First electronic edition cover, Aug. 31, 2009

I wrote my first novel, the sci-fi/fantasy hybrid The Key To Darbas, in 2003. It made it to the brink of mainstream publication in 2005 before the editor who recommended it was laid off in a purge and the publishing house decided to “move in a new direction” (directly toward bankrupcy, apparently).

It was a terrible experience (the publishing efforts, not the writing), and it wasn’t until I left my newspaper career in 2008 that I dared look it at the manuscript again. I saw things I liked and plenty I wanted to rip out by the roots. Which I did.

The result is a much-improved novel, along with plenty of neworked-media ideas about how to connect this story to its natural audience.

Want to be one of the first people to read it for free?

Download it as a free .PRC eBook for Kindle, etc.

Don’t have a Kindle or a handheld? Not a problem. Download Mobipocket’s eBook reader for Windows and Blackberry, etc. Even if you don’t have a cool phone, this free software makes reading on a laptop a lot more enjoyable than following along on a PDF.  Highly recommended.

Speaking of PDFs, I’ve coded up two options for you.

Download it as a free PDF that’s been optimized for home printing.

Download it as a typeset trade paperback (to read on screen).

(Sept. 4th note: Thanks to feedback from Reader No. 3, Dewey Sasser, I’ve replaced the original eBook file with a reformatted copy that should be MUCH easier to read. Technical details on the poor choices I made on the first version upon request.)

The heart of this experiment is a new theory of a community copyright. I described this in greater detail at Xark on Sept. 2, 2009.

Hey, if you have trouble with any of these files, particularly the eBook, please e-mail me: dan@danconover.com) Meanwhile, I’m still working on my DarbasWeb website, so I hope you’ll check back for updates. The Darbas project is about more than just a novel.

Back to the Words topic page.