Available now from Smashwords, Amazon US and Amazon UK. Other vendor sites (and the TPB version) take longer to process through.
Congrats to the ebook competition winners (ChrisL, JulieH, Jyak, DianaW, smarywcerb2, Gonzalo & Carin): the book should be in your inbox.
Today I have:
- Decided to never, ever set a fixed release date again.
- Uploaded the WRONG version of the cover to Amazon (can't fix this till tomorrow).
- Cried all through editing the final entry. Probably from relief at being at the end.
- Discovered a new typo every time I went to finalise the ebook.
- Stressed constantly about whether this bit or that bit or the other bit is boring.
- Read my favourite bits over and over with a big grin on my face.
It's been a big boost for me to have readers looking forward to one of my books, so I'd like to add a big THANKS for all your comments and reviews. I hope you all have fun with it!
W00T!!!! off to smashwords !
ReplyDeleteThanks - bought! (and just at the right time, I have virtually finished the Liaden Universe stories while waiting). The regular searches will now stop - sorry, I could not resist!
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@ Jenny - timed for maximum impact on your working day tomorrow Jennies. ;)
ReplyDelete@ Tim - I thought it was a lot of fun Tim - made me laugh every time.
Congratulations! (And...ding/sold! Agh, Amazon 1-click purchases are alarmingly easy!)
ReplyDeleteSo...what's next? Wednesday/Pyramids?
Yessss !!! Great news !! Will buy it ASAP on Smashwords !
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm off to get mine. Tried to stay up to get it last night (I'm about 15 hrs behind you) but fell asleep :( P.S. Don't angst about your books being boring. Your characters have a depth to them that is missing in many books (and I read hundreds every yesr. Literally.) MSilverthjorn.
ReplyDeleteSomebody call the Wahmbulance! :)
ReplyDeleteJust think how cool it is that people all over the world were going bonkers with excitement waiting for this book to come out. Now I am off to read...
Ah-ha! Very glad I came by I know how I'm spending my not cooking/cleaning time today! w00t so excited!!!
ReplyDeleteSo excited!!! Thank you for writing this series.
ReplyDeleteWoot! :) Bye - I'm off to put my nose in my Kindle and not come out until Caszandra's done! LOL
ReplyDeleteOh no! I haven't finished my NaNo yet... What terrible choices to have to make. :-(
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing! I can't wait to read it.
@ Dave - next up is the Gratuitous Epilogue freebie some time in December, then "Hunting" my girl vigilante book, probably February/March. Pyramids is _years_ away.
ReplyDelete@ Everyone - Hope you enjoy it. :)
Hi! I've enjoyed Stray and Lab Rat One.
ReplyDeleteI was reading the sample on my Amazon Cloud Reader and came across a typo. I was wondering if there is some method for me to send it to you. (I dislike pointing out typos and similar errors in a public forum if I can avoid it.)
I plan to buy Caszandra tomorrow! :-)
(And if you'd like to find the error, it's in Caszandra's conversation with Zee. Cass should say, "Is Kaoren somewhere right now getting a huge lecture because of me?" But it doesn't.)
@ apostrophistica - Glad you've been enjoying the books. :) Any typos are gladly accepted at mail@andreakhost.com .
ReplyDeleteThe particular instance you point out, however, is an example of Cass' deliberate "ungrammaticisation" of her speech to try to reflect how badly she speaks Taren. Trying to translate Cass' progression in Taren has been one of the more difficult aspects of editing Touchstone (not to mention that Cass is writing in an equivalent of spoken Australian and so says things like "try and" instead of "try to"). In "Caszandra" she has reached the point where she no longer speaks like Yoda, but is still getting tenses wrong and missing out some conjunctive words. To complicate it even more, her speech becomes more ungrammatical when she's upset.
It is particularly jarring hitting Cass' grammar vagaries, and it was hard not to edit them out!
Not that there aren't typos in Caszandra. I've already hit three in my compulsive post-publication re-read (hilt instead of hilts and an extra word a few paragraphs later, and also "two kalrani to go" which highly amuses me as a phrase, but should be 'went').
