Free (DRM-free) The Longest Ladder by Peter Morwood [Festive Irish Fantasy Story]

[ATDrake]

[INSERT PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH FROM FUTURAMA VOICE]

Good news, everyone! Noted sf/fantasy author Diane Duane (ISFDB, Wikipedia) has decided to keep her direct-buy webstore for her backlist and new books running, despite the upcoming changes in EU VAT-collection which had caused concern that it might have to be shut down, as discussed in this thread in the News forum.

So, to celebrate, there is a sale being held in said webstore, just through December 31st before the VAT changes go into effect, and there is an accompanying holiday freebie as well.

The Longest Ladder by Peter Morwood (ISFDB, Wikipedia) is an Irish-flavoured festive fantasy short story originally published in DAW's The Magic Toybox anthology in 2006.

Currently free, probably just through the duration of the sale/maybe the entire New Year holiday period @ the publisher's webstore (DRM-free choice of formats available worldwide). You will need to sign up an account and provide a physical address, as this is one of the changes which make it possible for the store to continue operating, which you can read more about in their announcement post here.

It looks like the Irish traditional recipes cookbook that was free back when the discussions started and they did their Black Friday sale has been made free again as well (or maybe it just stayed that way until they decided what they were going to do with the store: EuropeanCuisines.com St. Patrick's Day Cookbook

As for the holiday sale, which has been mentioned in the News discussion thread and the SF/Fantasy megathread as well, here is the info again if you need it:

Ending at 10 PM GMT (around 2 PM Pacific Time) on December 31st, take 50% off everything in their store catalogue using coupon code DECEMBER3031 at checkout (NB: they have a special page explaining how to apply the coupon codes, which is a bit tricky). Don't panic if you find the store closed after that; they're just shutting it down temporarily to update it for the VAT changes.

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because Diane Duane is one of my favourite authors and I'm glad she's decided to continue her web-operation that I'll be able to continue supporting her directly via sales of her books for the forseeable future.

Enjoy!

Description
Peter Morwood tells a slightly spooky story of a very special toy -- a Christmas present that passes into legend -- and a boy who grows up to risk his life and use that toy to make Irish history..