Well, I’m doing something kind of crazy: I’m tweeting the complete text of one of my ebooks! That’s right, the entire contents of Take Control of Your Paperless Office is about to be released for free—in plain text, one 140-character segment at a time. You can watch the exciting drama unfold in real time (at the rate of one tweet every 15 minutes) by following @zapmypaper on Twitter. It’ll take 17 days to tweet the whole 118-page ebook, but anyone who’s sufficiently motivated (or crazy) can read the whole thing on the Twitter Web site or via their favorite client. For those who would rather read the book in a more conventional format, Take Control is offering the book at a 30% discount for the duration of this project.

In my ebook, I talk about scanning paper documents and then shredding the originals. So this is my attempt to “shred” an ebook via Twitter—and the first time I know of that anyone has tried to do anything quite like this. I don’t know if this is going to turn out to be the best idea ever or a complete waste of time, but either way, it should be entertaining.

I wrote up a separate page detailing how I’m pulling this off, and talking about things like special styles I use to give Twitter followers some sense of the original style and structure of the ebook. You can read all the gory details at Tweeting an Ebook.

The tweeting commences at noon Eastern time on Monday, March 21, 2011. I hope you’ll join me at @zapmypaper and help spread the word!

Almost exactly four years ago, on October 24, 2003, Apple released Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. On that same day, the very first ebook in the Take Control series appeared—my upgrading guide, Take Control of Upgrading to Panther. Little did I know then that this little publishing experiment, undertaken by most of the TidBITS staff and a handful of other talented authors and editors, would be so successful as to eventually produce the majority of my income. But today, less than 24 hours after Apple finally announced the shipping date of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, I’m pleased to report that my 14th title in the series is now on sale: Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard: Early-Bird Edition.

When I wrote my second Upgrading book, Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger, I naturally started with what I’d written about Panther, added some stuff, removed some stuff, and generally updated everything to be accurate under the new system. But this time I wanted to go way beyond that. Leopard is a big, big release with lots of serious changes; I wanted the Upgrading book to reflect that and prepare users as thoroughly as possible. So in addition to massively reworking the text to cover all the changes to the Leopard installation process, I pulled in some material from my ebooks on backups, maintenance, and troubleshooting. Now I provide detailed instructions on getting your Mac in tip-top shape, complete with an excellent backup, before inserting that Leopard DVD—and I think the extra steps up front will lead to much happier installations later.

Of course, there was a tiny problem: ideally, you’d do all that preparatory stuff days or even weeks before you get your Leopard DVD, but I can’t actually release the full book, with all its top-secret information about the ins and outs of Leopard installation, without violating my NDA. So we decided to create two versions of the book. The Early-Bird Edition, which you can buy (for $10) and download today, has all the background information you need to get your Mac ready for the upgrade, but leaves out all the information I’m not allowed to reveal (which amounts to quite a large portion of the book). The full edition will become available the instant Leopard goes on sale in North America (that’s 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time next Friday, October 26). Anyone who has already purchased the Early-Bird Edition can simply click a link on the cover of the PDF to go to a Web page where they can download the full version for free. And then they can skip (or skim) about 50 pages of text and get on to the actual upgrading process fairly quickly. Of course, if you wait until next Friday or later to make your purchase, you’ll simply get the full version, which is a superset of the Early-Bird Edition.

Now then…what’s crazy to me about all this is that I initially wrote (both versions of) this book back in February, when Apple was still saying Leopard would be released in the spring. It went through our whole editorial and technical review process way back then. In April, when Apple announced a delay until October, we just put the project on ice. This summer I picked it up again, and updated the manuscript with new information from each new beta version of Leopard. Yesterday, as soon as Apple made their announcement, I had to tweak a few things in the Early-Bird Edition to correspond to the latest truth, but even so, we were organized enough that the PDF was available for sale within hours. Between now and next Friday, I very much hope to see an even more recent version of Leopard than what I’ve been working with, and should it contain any significant changes, I’ll work those into the final text as well. The result should be our most thorough and up-to-date upgrading guide ever! If you’re planning to install Leopard, I think you’ll find this ebook to be immensely helpful.

