Amazon sells The Chosen novel

USA (SANEPR.com) March 11, 2008 -- The Chosen – Book One of the Schism of Mann is selling in the United States through Amazon.com, much to the delight of its Australian author Gary R. Howard.

Amazon has begun stocking the new novel at its outlets in Kentucky and Arizona, has sold its first copies in the US and is ready to sell and ship more to readers around the world.

If early demand for the novel continues, publisher CCT Press in Sydney expects to supply Amazon in box loads, 24 copies a box.

The fantasy novel of adventure, intrigue and romance is also selling world wide at www.empireofmann.com and approved bookstores.

It is a saga about the desperate plight of a chosen few struggling amid political turmoil, religious corruption and rampant warfare in the medieval Empire of Mann.

The Chosen, a 528-page paperback book, ISBN 9780646478838, is selling for a recommended retail price of $A23 or $US22 plus postage and handling. Amazon is selling it for $US25 including shipping.

Author Gary Howard says he is delighted with interest shown by readers of this his first book and with sales so far.

Aged 40, he lives in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby with his wife and children and works as a partner in the audit and tax advisory firm of KPMG in Sydney.

Gary began writing the novel in 1993 and worked steadily on it for 14 years.

In the story, central character Samuel has been banished by his father, Duke William, to a small village on the northern outskirts of the duchy of Whitewall.

The young nobleman has become estranged from his lover the noble Jessica who seems to have become attached to his brother.

Being sent to the village as the new sheriff to collect taxes with the aid of his slovenly soldiers, he is feared and loathed by the peasants.

Now the avenging Bauman barbarians have regrouped and begun invading from the north to conquer the weakened Whitewall and other duchies of the Empire of Mann.

As the battle rages around him, Samuel finds himself in the company of an altar boy, a peasant and three refugees from the invasion, a barbarian, a Farfadet and an Abre Nain.

They become embroiled in a battle not only against the invaders and sorcerers who possess their soldiers but also against decadent and incompetent nobles and corrupt clergy.

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Media contact: Gary Howard – phone 61 2 9335 7623, mobile 0407 244 633, fax 61 2 9299 7077, email grhoward@kpmg.com.au ; or Wal Baker – phone 61 2 9416 7111, email wal@wb-pr.com .

Download book cover illustration at www.empireofmann.com/cover.htm .
Download photo of author at www.empireofmann.com/gary.htm .
View The Chosen web site at www.empireofmann.com .
Order a free copy of the book for review from CCT Press.