Category Archives: book

My experiences writing a book.

The Book

It is fitting that some are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the IBM PC this very weekend. I’ve been working with computers since 1980. My first PC was the “sewing machine” style Compaq with two 360KB 5 1/4-inch floppy drives and MS DOS 2.

Now, I’m up to my ears (or is it my ankles) in the beta version of Microsoft Windows Vista, the next generation of PC operating systems. I’ve been reading about Vista for a long time, long before MS called it Vista. I’ve had my hands on it for about 3 months. And, in two months, I am to deliver a book on Vista to Wiley Publishing.

The joyous shock of this opportunity has given way to the doubts that go with taking on a large project with a very close deadline. I’ve got some hard work ahead and yet the light at the end of the tunnel is blinding even as I just stepped into darkness. I’m as disciplined as any lazy guy with a short attention span. I can do this if I just don’t take my eyes off the monitor or hands off the keyboard. Wait, I need some coffee….

I can say right now that Vista is different enough from XP to be interesting and worth some study. I’ll report more about Vista later. (I’m posting links on my tech-blog as I go along.)

I don’t have much to say about “the writing process” so far, except that when I first started writing, text poured forth as I stood at my desk. I’d write and write and write and feel very accomplished until I saw it was all of 7 pages. Can we increase the font size?

While teaching for 20 years has contributed more to my readiness to write, I think that blogging has helped, too. I’ve been writing almost every day for several years. Not that every word I’ve written adds up to a book. I really should dust that bookcase. mjh

PS: I don’t expect to add anything to this blog before next Sunday, when I’ll be back. Hope to see you here.

PPS: My blog reading is also suffering. I’ll return to it with pleasure eventually.