The Shackled Scribes by Lars Teeney

It’s always a pleasure when I can welcome a ‘new-to-me’ author and his work to Thoughts in Progress. Today, I’d like to welcome author Lars Teeney who is joining us to talk about his new fantasy novel with science fiction elements.

◊Title: The Shackled Scribes

◊Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy

◊Self-published

◊Release date: 9/20/16

◊Target audience: New Adult/Adult

Futharkia is a city built upon the layout of an ancient rune shape, and a foundation of slavery. The Broxanians have been enslaved by the Olgoikhorkian Masters to exploit the Broxanian talent for rune-scribing. In exchange, the rune-scribes are compensated with the sweet, golden liquid, Ichor, that the giant worm-like Olgoikhorkians secrete from their glands. The Ichor also happens to be highly addictive and psychoactive.

The system has worked for millennia. However, the Great Fern Jungle that surrounds Futharkia is dying, being bleached white by some unseen force. Coupled with the fact that the simian-like Fern Lice have been hunted to near extinction to provide for Futharkia's ever-increasing demand for food, the ecosystem is near collapse.

It is amid this setting that Cyesko Limariar, an aging rune-scribe makes one last attempt at greatness to lift himself out of poverty, even if by fraudulent means.

Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Lars as he joins us to talk about his new release, THE SHACKLED SCRIBES. Welcome, Lars.

In a world awash in a sea of "written to market" genre eBooks I am attempting to be sea wall. Maybe that sounds a tad bit pretentious and maybe that means I will ultimately fail at this grand self-publishing experiment, but in my view, if you aren't writing what you love and you don't have anything important to say then why write at all? We live in a world filled with injustice, inequality, corruption, monotony, tedium and pain which leads the masses to search for escapism. I can understand why people search for mindless entertainment, but this habit also leads to the problems in the world being ignored by the masses at large. Mass distraction is the order of the day while we all bide for time and money in the hope that the status quo continues on uninterrupted and that our financial security remains intact, all the while forces beyond our control work tirelessly to propel the human race into unknown and volatile territory. 

My writing aims to entertain but also to highlight these worldly flaws. I weave tales populated with complicated and morally complex characters with the hope that the reader can relate to the dreams of each character but also their shortcomings. The Apostates series of dystopian novels that I have recently finished takes place in a war-ravaged and environmentally-decimated Earth. 

The plot is epic in scope and I needed it to be so in order to tell a morally ambiguous and complex story that in my opinion is not that far from reality, even though it is a fictional universe. And, it took me ten years of soaking up the headlines and witnessing the bloody chaos in the world after 9/11 to finally shake the malaise of depression I suffered from to codify my observations and notes to finally write the novels. The elements of the story languished in my notebooks and sketchbooks during that time, but now they have been set down in type and maybe my prose will make an impression on some readers.

I am an independent author and have no claim to fame or awards under my belt. I maintain a day job to finance my passion. I have had mixed reviews of my work; there have been readers who have acclaimed it and panned it. I am trying to make my way in this strange industry, soaking up as much information in an attempt to be successful, but the nature of this business is at the whim of one particular oligarchical company that can make or break millions of budding careers. That being said, I am churning out as many novels life will allow me. I have just released The Shackled Scribes, a short fantasy novel. 

The book is satirical, humorous, and absurd in equal parts, and after spending so much time writing the dark series that is The Apostates I was glad for a change of pace. I hope that readers will enjoy the book as well. Theoretical physics, mythology, economics, and politics have all influenced and inspired the crafting of this novel. So, I hope each and every one of you will continue to visit this blog and if you have a chance check out my new book, The Shackled Scribes.

I wanted to thank Pamela for this guest post.

Lars, thank you for joining us today and sharing this insight. From what I know of the publishing world, continue to write and never give up that desire.

Author Lars Teeney

For more on Lars, connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.

You can find THE SHACKLED SCRIBES on Amazon and Goodreads.

Thanks so much for stopping by today during Lars visit. What are your thoughts on encouraging a writer to continue on their journey? Do you like books that entertain but also enlighten you?