A couple of days ago, Take Control Books released version 2.5 of my ebook Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac. Even though the version number didn’t jump all the way to 3.0 (meaning this is a free update for people with version 2.0 and 25% off for people with version 1.x), version 2.5 was a massive revision. I added new sections on VMware Fusion and VirtualBox, took out the section on Q (which is now pretty much irrelevant), and provided up-to-date info on the latest versions of Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp. And that’s just the biggest changes—tons of smaller stuff was tweaked too. If you have any interest in running Windows on your Intel-based Mac, this ebook should tell you everything you need to know.

Because things are moving so fast in this area, I predict that at least one, and more likely two, additional updates to this ebook will occur later this year. And I suspect I’ll start getting into more detail about actual usage scenarios. For example, even though I’ve now got two Intel-based Macs, I still haven’t gotten used to the notion that I can now run practically any software whenever I want. When I read about something that’s PC-only, I still have that old habit of disregarding it with a grumble, and I really have to train myself to stop. The world (of software) is my oyster now—almost any Mac, Windows, or Unix program out there will run happily on my Mac—and it will take me some time to fully come to grips with this new sense of freedom.

And, I’d just like to say that my new 17″, 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro—fully loaded with the high-res screen and 4 GB of RAM, of course—is an awfully nice way to run any and every operating system. It’s my first new laptop since my 1 GHz TiBook (ca. 2002), and I’m really digging it.

Among the things I’ve been busy doing over the past month (besides, you know, getting ready to move to Paris and not updating any of my Web sites) has been finishing my latest ebook: Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac. As usual, it’s $10, comes with free minor updates, and has a free excerpt available for your perusal. I’ve already, of course, written about maintaining and backing up your Mac (in fact, the three titles together make a nice bundle at only $24—cheap!), but actually solving problems, rather than merely preventing them, was the big missing piece.

I get a lot of requests for Mac help. Some of it comes from friends and family; even more comes from people who have read my various books and articles. And I don’t mind offering a bit of assistance when I can, but as I’m perpetually tied up with a zillion things, I can’t always devote as much time as I’d like to solving other people’s Mac problems. But now, you can get a virtual Joe-in-a-box (book?), because this book more or less describes the algorithm I’d use to solve your problem. Well, yes, I took some liberties, because I was under strict instructions to make this a reasonably short book, and because my own troubleshooting technique is probably more of an art than a science. But still: for a great many problems, this’ll get you as close to a solution as I could in person.

Needless to say, it’ll also expand over time. We’ll add more problems, solutions, and techniques. But even as the book stands now, it should apply equally to past, present, and future versions of Mac OS X. It’s a handy thing to have around before problems occur, so if you’ve ever wished you had a little help available when your Mac goes kerflooey, now’s a great time to add this to your library.

Hello all. Over the past couple of months, this blog hasn’t seen much action, and the other alt concepts sites have also been pretty quiet in recent weeks. Apart from the holidays and related travel, Morgen and I have been frantically preparing for our upcoming trip to Indonesia and Hong Kong—we leave in a matter of minutes! There’s been so much to do that a few things, such as actual work, have gotten put on the back burner. However, I did want to provide a few updates before I head off on my big 40th Birthday Trip.

Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac: A couple of weeks ago, we released version 2.0 of this book, which reflects the huge number of changes in the Windows-on-Mac world in the last several months—major updates to both Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop, the release of CrossOver Mac, and the sort-of release of Windows Vista. Of course, no sooner did we get the new edition out than VMware went and released a beta of Fusion, yet another interesting way to run Windows on your Intel Mac. So I’ll update the book to discuss that at some point after I return from my trip. In the meantime, I think all the information there is still solid and reliable, and it’s a great improvement over the first edition.

