News release from CCT Press      Attention: Editor     12 February, 2008      howard 1

                                                Gary creates his
                                        empire of strife

Gary Howard is much more than just your typical tax advisor in Sydney when he becomes a hero of Mann long ago in a world of strife.

He becomes a hero in his imagination as he writes about the heroic character Samuel in adventure novels set in the medieval Empire of Mann.

After spending the last 14 years writing his first book, The Chosen – book one of the Schism of Mann, he has identified closely with its central character. 

Now the enthralling, 528-page epic is published and ready for other ordinary people to read as an enjoyable escape from the routine of their everyday working lives.

Book one of the Schism of Mann, The Chosen, by Gary R. Howard, ISBN 9780646478838, published by CCT Press in Sydney, is available in paperback at selected bookshops and on the internet at www.empireofmann.com for a recommended retail price of $A23.

Gary, aged 40, lives in the suburb of Willoughby with his wife Catharine and young children Sophie, Toby and William. 

He works as a partner in the audit and tax advisory firm of KPMG in Sydney.

He says, “I began writing The Chosen in 1993 when I was backpacking in Central America. I was staying in a hotel room in Mexico City without a radio or television and with nothing else to do in the evening. So I began to write.”

His 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 the 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.

Gary may not be so heroic but he is somewhat better qualified than the character he has created in his fantasy novel. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and Laws from the Australian National University and a Masters of Tax from the University of New South Wales. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

Samuel, apart from being the son of a duke, is only a cadet in the Sacred Order of the Griffin, an order of knights.

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Media contact: Gary Howard – phone 61 2 9335 7623, 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 .

CCT Press
10 Shelley Street
Sydney  NSW  2000
phone 61 2 9335 7623
fax 61 2 9299 7077