Synopsis
Trust Network is a novel by Rick Osborne about Xochitl Green (pronounced SO-chee), a web programmer whose life is put in danger after she writes an application that has a few too many uses, especially to the wrong people.
Beta? Really?
Everything else is in beta for three years. Why not my novel?
omgwtfbbq
Between 2004 and 2007, I wrote a novel.
Well, technically, I sat down each November and wrote a third of the novel for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. But that's just splitting hairs. You're supposed to start a new novel with each new NaNo, so I also kindof cheated.
Anyway, so I have this novel. It's roughly 650 pages in its current form, which in coder-parlance would probably be considered beta
. That is, it works—there aren't any major plot holes or continuity problems—but it's still a little too wordy, and definitely has a number of bugs still to be worked out.
This is where you come in. I'd like to enlist your help to debug my novel.
Will you like it?
It's a modern-day world-hopping coder-geek adventure with a little bit of intrigue and twisty-turny fun.
I admit that the first 20-30 pages are rife with techno-babble, but I promise it all pays off.
No, there's no magic or fairies or vampires or aliens or sentient computers.
The Pitch
I think the novel doesn't suck. I've read it a couple of times, and I still don't hate it. That's more than I can say for much of the code I've ever written. I hope you'll agree with me that it doesn't suck. I'd like to let you read it, hopefully enjoying it at the same time, and give you the opportunity to make the book better.
But there's a problem. As it hasn't been published yet, it's currently print-on-demand, which is relatively expensive. To get a copy of my novel shipped to you would cost roughly USD $20-$25, even without me taking a cut. That's not a king's ransom or anything, but nor is it the $8 you'd spend on a new comparably-sized paperback in your local bookstore.
Where can I get it?
Print-on-demand copies are available from Lulu.
You can also sideload to your favorite e-reader. You'll need the correct format for your device:
- Trust Network, LRF format (Sony Reader)
- Trust Network, Mobi format (Kindles)
- Trust Network, PDF format (last resort!)