Take Control of Mac OS X Backups: Version 2.0 of this book—a significant expansion—is also pretty much ready to go, and has been for weeks. But because of the holidays and preparations for Macworld Expo next week, it may not be released until mid-January or so. This new version discusses Time Machine to some extent, but after Leopard is released, I’ll do another update that covers it in detail.

Interesting Thing of the Day, SenseList, and The Geeky Gourmet: All these sites will be running on a greatly reduced schedule during January. We plan to collect lots of interesting things, lists, and food stories on our trip, and will be back with fresh content in February.

Macworld Expo: This’ll be the first time I’ve missed the show in I can’t remember how many years. But it’s for a good cause: you only turn 40 once. I’m sure I’ll have 32,768 email messages awaiting me on my return, informing me of all the cool things that were announced and that I must immediately buy. And, of course, there will inevitably be all sorts of books requiring updates .

So that’s the update. If there’s anything I forgot, I’m sure it’s on my list somewhere, and I’ll attend to it in February. See you then!

My 12th Take Control ebook, Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X, went on sale today. (Gee, it feels like just a month ago that my last ebook came out.) I’m unusually excited about this title, because, as with Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, I think it addresses a number of vexing problems that virtually all Mac users face.

First, the ebook helps to make sense of password security: how do you choose passwords that offers the right compromise among security and memorability? And once you’ve chosen your passwords, how do you keep them safe? The ebook also discusses all the different places within Mac OS X where passwords are used, and spends considerable time dealing with Web site passwords. It talks about keychains in detail and covers not only the Keychain Access utility but also numerous third-party password tools. The goal of the ebook is to make sense of passwords, to make them no longer seem scary or confusing. If you follow my advice, you should be able to generate, remember, and enter appropriately strong passwords for almost any purpose with an absolute minimum of brainpower and grief.

The ebook is 96 pages long and sells for $10. We offer a free sample (22 pages long), and as usual, minor updates will also be free.

‘Tis the week for new printed books! Today, Take Control Books released the printed version of Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner. It’s available from Qoop, the print-on-demand service run by former Kensington head honcho Bill Murray. The print edition is 7 x 9 inches, Wire-O binding, with pages printed in either black and white ($19.99) or color (for $35.99). (Those who have already purchased the ebook can get a $10 discount on the printed version by clicking the “Check for Updates” button on the first page of the PDF.) The handy “Print Me” file with recipes and schedules is also available to everyone who purchases the print edition.

My latest print book, Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups, is finally shipping from Peachpit. This book is based on two of my more popular Take Control ebooks (Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac and Take Control of Mac OS X Backups), though we made a number of changes and adaptations in the course of preparing the book for print. I’m delighted for the book to be part of Peachpit’s successful and highly regarded Real World series, and I have high hopes that it will enjoy a long and happy shelf life (Leopard and Time Machine notwithstanding). Although particular maintenance utilities or backup programs may come and go, the basic advice I offer for keeping your Mac running smoothly should be perfectly valid years from now.

As I mentioned, I’ll be speaking next Tuesday, October 17, 2006, at the Diablo Valley Mac User Group in Walnut Creek, California. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. (not 7:00, as I’d said previously), though my portion of the program won’t begin until about 7:30.

I’ll be discussing backup strategies, borrowing heavily from Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, but with some new material discussing, for example, the Time Machine feature coming in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. As a bonus, I’ll spend some time toward the end discussing Thanksgiving dinner. A good time will be had by all.

After the presentation there will be a Q&A session. I’ll be happy to answer questions about any of my books, articles, Web sites, or whatnot.

To celebrate the autumnal equinox today, I’m happy to announce the publication of an appropriately fall-themed book: Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner. Like other Take Control publications, it makes complicated tasks easy for mere mortals; in this case, though, the subject matter isn’t computers, but rather cooking Thanksgiving dinner. It costs $10 for the downloadable PDF version; a spiral-bound print-on-demand version will also be available in a couple of weeks or so (regrettably, too late for readers in Canada, where Thanksgiving falls on October 9 this year). Readers of both versions get access to a special “Print Me” file with summaries of all the recipes, shopping lists, and schedules. As usual, you can download a free 31-page sample.

