sour milk. Not just the man’s expression, but his complexion too. Even the whites of his eyes were off. And the way he held the menu, puffing his chest out. Was this guy trying to prove something? An electric candelabra sent light bouncing off the brown panelled walls, heavy potted plants and onto the waiter’s greying hair. He wasn’t elderly – and yet, he was still old enough not to do the whole macho posturing thing, wasn’t he? Or so Eric thought. Eric grabbed a second menu and pointed. “No. Here. I’d like the carbonara.” The candle on his ‘table for one’ flickered as someone left the restaurant. Inoffensive 80s AOR was lost momentarily, as the roar of traffic elbowed its way in. “Sir, you’d enjoy the mushroom soup.” “Maybe, but I’d like the pasta.” The waiter glared down at him. “You’d like the soup better.” Eric blinked. Not sour milk – his waiter was crazy. It couldn’t be a joke either, because, well, jokes were funny. The man’s jaw was clenched. What sort of waiter got shitty when a customer refused the special? How fucking special could it be?
Chapter 1 Stony Bay Books was in trouble. Paul paced the empty floor, feather duster in hand. It had been quiet all week. Longer. All month and most of summer. He took a deep breath. His customers had gone the way of the dodo, the whisper of turning pages no longer a siren song. Even the new releases looked to be hibernating and the second-hand section up back, its shelves lined with creased spines, should have had at least one loveable nerd foraging for an obscure title. Instead it was home only to pleasant sunlight streaming in from the skylight – which, despite its pleasantness, didn’t look like it was going to buy anything.