Saturday, April 28, 2007

GWT in Action: It's a baby book!

GWT in Action
Check out my baby pictures! Isn't it the cutest book you ever saw?
9 months ago a book editor told me, "Writing a book is like having a baby." If that is the case, I feel like I just gave birth to a 900 pound gorilla! For those of you that don’t know, Adam Tacy and I set out to write a book for Manning nearly 9 months ago, and the result is a 600 page behemoth that covers everything from the basics through creating code generators.

For those of you that know me, I am not driven by promises of fortune (although I do need to pay the bills). Instead I am driven for my love of coding, learning, and creating cool stuff. So when I signed up to write this book, I really wanted it to be good. I think Adam and I succeeded there, in part due to spending tons of time writing it, and partly due to the feedback we got from the reviewers along the way. I guess we will know for sure when the reviews start appearing on Amazon.

If you are still reading, you might be asking yourself, “What is Rob’s point?” The point is that like having a baby (or so I am told), it was a lot of work to write this book, and now that it is done I feel both relieved and elated that it turned out to be something that I am proud of. And just like having a baby I want everyone to know.

Thanks to everyone who made the experience so great.

…Now maybe I can get back to working on the GWT-WL!

P.S. - If you are going to JavaOne, look for GWT in Action on the shelves there. Manning is rush-printing a few copies that will be sold at the JavaOne book store. The general release of the book should be on target for early June.