Wild GooseAgency

Jason A. Keane

Scar Bound

Siren Teeth

Conscripted into an organization that protects the rest of the world from the supernatural, an apprentice field agent with a unique, if seemingly underwhelming, power must face ghosts, demons, and his own crippling self-doubt if he intends to survive his first week on the job.
Genre
Paranormal urban fantasy
Structure
1st of a trilogy
Rights available
World English / Translation / Film & TV
Audience
Crossover literature
Word count
116,000 approx
Timeline
Present
Setting
Somewhere in Ireland
Narrative Perspective
Narrated in 3rd person past tense

Comparables

“The Stranger Times” by C. K. McDonnell and “Sworn Soldier” series by T. Kingfisher

Synopsis


It’s been nearly five years since Murphy survived being kidnapped by a hag. Nearly five years since he was conscripted into the Order, an organization that protects humanity from the supernatural. As the next part of his training, Murphy needs to accompany his mentor Jack into the field. He’s supposed to be getting shown the ropes. But nothing is ever simple when dealing with the supernatural.

A masked creature is stealing magical items from a market for the occult and the vendors suspect one of their own. A vengeful ghost has been kidnapping the people she holds responsible for her creator’s disappearance. A strange sickness is spreading through the quiet town of Grayling, putting everyone who catches it into an endless sleep plagued by nightmares. And something truly sinister is going on beneath the surface in Ward Way, where a cult is planning to conduct a ritual they refer to as ‘the ascension.’

Murphy has been told he’s special, that the abilities he was born with make him uniquely suited to be an operative. But does he really have what it takes or is he just a liability?

Author's Note

Initially, the concepts that would turn into Siren Teeth started off as a writing exercise. I had made it a tradition since high school to write a short horror story every October for Halloween. I would put references to the other stories in each new addition and before long, I had created a whole world around the supernatural events in my stories. Over fifteen years after I started, I decided it was time to use the setting I had created to tell something bigger and more personal.

For as filled out as the world of Ira has become in my mind, Siren Teeth is first and foremost a story about people. The incidents Murphy and his mentor deal with are always initiated by humans, always have a human cause behind them. And while some people can feel petty or selfish or even cruel, the vast majority of them are just lost. Lost in their pain, lost in the world, sometimes lost in their own minds. It can be tempting to close your heart to protect yourself, but we don’t grow from wallowing in our hurt. We all make mistakes, what matters is whether we can forgive ourselves and try again. And whether we would do the same for others. Ultimately, that’s what Siren Teeth intends to explore, beneath the magic and monsters.

From a young age, I have been fascinated by mythology as a whole and the way it reflects different cultures. Within the world of Siren Teeth, I have chosen to blur those lines as much as possible. The hag from Murphy’s childhood and the mare he faces later in the novel are both based on the same monsters that prey on people while they sleep; nightmares, succubi, mara, and the like. But why are these creatures in our own mythologies so similar? Why do different cultures in different parts of the world come up with the same stories? To my mind, it is a reminder that, at the end of the day, we are never all that different from each other.