I’ve written a lot of ebooks (this is, I think, my 11th, depending on how you count) and I thought I’d more or less mastered the process. But this one was a much different (as in significantly longer and harder) undertaking. For one thing, recipes take a lot of time to test: if you overcook the turkey you spent the morning brining, you can’t just use an Undo command or revert to the backup turkey you archived an hour ago. For another, everyone’s kitchen, ingredients, and skills are a bit different, so what works marvelously for one tester may not work for the next. And we’ve had to overcome numerous technical hurdles (such as getting fractions to print correctly on certain platforms) and management issues (such as an illustrator flaking out on us before Jeff Tolbert came to our rescue), among many others.

In all, this project has been much more work for all of us than we’d ever imagined, and speaking for myself, it was the most difficult ebook I’ve written. That’s a bit ironic in the sense that we’re trying out this whole cookbook thing for fun, not as a change in our editorial direction. (Of course, if this title sells 10,000 copies in the next month, I think we’d all be more than willing to endure this sort of pain again…but we’re not counting our books before they’re sold.) But I also think it’s one of the best and most useful things I’ve written. I’m really proud of the way it turned out, and I expect it will make Thanksgiving a lot easier and less stressful for lots and lots of people.

Speaking of cooking and computers, I’d like to officially announce The Geeky Gourmet, my new blog about food and technology. I’ll be mentioning a lot of Thanksgiving-related stuff, of course, but the blog will cover all sorts of things: cooking science, food gadgets, restaurants, culinary technologies, and anything else pertaining to food that strikes my fancy, especially if it also has a technology angle.

Last but not least, I should call attention to the fact that I’ve retooled the look and feel of this site a bit, moving from a cluttered three-column design to a more streamlined two-column approach, swapping in a newer picture of myself, and making lots of other small changes. Perhaps I’ll even manage to post a bit more frequently, now that the place looks spiffier.

For a couple of months, I’ve been on the cusp of producing an update to Take Control of Mac OS X Backups. I updated the manuscript quite some time ago to cover things like using USB 2.0 drives with Intel Macs and backing up Windows data from Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop, but then, every time I thought we were just about ready to publish, some backup app or another got a significant update, and I’d have to go in and rearrange things again. There are just so many backup programs, and they’re in such a constant state of flux, that it’s difficult to keep up with them all—even in an ebook. But we’ve finally drawn the line and finished version 1.3; it should be available later today as a free update.

This latest version of Backups, along with Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac, will (with some modifications) be rolled into a new print book from Peachpit: Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups, due on bookstore shelves in late September or early October.

Meanwhile, even though it’s only July, my attention has been focused on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce—I’m working on my next Take Control ebook, which (no kidding) will be about Thanksgiving. This fall, nothing will be left to chance, as you’ll be able to follow my simple instructions for a delicious yet stress-free Thanksgiving dinner. It’s our first foray into a food-related topic; if it’s successful, there may be more, but we’re mainly doing it for fun.

And does this have anything to do with backups? Yes indeed. Just as things can go wrong with your computer, they can (and do) go wrong when cooking. So the Thanksgiving ebook will feature a number of troubleshooting, backup, and shortcut tips to enable you to salvage the meal if something doesn’t turn out right.

Update (7/13/06): The updated version of Backups came out today—a bit later than I’d expected, but I’m delighted to report that it’s finally available.

Two and a half weeks ago, TidBITS published a preview version of Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac. Folks who pre-ordered it and reviewed the preliminary manuscript on the Web made more than 100 comments. I incorporated most of their suggestions into the final version, and made numerous other edits and additions. The final (version 1.0) result went on sale today.

This is my tenth Take Control ebook, and despite the fact that writing it required installing Windows numerous times, it has turned out to be one of my favorites. It took me a long time to collect and test all the information in this ebook, and I think its usefulness-to-cost ratio is extremely high.

