Time Rock is Released!

I am pleased to announce that Time Rock is finally released!  It is currently available at Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, iBooks, Scribd, and Overdrive.


Excerpt 1:

"Keleeigan!"  Trisia shouted as she fell backward, pulled herself up, and fought to stay on her feet.  "This is insane!  Can you do anything?"

"No!  When I shoved us out last time we landed with enough force to rubber-band back into the warp, which I didn't think was possible.  Just hang on.  It should be all over in a minute, one way or the other."  He said as the lighthouse shook and jerked this way and that.

"Professor when you say 'come on over for a wild time' you sure don't kid around," Kim said.

Keleeigan looked towards him.  "I never said that!"

Kim smiled.  "Well you should have!"

 Excerpt 2:
After a bit manhandling by the guards, James finally arrived at the center chamber of a large temple.  In the middle of the large expanse a throne was placed and King Khafre sat upon it.  "When I was told one of my nobles was visiting Giza, I became suspicious.  Especially when it did not sound like anyone I knew.  And now that I see you, I can say I do not know you.  Who are you?  And how dare you make false claims to be a noble of mine!"

"This has all been a misunderstanding.  I never said I was one of your nobles."

"Then why do you wear the shendyt and cape of one!"

"I--"

"He is a thief!"  A priest from the right side of Khafre stepped forward.  "I know that cape!  It is Manakhtuf's!"

Khafre leaned forward and turned to face the man.  "Ankef, are you sure?"

Ankef lowered his eyes.  "There can be no mistake my king, the cape was made special for him and sealed in his tomb.  I should know, I was the one that sealed it!"

Khafre's eyes flared.  "Tomb raider!  There is nothing worse than to steal from the dead and deny them pleasures in the afterlife!  You shall die by morning in the way we punish all those that disturb the dead!  Take him away and return Manakhtuf's cape to his tomb where he can make use of it!"

Ankef bowed.  "Of course my king."  He then walked over to James and removed the cape from James' shoulders then spit in his face.  "May the gods show you no mercy.  I can assure you we won't."  Several men marched forward grabbed James and moved him forcefully out of the temple.

A New Nook: Glowlight Plus

You may have heard that there is a new e-ink reader out by Barnes and Noble: the Glowlight Plus.  While I spoke of this earlier, when the new nook tablet was released I thought that was it.  Even with the information we had at hand, I didn't think another e-ink reader was going to be released.  I am glad to be wrong in this case.

It is the first reader by B&N to be fully waterproof.  You can take the device into the shower or beach without worry.  While the software is a little lacking compared to previous devices, and it does not have a micro SD card slot (a deal breaker for me as 3.2gb internal is too small) it is a decent device.  One very redeeming quality: it is fairly easy to install your own android apps.  Not as easy as you would want, but if you know your way around the Android adb command line interface (also called Android Desktop/Studio or Android Debug Bridge) you can install any apps you like. The Glowlight Plus has Android 4.4 so most anything should run.  Although I wouldn't suggest graphic intensive games.  But alternate readers, file mangers, launchers, etc should be fine.

The USB Debugging menu (needed for this procedure) is there, if a bit hidden.  First you open the settings menu and on the second page you open the "Software" menu.  Tap the "Software Version" option three times.  Scroll down the screen until you see the option for "Development Options"  tap that and when you get a menu for "USB debugging" check that to turn it on.  Then you connect the Nook via USB, fire up ADB on your desktop, and you are off and running.  The command line interface (CLI) is a bit harder than point and click, but all the instructions come with the program.  Essentially all you need to do is have the app files (apk) in the same folder as ADB and you install it by typing in the command window adb install nameofpackage.apk.  It is not as hard as it looks.  But if you need help head on over to XDA Forums for more details.  I haven't done this specifically with the Glowlight Plus, but I have with other Android devices.  As I said, it sounds a lot harder than it is.

While I see this as a good sign, and I hope the Nook continues.  I have strong doubts that the platform will last much longer if it does not sell well this Christmas season

Dropping the Ball

Dropping the ball, I admit, I did it. What is dropping the ball? Well it depends on your point of view but in general, when one drops the ball they usually have failed to so something they planned. It goes back to the days of jugglers and you want to keep all these balls in the air. It is difficult to say the least. And if you drop one, well something didn't get done. Or you didn't do something properly.

What did I drop? Time Rock for one. I wanted to have it out by the end of September and here is November and I still do not have it out. Oh sure I could have released it, but I kept finding errors or little glitches here and there. Just enough that I would postpone the release date, and keep working on it. I want to give you, my readers, the best possible product, but to that end has resulted in delays.

I also found a few grammatical errors in my previous books, and I am working on fixing and re-releasing.

Another ball I dropped: this blog. I have quite a few posts planned but not finished. However, they will be out shortly.

Of course another aspect is other writing projects, not to mention taking a writing course from the University of Iowa. So as you can see a lot of juggling going on and sadly I dropped the ball. It didn't break and Time Rock will be released soon but argggggh a little later than I planned. And if you are wondering no, sadly, I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I really wanted to, but with so many irons (or balls in this case) I just do not have the time.

So again, Time Rock will be out SOON and in time for Christmas. I promise. Watch this space for updates.

Don DeBon is the author of Italian Fever, Red Warp, and Soulmates.  Currently available on  Nook, iBook, Kindle, Smashwords, Oyster, Scribd, and Kobo.