Blogs and Other Things That Go Bump in the Night

Blogs and Other Things That Go Bump in the Night

Ever wonder what it s like to write a book? When I wrote my first one in 1990, I learned that writing a book is an emotional roller coaster filled with peaks and valleys. The peaks are the elation that you feel when you describe a complex technical topic in a way that lifts the veil so that others can understand. The valleys come from thinking of the sheer magnitude of the effort that lies before you. Many is the time I wish I had kept a diary of that period in my life. Although I vividly remember the incredible relief I felt when I packaged up the last chapter and dropped it into a Fedex box (publishers still required printed manuscripts in those days), most of the day-to-day details of that experience escape me.

That s why I documented my experience writing Programming Microsoft .NET in my very own book blog. Blog is short for Web log ; it s a diary published on the Internet. People all over the world tracked my progress as I wrote this book by checking my (almost) daily blog entries. If you d like to relive the experience, you'll find the finished blog at http://www.wintellect.com/about/instructors/prosise/blog.

Finally, a personal note. There s no shortage of Microsoft .NET programming books on the market. I m humbled that you chose this one, and I sincerely hope your investment in this book pays for itself many times over. Enjoy!

Jeff Prosise

March 13, 2002