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    I Started Writing my Next Book

    My last book, HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide came out about 5 years ago, in August 2020.

    It was a book I signed pre-pandemic after pitching a different, WordPress book. I’m very grateful my publisher pitched this one instead, as it’s yielded my first book royalty checks.

    That was before I fully switched niches. Actually, I was mid-switch when the book came out, which is not a great position to be in when you’re supposed to be promoting a book.

    The funny thing about writing a book is that your last one is always your last one…until it’s not.

    There’s some recovery period (for me at least) after writing a highly technical book, where one swears off writing another book.

    Then the next idea strikes, and you catch the writing bug again.

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    My Thoughts on The Anxious Generation

    Lately I’ve been thinking about how fondly I look back on my formative years.

    I’d have fun at school and extracurricular activities, then go home and play outside for a bit, do my homework, and enjoy some TV time (and I’d sketch) before bed.

    During the summer, my brothers and I would do things like swim or play paintball during the day, and play neighborhood-wide manhunt at night.

    But my favorite activity was baseball.

    We’d use our neighbor’s driveway as the home run boundary. When we routinely started hitting home runs, Mr. and Mrs. Davis graciously let us use their yard too, effectively doubling the size of Casabona Park. Here’s my last look of the field, before we moved my parents out:

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    5 Insanely Impactful Books That Helped My Business

    I feel like I’m getting this in just under the wire (as in, published in January), but the new year has a lot of folks thinking about their business and how they can improve, or they are thinking about starting a new business. While some of the best business knowledge comes with experience, I feel like there’s more advice out there than ever before. It’s hard to know what’s good and what’s bad.

    With nearly 20 of freelancing under my belt at this point, there’s lots of things I learned the hard way (through experience), and lots of things I learned through books. To help you cut through the cruft, here are 5 of the most impactful books for my business.

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    Learning HTML and CSS (with My New Book, Out Now!)

    I’ve always been a learn-by-doing kind of guy. Maybe it’s because I’m thinking about other things when something is explained to me, or maybe people are bad at explaining things. But either way, a concept doesn’t really sink in until I do it, or until I see an immediate application for it. When I learned HTML and CSS, I learned it by doing it. I’d make a page in Microsoft Front Page one then see what the generated source looked like.

    Eventually, when I moved to using Notepad (or more accurately, Notepad++), I’d try something and see what happens, or copy someone else’s source and modify it. It wasn’t ideal, and today there are lots of great alternatives. I’m happy to add a new one to the fray: my new book, HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide.

    Read More “Learning HTML and CSS (with My New Book, Out Now!)”