The 104-page ebook costs $10, but it includes a coupon for $10 off Parallels Desktop, which I cover in some detail and recommend highly. It also has a $5 off coupon for Small Dog Electronics, so we’re basically paying you to $5 buy it!

As usual, I’ll update this ebook as the relevant facts change. For example, if Microsoft ships Windows Vista during my lifetime, I’ll add installation and upgrade instructions. And if Apple changes the nature of Boot Camp dramatically with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (as most people expect they will), I’ll cover that as well. Minor updates to the ebook will be free.

I know it’s extremely bad form to go two months without posting a blog entry, but in my defense, I’ve been working hard on a bunch of new and interesting things that should please regular readers.

First is Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac, a new $10 ebook that’s available for pre-order today. By “pre-order,” we mean that the ebook has been written, edited, and reviewed for technical accuracy, but it not quite ready for delivery in its final form. By ordering now, you get access to the (nearly) complete text of the ebook in a somewhat ugly format on a Web page, but more importantly, you can leave comments or suggestions about any individual paragraph (or the document as a whole). That way, I can integrate readers’ feedback into the initial PDF file, rather than making them wait for a revision later on. When the PDF is finished (likely in a few weeks), those who pre-ordered will of course get it immediately; there will also be free updates as the software landscape inevitably changes over the coming months. The ebook covers not only Boot Camp but virtualization software such as Parallels Workstation and Q, and will eventually include information on solutions for PowerPC Macs such as Virtual PC and GuestPC. I think it’s the best and most complete text of its kind by far.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: if I’m writing about Windows, I must have gone completely mad. But, as I take pains to point out in the new ebook, even though I can do most of my work on a Mac, I still encounter tasks from time to time that (at the moment) require Windows-only software. For me, that most frequently means checking Web design changes in Windows browsers, but I list a dozen or so other common uses that might drive an otherwise sane Mac fanatic to use Windows occasionally. The great thing about Intel Macs is that there is no longer any compelling reason to buy a PC, regardless of which operating system you want to run. I very much hope this move helps Apple along the road to world domination.

Apart from that, my ongoing work for TidBITS, and several new Macworld articles, I’ve been chipping away as earnestly as possible at the long list of things required to bring Interesting Thing of the Day back to life. My list once had over 60 tasks on it; I’m now down to 6. So I can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I think this massive overhaul will be immensely popular.

As if that weren’t enough, Morgen and I are also developing several new Web sites that are unlike anything we’ve done before. I’m very excited about them, my enthusiasm tempered only by the fact that there are too few hours in the day and days in the week to move everything along as quickly as I’d like.

Today marks the release of my ninth Take Control ebook, Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac. Based on votes received, this was the title more readers than any other were keen to get their hands on, and I’m delighted to have been able to oblige. This ebook covers everything you need to know to keep your Mac performing at its best, as well as reducing the risk of serious problems (and making recovery easier if problems do occur). I think it makes a splendid companion to my earlier, and extremely popular, Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, and so do the Take Control publishers: you can purchase the two volumes together for only $15, a 25% discount off the individual prices.

This was an interesting ebook to write, in that many of the tasks I cover provoke heated disagreement, even among Mac experts. How often should you empty your Trash, repair permissions, install software updates, or defragment your hard disk? Is a surge protector or uninterruptable power supply really a necessity? Is it important to get rid of old, unused files even if you have plenty of space on your disk? Should you care about those built-in daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts that Mac OS X may or may not try to run in the middle of the night? As the ebook went through our usual technical review process, we got tons of comments on topics like these from about a dozen different Mac experts, and some of the exchanges were quite lively. Instead of simply saying, “This is the One Right Way,” I decided to include some of the comments expressing other points of view in a series of sidebar conversations, so that readers can judge for themselves what the best approach is for them.

I have plenty more ebooks ahead, but I’m planning to take a break for a couple of months to concentrate on some other projects that have been getting too little attention. And yes, the long-rumored resurrection of Interesting Thing of the Day is among them! I can’t commit to a particular (re-)launch date yet, but new content is definitely on the way, along with a complete site redesign, a new logo, new features, and more yaddas than you can shake a stick at.

