NBTM Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: Glossolalia by e rathke

Welcome to my stop on the NBTM virtual book tour for Glossolalia by e rathke. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as an interesting guest post from the author. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!

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Title: Glossolalia

Author: e rathke

Publisher: Wolf Publishing

Publication Date: September 23rd 2022

Print Length: 205 pages

Genre: Dark Fantasy Horror

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“My name is Ineluki. I come from past the mountains and ice. It took me many days to reach here. All I know are dead. Will you take me in?”

And so begins a calamitous year at the edge of the world.

Chief for the year, Aukul's life has never been better. His people respect him, he spends his nights with the love of his life, and his skills as a butcher and chef improve every day. Then Ineluki, a young stranger, wanders into town with nothing but an empty book. He begins telling stories of the world beyond the one they know. His stories challenge their reality and lead to a summer of unprecedented disasters.

One by one, the villagers begin dancing. Dancing tirelessly, as if in a trance, until they die. Believing Ineluki is to blame, Aukul confronts him on the worst night of his life.

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EXCERPT:

I

Umok was the first to see the boy. There was nothing special about the boy except that he wasn’t one of us and didn’t seem to be an Uummanuq. Not that anyone really knew, then, what the Uummanuq looked like. Not really. But he was too tall to be one of them and much too short to be one of us. Maybe strangest of all, he was dressed as a woman. One of ours, not the Uummanuq women, assuming anyone knew, then, what the Uummanuq looked like when they weren’t smashing our homes down. But he wore a loose, open vest, his trousers tight and reaching just past his knees. In his hands, a hidebound book.

It was a clear day, just past spring, and though the edge of the world is known for its deathly cold, our summers are quite warm. Warm enough to wade out into the sea and gather crabs or lobster. Or even to swim out to where the leviathans burst through the water, spraying the skies with their misted breath.

Umok was so distracted by the boy that she dropped her arm, accidentally flinging her gyrfalcon, Feo, to the ground. When Feo shrieked the way she does, the boy turned to Umok and smiled a big toothy grin. To hear Umok tell it later, the boy had fangs like a wolf and eyes that glowed with menace.

We’re not prone to superstition, but much changed that summer and especially come winter, when the days last barely a blink and the nameless ones call out to us in the long night, and mothers wake to missing children, never to be seen again.

But the boy didn’t stop when he saw Umok. It was like he had a set destination. Like he knew where we were. And maybe that’s the most shocking of all. That he just wandered out from the dark green summer mountains and walked right to our little village at the edge of the world with nothing but the clothes he was wearing, an empty book, and a mouthful of words that would change the shape of all our lives.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

e rathke writes about books and games on his website. A finalist for the 2022 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, he is the author of Glossolalia and several other forthcoming novellas. His short fiction will appear in Queer Tales of Monumental Invention, Mysterion Magazine, and elsewhere.

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GUEST POST:

- In what ways are you and your main character alike? Different?

The similarities between Aukul and me are few and far between. I’ve never been one for autobiography or even confessional writing, so I’ve never had the inclination or interest to write books about me or even an idealized version of myself.

I spend all day every day being me! I use my imagination to wander away from myself. Granted, few make a habit of getting far away from themselves, but I have always found it the most fun way to write.

However, there are some similarities. Aukul is only seventeen years old during the novel. Like many young men—myself included, when I was a young man—Aukul dreams of a life grander than the one he sees before him. He dreams of change. He longs to leave his own mark on the world. To be remembered. To be loved. To be appreciated. He is a man, like many men.

The ways we differ are many, but the one that comes easiest to mind is that I was a much more scattered person than Aukul. I had no singular vision of what I wanted out of life. I had no occupation or even dreamt of occupation that felt as if it would satisfy me. I had no vision of my own future. I longed for unnamable things, unnamable versions of a life I hoped to stumble into.

Now as a much older man than I was when I was Aukul’s age, I still find his singular focus interesting, for it has always escaped me. I am a person of diverse interests and constant distraction. I tinker in dozens of different hobbies and interests at all times, wandering this way and then that, but rarely do I remain devoted to a single topic.

That being said, I do love cooking. Aukul, for all his other hopes and dreams of change, is devoted to cooking and the preparation of food. His art is one of scent and taste. A transient yet beautiful art meant to be shared. Instantly recognizable and experienced. Whereas I tinker with words and stories that take hour upon hour to create and then at least a few hours to experience.

Our similarities are few but I do have great affection for Aukul. I gave him some of the tools he would need to achieve his dreams, yet kept back some that would have made all the difference.

So it goes.

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GIVEAWAY:

e rathke will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Good luck!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility over this giveaway.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway