On Book Authoring (Part 4)
Now for the fun part: the work is done.
For me, the work ended with one last all-nighter. I was a week late on the copy-edits and was basically holding up the book. It was definitely not intentional, but facts are harsher realities than intentions.
"There I was..." in the middle of moving myself and my family from Jacksonville, Florida - our home of 3-1/2 years - to Virginia. The purpose of the move was to get my family closer to our extended families in Virginia. I had relocated my wife, children, cats, and most of our stuff and was preparing to fly out of Richmond for one last day of packing and work. Sitting in the Richmond airport, I popped open my laptop, connected to the free airport wireless service (is anyone in Atlanta reading this?) and began checking email. I hadn't checked email in a few days, so there were a few messages waiting. Some marked "URGENT" - from people you don't want to receive URGENT messages when you're writing.
It wasn't a pretty situation. Months earlier, I'd snagged my screenshots using Beta 2. I saw a webcast earlier in the week about Team System (one of my chapters is an introduction to SDLC for DBAs), and the wizards looked really different. So I knew I would have to snag new screenshots. But to snag new screenshots I needed access to the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) applications, which I did not have. This meant the book could go to press with inaccurate screenshots or the chapter could be pulled. Not good.
Luckily, some good folks at Microsoft responded to my repeated barrages of tear-stained spam and provided a copy of the RC1 software. It turned out a disk had been FedEx'd to my home in Jax - and that email was among those I read while sitting at RIC awaiting my delayed flight. As I was proof-reading my response to the URGENT message, stating the material I needed to complete my work was waiting for me in Jax, a followup URGENT message arrived - this one with an appended PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY in subject line.
I stopped proof-reading and clicked Send.
Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. These folks had more than enough reason to be demanding, upset, and worried. I gave every indication of dropping the ball, and the publishing business is extremely time-critical in nature. Drop a few balls and you have no book to show for lots of time and effort. So I understood.
When I arrived in Jax (late), my FedEx was propped against the front door. I opened the package and began snagging and editing. I snagged into the wee hours of the morning, then into the morning, then past the time I was supposed to show up for my last day at work. I worked into the early afternoon and finally it was done. And accurate.
I shipped it off to the editors for another final once-over, put in an appearance at work to say some tough good-byes, headed back to the house, paid the carpet cleaner, packed up my old pickup, grabbed four hours of sleep, then aimed the old Jeep north for 11 hours of interstate travel. It was the hardest thing I've done in years. Was it worth it? Are you kidding?
Amazon has the book listed with showing the authors. It's almost showtime!
:{> Andy