Win An iPad 2 Pre-Loaded With Ultimate Digi-Novel App Dark Prophecy Courtesy of CSI’s Anthony E. Zuiker0

by Blogbot

To celebrate the release of his groundbreaking Level 26 app, Anthony Zuiker is giving away an iPad 2 pre-loaded with Dark Prophecy via Twitter. SuicideGirls is also throwing in a year’s membership to make this a truly killer prize.

For your chance to win, follow @zuiker on Twitter and RT:

To celebrate his new book app @Zuiker is giving away an iPad2 loaded w/ it http://bit.ly/f0Wspu Follow him & RT to enter! #DarkProphecyiPad

No purchase necessary. Entrants must be 18 & over and live in the US. The contest will run for 12 days, starting Monday (2/28) morning at 9:00 AM EST and ending Friday (3/11) night at 11:59 PM PST. The winner will be chosen at random from those who have posted qualifying tweets.

“I think that Dark Prophecy is really the book of tomorrow that’s available today,” says Anthony E. Zuiker. The creator of the incredibly successful CSI TV franchise, has just launched an iPad app for the second installment of his Level 26 fiction series. It follows the adventures of a detective, Steve Dark, who, with a similarly tortured soul, can get into the minds of the worst of the worst killers – those worthy of Level 26 status.

Like the psychopaths Dark hunts, who are no ordinary killers, the Level 26 books are no ordinary thrillers. Dubbed “digi-novels” by Zuiker, the multi-platform murder mysteries combine traditional text with web-based movie “cyber-bridges” and community elements.

However, with the launch of the Dark Prophecy iPad App, Zuiker has kicked his digi-novel concept up to the next level (if you’ll pardon the pun). “Whereas last time we talked it was read the book and watch these 20 individual bridges, now we have 3 levels of engagement,” explains Zuiker. “The traditional Kindle-like version, the digi-novel, which is the book and the movie, and the ultimate digi-novel which is the book, movie, effects, and activities, such as collecting evidence, and unlocking new storylines.”

Aside from the embedded movie clips and interactive extras, the novel pages themselves have some neat special sonic, visual and vibrating “sensory” effects that really exploit the immersive potential of the iPad experience. “If you’re reading about a guy being poisoned in the middle of the book, the words may begin to fog out like you’re drunk,” says Zuiker. “If you’re reading about a guy that gets shot, your screen will be shot with a gun. It’ll crack like a window and slowly go back to normal. And if you’re reading about a guy hanging from the ceiling, blood drops might fall on your page. We’ve timed it out with the average read speed for a certain page, so the effect will happen at the precise moment.

“There’s also a mechanism where you press a character’s name, and a bio pops up along with a carousel of pictures. Sometimes it says white rose, or yellow, you’ll press that and a white rose will pop up. Then you press another button and suddenly Steve Dark begins to explain the significance of what a white rose means. There’s separate storylines going on while you’re collecting evidence, while you’re watching a $250,000 motion picture, and while you’re reading a 400-page hi-octane crime novel, so it’s really a lot of fun.”

With impeccable navigation ability, a bookmark function, and the capability to change text font, size, and color (from black on white, to white on black), there’s all kinds of reasons to kick the pulp-based fiction habit and go hi-tech with Level 26. A documentary and an interview with Zuiker and Ann Margret (who starred in a CSI episode featuring a Level 26-based storyline) are also included in the app. “There’s just a lot of bells and whistles, and a lot that you get for a $13 price point,” Zuiker enthuses. “We’ve learned so much in this book go around, that book three should be unbelievable.”

Dark Prophecy ($12.99) is available via the iTunes Store.