If you consider doing the tech book I would be more than willing to help out.

Ryder

I’ve read through all of the comments and my vote goes to you writing a book about how to be THE IT staff. There are tons of 1 man tech departments out there, and I think a major problem is that there isn’t enough communication between those one person sects. It would be interesting to see how someone who atmits to poor time managment manages to be the server administrator, (for every single service) the user support,(email, web, calendar, moodle, hardware and software problrms) and everything in between

I think someone in your position would have to come up with a number of creative ways to effictively support a whole school system basically single handedly. Also I can back up that claim because I am one of the few to have worked with you

As for the car accident book… I’ve heard the story, and you’ve answered all the questions I’ve had about it so I’d rather have the book I suggested

As for fiction, I’ve come to a time in my life(I’m 23… I know its pathetic) where I don’t care about imaginary stuff, and I don’t like sci fi much at all, and I’d assume that’s what you’d be writing.

This was all written on a blackberry. My thumbs be tired

Ryder

Second, I’m voting for car accident because I think Shawn’s good at making personal stories interesting and finding the humor in grim situations. That being said, Michelle’s advice is correct — write what you want to write.

Also, you need to have a big ol’ stamp on the cover that says “hot blogger”.

Donna, I respect that your faith is a central part of your family’s life – and a nonjudgmental and open discussion of how it helped is probably an important part of the story. If the story is about recovery as a whole, body, mind & spirit – then it’s interesting to me. If the story becomes primarily a vehicle for the religious message, then suddenly the apeal becomes much more limited. That’s why I personally detested the LaHaye books, the story got lost because the message was so shrill.

Regardless of which section of the store it lands in – memoir, tech journal, or inspirational, I’d still read it because it’s Shawn and he’s a friend.

Oh, and Brad, I’ve been following Shawn ever since I started freelancing for Linux Journal.

I voted for the tech book because based on what I’ve seen I think you could write a tech book that would be informative, but would also be a fun read, something people wouldn’t read to cure insomnia.

On the other hand, your car accident and subsequent rough period and recovery make a compelling story.

If you want to try your hand at fiction, I too would recommend NaNoWriMo. I have an idea for a novel, but I’m waiting for NaNo to get started. I know I wont get it done before hand and last year I actually managed to get to the 50k words.

In the end, though, you should write for yourself, like Michelle said, and do what you want to do.

I’d say tech book. But I’m just not into fiction or car accidents
If there were a book regarding linux and thin server clients, written by a guy who actually administrate that at a school, it’ll might spread.
Some day they just might realize that linux is not dangerous.

Claus

Hello to everyone visiting, thank you for all the kind words. Ross, Andrew, Tracy, Jason, MOM, UCFers, everyone else — I really appreciate the feedback.

My initial thought is that I will try writing a book about my accident. Ross, you make a good point that it might only be interesting to someone that knows me, or of me, but I think it might be good for me to get it out on paper.

Maybe it won’t end up as a book at all, but based on the feedback I’ve heard (both here and in meatspace) I really should write the dumb thing.

At the very least, my goal would be to make it interesting. If it doesn’t at least make me laugh, what’s the point in writing it, right?

Thanks again everyone.