So What’s Up With Me?
Though it may not seem like it, I don’t exclusively spend my days drinking coffee in Oxford and bitching about bad comic-book adaptations (though I do do this a lot). No, sometimes, I’m busily being productive, so busy that I’ve been drafting in guest writers at short notice to fill the gap here and there when I haven’t managed to write something. I will now explain why.
The reasons for the guest writers are twofold: for quite some time now — I don’t remember when I started this — I’ve made a conscious effort to have something published on Joeblade once a week, on Sundays, no more, no less. I’ve enjoyed this — it meant there was no longer gaps of several weeks followed by a guilty rush of posts, it meant that regular visitors would (in theory) know when new content could be expected…I think it’s worked quite well. However, it sort of fell apart lately when I just found myself too busy to dedicate any time at all to writing — so, instead of letting the site go dark, I asked some of the regulars to come up with something. I think they’ve all done quite well — give them all a round of applause.
The second reason is to do with why, I’m busy. I held off announcing this here for a while, but now a contract has been signed and payments are starting to arrive, I think it’s safe to say that it’s actually happening — I’m writing a book. Entitled HTML Mastery: Semantics, Standards and Styling, it will be published by Friends of ED, probably towards the end of this year (he guesses) and will, I’m sure, make me utterly rich and famous. You can read more about it at the fledgling companion site.
So, that’s a bit exciting, eh?
But wait! There’s more!
Next up is a new website, Unfortunately Paul, a design website already hosting all of the articles on design and HTML that I’ve previously posted here (which turned out to be a shockingly small amount, as it goes — I’ve been very slack). There’s a few reasons why I’m doing this. One is that the audience here at Joeblade is turning into quite a disparate group, and I’d rather keep techy web design articles away from the straights.
Another reason is that, much as I like it, I’ve backed myself into a corner with Joeblade’s design — it doesn’t really allow for quick, short posts, and there has been a few times when I’ve had a quick techy idea, wanted to post it somewhere, and not bothered because I couldn’t turn it into a long essay with a nice accompanying picture. Unfortunately Paul will hopefully change that.
Unfortunately Paul is now dead, try dev.joeblade.com instead.
Finally, I wanted to use a Creative Commons licence for my design writing, which I didn’t want to apply to other material at Joeblade, so this allows me to keep the two things separate.
You’ll notice there’s not much of a design there at the moment — there’s one (several, actually) in progress, but these things take time, and as I’ve said, I’m quite busy at the moment. Eventually I will probably also shift my portfolio (which badly needs updating) across there as well.
So — that’s what’s up with me, what’s up with you? How have you been?
Ooh, cool :)
I’ll have to see about getting a copy. Just to point out your mistakes, you understand.
Ooooh, yet another BritPacker is about to lose their entire life for nine months in order to pen a masterwork. Cue late nights, busted relationships, missed World Cup games – all the time chained to Microsoft Word.
Have fun! And congrats. I’ll definitely be grabbing a copy to find out which tags I have never heard of…
Please refer to alt attributes as alt tags throughout, just to upset Mr. Johansson. That will make me laugh.
If you do have the odd mini-article on web stuff that you just have to publish, you could do worse than submit it to Bite Size Standards.
Mm, I thought about that, but I think even my quick posts will still turn out to be too verbose for John’s site. You know how I like to waffle on.
I don’t think I should be allowed to read your book, because I will spoil it by being an enormous pedant.
Imagine, though – it’ll have your name on, and everything!
do we have to buy it? or can we get complimentary copies just so we can put it on the shelf and boast we know the author?
You have to buy it. Everyone else gets a free copy.
Will you have your photo stuck on the back or inside cover? Will there be a book signing in Asda?
Will it be out by December? It’ll make a great birthday present for my younger brother, he’s into all that HTML stuff.
Surely the publisher should follow the example set by Wrox and put the mugshot directly on the front cover. Having briefly owned a Wrox title, I can testify to the fact that the eyes follow you around the room in a truly eerie way.
I’d buy a book with Paul’s face on the cover.
And use it to scare small children.
Congratulations.
I can’t help but notice that your flirtation with alternative name capitalisation continues unabated, with htmlmastery.com featuring block capitals.
I have to get one. Your design articles have always been great read, clear and inspiring. I found your site when you were still into LiteStep and have been visiting since, mostly because of your excellent writing but also learning to hone my web development skills. I’m not a professional but I like to write PHP/MySQL/XHTML/CSS sites (like my gallery) and have learned quite a few things from you.