For those of you who're interested: "Raetian Tales 1: A Wind from the South" now available in paper

[dianeduane]

For a while now, we've been offering the first "Raetian Tales" book, A Wind from the South, as a downloadable e-book via the book's web page. Now, though, after a lot of requests from various folks, at last there's a paperback edition.

Here's the blurb as a reminder:

In the remote mountain village where she was born, Mariarta dil Alicg lives the untroubled life of a peasant girl...until, soon after a mysterious stranger's arrival, she starts to hear voices in the wind. The voices whisper strange secrets in Mariarta’s ears -- promising her the power to command the stormwind, hinting at an unknown, magical heritage, and prophesying a fate marvelous past all Mariarta’s imaginings.

Then a curse falls on Mariarta's village, shattering the lives of her family and friends. Mariarta must set out across the mountain realm of Raetia in search of a way to break the curse -- while also hunting for the truth about the beautiful and terrible being who Mariarta discovers is trying to possess her soul.

Mariarta’s search will lead her into hidden domains of sorcery, and embroil the young woman in the growing rebellion against her land's cruel Austriac oppressors. But not before Mariarta comes face to face at last with the immortal Lady of the Storms, and challenges her to one final battle for control of her life, her soul, and her destiny...

And here's a link to the first two chapters as an Adobe .PDF file, if you want to sample a little more of the book than is available on the Lulu site. Also, some reader comments are here..

...Want a copy of the paperback?  Use this link, or punch the button below.

 

Comments

[gramina.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble opening the sample chapters -- I get a "file cannot be found" error from Acrobat. (I'm running IE at the moment, I'm sorry to say.)

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Hmm, strange. I just opened that link in Firefox and it seems to be working perfectly, both from the page and the LJ posting. Maybe your IE is misbehaving somehow? Or Adobe?

[(Anonymous)]

I wish that it were available in unencrypted form, like the stuff from the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library) and Webscriptions (http://www.webscriptions.net) (and, for that matter, like The Big Meow is). I'd like to be able to read it on all of my different computing devices, and none of the formats presently available offer that ability. I really dislike the way that DRM prevents me from using my fair use rights for works I legitimately purchase. That's why I haven't gotten around to purchasing it so far.

Oh well, if I do end up purchasing it, I guess I'll get the LIT version, as the DRM on LIT is so ineffective it might as well be an open format, and the DMCA allows cracking encryption for purposes of interoperability of computer systems.

[gramina.livejournal.com]

Could be -- thanks for checking! I'll try again when I get back to my beloved Firefox-using computer :)

[(Anonymous)]

You want the paperback to be available in unencrypted form? I suspect it will be. How could it not be? Though it's a worrying thought if it's now possible to make encrypted paperbacks.


My PDF of WftS says "No security" when I look at its Document Info - is that where it would tell me that it had some sort of DRM?

[occams_pyramid]

The link works fine here in Firefox, IE and Opera (on Win 2K).

Possibly something in the IE / Acrobat integration?

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

Oh, very nice to see! Saving up for it. Thanks for the link.