About the Book

Book: Chaos Woods, Chronicles of the Ever-Guise, Book I

Author: Scott T. Barnes

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Release Date: November 14, 2025

After a thieves’ auction goes wrong, young barmaid Telyn Brower winds up with a shard from a magical mask.

Only one problem: In this world, humans are forbidden to use magic. In fact, they’re the only sentient beings without any innate magical powers.

That doesn’t stop Telyn and her friends from using the mask to improve life in their isolated mountain town of Harlech.

At first, the changes seem small. Helpful. Necessary.

But good intentions only carry them so far.

Soon, lies begin to surface. Trust erodes. With every spell they cast, the mask tightens its grip. The power is seductive, addictive. The consequences are dangerous.

As the subjugation of humans intensifies and enemies draw near, the only way out seems to lie deep in the Chaos Woods—an ancient forest where magic itself bends and frays.

To survive, the friends must face the cost of their choices and decide whether they can truly trust one another.

Discover the young adult fantasy Chaos Woods, rated 4.8 out of 5 stars by IndieReader, and described as “an ambitious, character-driven fantasy.”

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

An afficionado of small towns, forests, and mountains, you can find Scott T. Barnes writing in coffee shops all over Southern California. Scott won the Writers of the Future Award for his story “Insect Sculptor.” His contemporary fantasy, Memories of Lucinda Eco, set in Baja California, received a coveted “Editor’s Pick” from BookLife, while his epic fantasy Chaos Woods earned 4.8 out of 5 stars from IndieReader. Kirkus Reviews called it, “An absorbing, character-driven YA tale of camaraderie and redemption.”

 

 

More from Scott

One of the things that makes the fantasy genre so powerful, so important even, is that it often deals with existential questions, especially life versus death and good versus evil. Many other genres shy away from such question, or pretend that evil is, in fact, “relative.”

However, sharing the same stakes also means that many fantasy tales may come to resemble one another a little too much.

For Chaos Woods, I wanted to do something a little bit different. Given that the main character winds up with a magical mask, it did not take long to realize that the primary stakes of this story would be truth versus lies. This realization made the writing of the story much easier. Conflict and confrontation came easily through the turning of these two poles. This led IndieReader in a 4.8/5-star review to remark, “Scott T. Barnes delivers a richly imagined, character-driven coming-of-age fantasy that balances cozy adventure with thoughtful themes of morality, addiction, and the consequences of one’s choices.”

In addition to unique stakes, there is a lot of me in this tale. I grew up in a gold-mining town, surrounded by fields and live oak stands, and the mountains, forests, and small-town vibe enrich Telyn’s adventures. I hope the reader finds the Chaos Woods a place they want to visit again and again.

Interview with the Author

• What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

What a great question! Every trip I take I try to do one or more. For example, with my family we visited London, Oxford and Cambridge a couple of years ago. We visited many of the places where they filmed Harry Potter, and also the places frequented by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m sure that inspired my daughter to apply as an exchange student at Cambridge this summer.

• What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

All-time favorite is Encounter Program by Robert Enstrom. This is a fantastic, clean science fiction novel full of action, suspense, and big ideas. It is also a short volume at around 250 pages. I wish I had written it! Enstrom’s other novel, Beta Colony, is also in my top 20 of all time.

• How do you select the names of your characters?

Chaos Woods takes place in a made-up world, so I want my character names to feel exotic but to have an internal consistency. In this case, I chose Welsh names for most of my human characters. Characters (usually nonhuman) from other lands have names from other languages, such as Slavic, Indonesian, and others. I’m afraid I don’t have the patience or time to invent languages as some authors do.

• What was your hardest scene to write?

I have discovered that if a scene is particularly difficult to write, it probably doesn’t belong in my novel. That is my brain saying, “This is boring. Cut this.” That said, meetings where several characters have dialog are always challenging.

• What is your favorite childhood book?

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

• If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?

Discipline, discipline, discipline. Looking back at my early life, I had so much time compared to now, and yet I barely got any writing done. I lacked self-discipline—and also I lacked the courage to set aside all the careful paths and just go for it. Too bad. Not only did I waste many precious years, but I missed the “easy” window when only a few thousand indie books were published per year. Now I think the number worldwide is around 2 million. It is much more difficult to be discovered with so much “noise.”

• What comes first, the plot or characters?

They are so intertwined, I cannot separate them. I suppose I must have some sort of scene in mind before I start writing, but without a pretty good handle on the character, I have no idea what the hero will do.

• Who is the author you most admire in your genre?

I would choose a different list every day, but here are a few: Barry B. Longyear; C.S. Lewis; Ursula K. Le Guin; J.R.R. Tolkien

• What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Spending time with my family, hiking, traveling, going to the movies.

• If you could invite one person to dinner, who would it be and what would you cook?

My favorite dinner guest is my wife. I would make something from my Recipes from the Italian Alps cookbook.

Blog Stops

Simple Harvest Reads, May 27 (Author Interview)

Artistic Nobody, May 28 (Author Interview)

Guild Master, May 29 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 29

Tell Tale Book Reviews, May 30

Fiction Book Lover, May 31 (Author Interview)

The Bookish Ledger, June 1 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, June 1

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, June 2 (Author Interview)

Blogging With Carol, June 3

Books, Books, & More Books, June 4 (Author Interview)

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, June 5 (Author Interview)

Books Less Travelled, June 6 (Author Interview)

The Lofty Pages, June 7

History, Hope & Happily Ever After, June 8 (Author Interview)

Paula’s Pad of Inspiration, June 9 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Scott is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/E1JY7/chaos-woods-celebration-tour-giveaway