.Mac members, today is your lucky day! Less than a month after Apple rolled out all sorts of new features at Macworld Expo, TidBITS Electronic Publishing is now shipping version 1.1 of my ebook Take Control of .Mac. It’s now 204 pages long, and contains everything you ever wanted to know about .Mac, and probably a lot of things you never realized you wanted to know. In particular, this new version adds information on:

• Publishing Web sites with iWeb
• Creating podcasts with GarageBand
• Creating video podcasts with iMovie HD
• Photocasting with iPhoto
• iDisk browser access
• New options for allocating disk space among mail, groups, and iDisk
• New, high-capacity storage and data transfer upgrades
• Improvements to .Mac groups, including group slideshows, browser-based group iDisk access, and interface changes
• …and oodles of other new things

The ebook, which comes with free updates, costs a mere $15. As usual, you can download a free 31-page sample.

And that’s not all!

Apple is offering a much longer excerpt—two full chapters, totaling 67 pages—to all .Mac members as the February Member Benefit. This excerpt covers .Mac Mail and groups; you can download it from the .Mac site, and it also appears on your iDisk in Software/Members Only.

But wait, there’s more!

For a limited time, .Mac members also get 30% off the full version of the ebook…

Plus!

30% off every other Take Control ebook too!

So we think this is a pretty sweet deal. You can hear me talk about the ebook with Chuck Joiner in this MacVoices podcast.

Coming next month: Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac. It’s already written and in editing; I think it’s going to be the Next Big Thing.

At long last, an ebook many months in the making is now available for sale: Take Control of .Mac. Normally $15, this 182-page ebook has an introductory sale price of $10. It is, if I do say so myself, the best guide to using .Mac in existence. If you’re a .Mac member, you’ll learn tons of information about making the most of your subscription, including working with email, iDisk, Address Book, .Mac Groups, Backup, and much more. You’ll also learn which aspects of .Mac are less than perfect, and how to avoid, solve, or work around many common frustrations.

If you’re not a .Mac member, this is the perfect time to join. You can sign up for a no-strings-attached 60-day trial membership by clicking the banner below; thereafter, it costs a very reasonable $99 per year for 1 GB of online storage (for files and email), Web hosting, photo sharing, and all sorts of other goodies.

This is also an important milestone for me: it’s my eighth published Take Control book in just over two years (not counting updates or translations)—I couldn’t believe it myself when I realized I’d been keeping up an almost one-ebook-per-quarter schedule, especially considering how long some of these newer titles have been.

I had my first serious conversation about writing this ebook with Adam Engst (publisher) and Dan Frakes (editor) back in January, at Macworld Expo. At that time, it seemed like a fairly easy and straightforward project, and I expected it would be out by mid-year at the latest. And then, of course, things happened—such as the other new and updated ebooks I’d committed to write, a long list of Macworld articles, and countless other tasks that took much longer than I expected. Plus, right after I finished the first draft of book, in late September, Apple made some significant changes to .Mac, forcing me to redo a sizable portion of the ebook before my editor even had a look at it.

In any case, I’m extremely pleased with the final result. This will be the last Take Control ebook (mine or anyone else’s) to be released in 2005, but we’ll be back in full force with new titles beginning in January. I’ve already agreed to write one new ebook and edit another, plus I have at least two updates on my list. With any luck, this time I can take control of Take Control and not begin the year with 6 months of work that turns out to take 12!

Today saw the release of Take Control of Mac OS X Backups version 1.2, exactly 53 weeks after the initial version was published. My, how time flies. This ebook had been growing increasingly outdated as more and more backup programs received major updates—particularly Apple’s Backup 3. Now it’s once again completely current, and I’ve expanded it significantly to cover photo and video backups, as well as adding 20-odd pages of details on using Retrospect (whch has a notoriously unintuitive interface). Still $10, or free to those who purchased any previous version.

