TochwyatisMy fantasy novel Tochwyatis is available in English as an e-book at Smashwords, see below. It is now also available in print. The audio files referred to in the book are at the bottom of this page, in the section 'Background information'. Description The gods have slept for more than seventeen centuries and are due to wake up in twenty years. When that happens, Kumulhan, High Priest of the Sky Father among the nomads of the Tagashai steppe wants his god to be supreme over the other gods. To ensure that, he launches an army of elite nomad cavalry to conquer the world. Tochwyatis, a young sailor born into a poor family but with an aptitude for sorcery, finds himself playing an important part in the efforts to defeat Kumulhan. Samples A sample containing the first 16 % of the novel is available here, for the benefit of those who want to look at it without going to some other site, but the maps are missing due to technical difficulties and the formatting is slightly awkward, with empty lines between paragraphs instead of indented first lines. Better samples are available at Smashwords, Amazon and probably elsewhere. Reviews I'll start collecting reviews here: Where to get Tochwyatis: As an e-book: May be available in Apple's iBook store, I haven't been able to check it. My Smashwords profile is available at In print: Tochwyatis is available on paper as an A5 (148.5 mm * 210 mm) paperback in two editions, one printed by Juvenes Print and the other by Lulu.com. There are only minor differences between the two editions. The Juvenes Print edition is primarily intended to be marketed in Finland and can be obtained from the following retailers: The Lulu edition is intended for the rest of the world. It is available at Lulu.com , at Amazon and possibly elsewhere. Acknowledgments This got left out of the book, so I'll put in acknowledgments here as they occur to me, starting with: Kevin McLaughlin (provided very useful advice about self-publishing) Lucinda K. Campbell (corrected the formatting errors in the Kindle version). Fellow authors who may need her services: go to Smashwords, then the FAQ page and search for 'Mark's List'. Other issues Background information Here are links to pages with information that may interest readers but couldn't be included in the book itself, such as .wma audio files containing the pronunciation of the names in the novel. If you want to dig into it this deeply (that's entirely up to you!), I recommend that you open the Catalog of names and spells in one window and one audio file at a time in another window, so that you can read the names and listen to them simultaneously. Audio files: March of the Karellavani heavy cavalry Teaser: As he walked along the path, which was sometimes almost invisible in the dim starlight, sometimes clear as Arimanaga flared up, Tochwyatis heard a clicking behind him. A shiver ran up his back, and he felt as if his testicles were trying to crawl up into his belly. Could it be...? He turned. Yes, it was a ketterak! He started groping for a stone, found one and lifted it, ready to throw at the low-slung, pale, multilegged form. He heard a voice, mixed with the clicking. "Do you really believe that's necessary?" it said scornfully, with an eerie accent due to thoroughly non-human vocal organs, but intelligibly enough. Puzzled, Tochwyatis lowered his right hand. "Do you really believe those old wives' tales about us eating humans?" the voice went on. "Well, why shouldn't I?" he answered. "Have you ever heard of it really happening? I mean a case where you really know someone it happened to, not a vague tale about a second cousin's father-in-law's friend's acquaintance?" "No, but if you rarely get an opportunity to eat humans, I suppose I wouldn't." |