I'll be putting up a correction of those. Hopefully there'll be no other errors. ;/
I'm just realizing that perhaps it's Cass's language problems in that sentence, not a typo.
ReplyDeleteI hope that by the end of the year, she's speaking better Taren. ;-)
Loved it, loved it, loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Waiting for the small followup book now. LOL. Offended a couple of family members at Thanksgiving dinner because I kept sneaking out of the room to read. Its okay, they love me and mostly understand. They are all going to read the books now. MSilverthorn
ReplyDeleteannnd read. I was going to put up a review straight away - I took mental notes, but I've spent the day in bed throwing up (not because of the book - honest..well maybe the lack of sleep screwed up my immune system and made me more susceptible). I promise to do it when I feel a little better.
ReplyDelete@ Maggie - Ha, just like me - I was always getting lectured for being more interested in reading than whatever event was underway. So glad you liked the way the story went - I'll be getting started on GE tomorrow. :)
ReplyDelete@ Jenny - Oops - my Thief of Sleep activities have obviously gone too far.
Have you considered giving one copy to a few random libraries in your general area? It may gain you a lot of readers if introduced to you as an author. I'm getting a copy for my local library.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED it !! Caszandra was great ! Thank you so much for a great get-away! I hope to see more of your work! I will definately recommend you to our local liabray. What great humor and... Expectus patronus! Wonderful mythology, poetry and historical references and intelligent humor. Im hooked:)
ReplyDelete@ Maggie - I love supporting libraries - it's where I was first introduced to many of my favourite authors.
ReplyDelete@ Jheliker - glad you liked it. :)
Thank you for Touchstone books!
ReplyDeleteThey are well written and a lot of fun to read numerous times.
I have re-read the books at least 2-3 times. Each time I found something I missed from the previous reading.
I've recommend your books to several of my friends. A few of them have already purchased them.
Looking forward to reading more of your books.
@ Macayle - I love the idea of being re-readable. I have to admit that I ended up re-reading Stray a few days ago. I was checking something, and got caught up. The story is like an old friend to me now.
ReplyDeleteJust finished Caszandra! It was really great. I laughed at the Expecto Patronum part (I'm a huge HP fan!) and I also adore Spirited Away. I loved the fanfic reference - I keep checking fanfiction.net for the first Touchstone fic. I had actually forgotten the exact release date; I knew it was sometime in late November, and I think my family is glad that I didn't have it over Thanksgiving break. (Though I was reading much of the time on our annual family trip to Chicago, it was so addicting.) I love the concept of the interface! You had such great descriptions of what it was like and how it worked, that it made me wish I could get one. :) I think you did a fantastic job transitioning through the books - some of the series I read get monotonous in their same descriptions in each book. I'm shocked that Touchstone isn't more popular, though! I suppose it's because it's self-published. I describe the books to my friends as "Like Scott Westerfield's The Uglies series mixed with Star Trek mixed with nanotechnology mixed with a huge dose of creativity and awesomeness". Thank you so much for the great read, and I can't wait until this gets huge recognition!
ReplyDelete@ Brittany - What a cool description of the books! I'm glad the series conclusion worked well for you.
ReplyDeleteSelf-publishing inverts the traditional model of a book release - instead of tons of pre-publicity and reviews, you put it out there and hope it builds enough of a readership to gain reviews. Since most major review sites don't accept self-published books, it's word of mouth which gains notice. I don't know if Touchstone will get to the level of "well-known". I'd say it's had a readership of about a thousand people so far, but even that level is more success than many self-published books attain, so I think it's pretty cool!
I'm re-reading the series right now and I love it just as much as the first time I read them. Thank you so much for writing them! I've just recommended them in the YouTube comments of a video about book recommendations, lol. You're awesome and whenever I have some spare cash I'm going to buy and read more of your books.
ReplyDeleteNothing better than a book which you can go back to again and again! [Very economical in the long run too. ;) ]
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