I also decided it was finally time to get a new graphic for the header of this blog, and make a few other little stylistic corrections. The CSS is now 15% less ugly than before, and though it still has plenty of room to improve, I can at least look at it without cringing now.

After even more delays and misadventures than usual, I’m happy to report that two of the ebooks I’ve been working on since way back when are now available for sale.

Today, TidBITS released Take Control of Apple Mail in Tiger, a new 184-page, $10 ebook that is now the definitive reference on the version of Mail that ships with Tiger. Although based loosely on last year’s Take Control of Email with Apple Mail (which covered the Panther version of Mail), this new ebook has been completely revamped, and in the process has grown more than 80 pages longer than its predecessor. It covers such new features as Spotlight searching, smart mailboxes, photo management, HTML email, and parental controls. Anyone who has struggled with Mail 2.x should find a great deal of helpful information in this ebook.

In addition, there’s a minor (free) update available to Take Control of Spam with Apple Mail, now at version 1.2. It covers a few spam-related changes in the Tiger version of Mail, plus the newest versions of several third-party anti-spam utilities.

With luck, we’ll see a major update to Take Control of Mac OS X Backups in the next week or so, followed by the long-awaited Take Control of .Mac. And don’t forget: ebooks make terrific holiday gifts!

This has been a landmark day. Just after midnight, Morgen and I both crossed the 50,000-word mark in our respective novels, thus making us winners in this year’s National Novel Writing Month (see this post).

I think I can safely say this was some of my worst writing of all time. In keeping with the ethic of the competition, the focus was on quantity rather than quality, so that was pretty much the expected result. I think there were a few glimmers of inspiration here and there, and perhaps at some later date I’ll go through the manuscript, extract those few words, thoughts, and scenes, and make something else out of them. In the meantime, let me offer a quick F.A.Q. on my novel, since so many people have asked:

Q: What’s your novel about?

A: It’s about 50,000 words.

Q: Har har. No, seriously. What’s it about?

A: Hard to say. People have conversations, experience perilous situations, and mostly escape unharmed. Except those who don’t. And then they have more conversations.

Q: Yeah, but can you, like, actually synopsize the plot?

A: There was supposed to be a plot?

Q: Um, yeah. So maybe I could just read it and then I’ll tell you what it’s about.

A: No. You can’t read it. In fact, no one can read it. Ever. It’s that bad.

Q: Oh, come on. I’m sure it’s really good, even though you say it’s bad. Let me just have a quick look.

A: No frackin’ way. You may not read it in a house, with a mouse, in a boat, or with a goat.

Q: On a train, perhaps?

A: Not here, there, or anywhere. Sorry.

I hope that’s been helpful…

Meanwhile, another piece of exciting news today. This afternoon, BART’s lost and found department called to say they had the Moleskine notebook I lost more than five weeks ago. Shocking! I’d given up on it a long time ago. But I finally have it back—none the worse for the wear, either. A nice way to end the month.

Yesterday afternoon, I had the great pleasure of meeting yet another of my literary heroes: Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence and it sequels, several novels, and a few delectable works of non-fiction. His latest book, which I bought yesterday, is Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes. Mayle wrote this book along with (and as a favor to) baker Gerard Auzet, whose bakery and bread featured prominently in A Year in Provence. It is what it sounds like: a guide to baking bread in the traditional French manner, but written for an audience of mere mortals in Peter Mayle’s inimitable style.

Peter gave a delightful presentation at Book Passage in Corte Madera (just north of San Francisco), where all the biggest writers seem to show up when in northern California. Afterward, when Morgen and I went up for the obligatory autograph (I do seem to be collecting an unusual number of those, don’t I?), I told him that his books had completely changed our eating habits and had been responsible for our taking multiple trips to France (he remarked that it looked good on us); few people can claim to have had such an influence on our lives. Judging by the other comments and questions I heard, he gets that sort of thing a lot.

What a life: kicking back in a comfy home in the south of France, surrounding yourself with incredible food and drink, and making a tidy living writing about your experiences. If Peter Mayle ever quits his job, I’ll be first in line to apply for the position.