I’d like to have the third edition of Absolute FreeBSD in print by May 2018, for BSDCan. After discussions with No Starch Press, to make that happen I must complete the first draft before November 2017.

That’s four months.

To complicate things further, in those four months I have four weeks of traveling: BSDCam, EuroBSDCon, and a writing business workshop.

So, three months.

My best guess is that I have to write about 15,000 words a week to make that happen. Call it 3,000 words a working day. At my nonfiction cruising speed of 500 words an hour, that’s roughly 30 hours a week, or six hours a day. Provided nothing goes wrong.

I can only maintain that nonfiction speed if I write fiction as well. Without it, my nonfiction speed drops to about 200 words/hour. So I’ll keep doing 90 minutes a day on “Terrapin Sky Tango,” the sequel to Butterfly Waltz Stomp.

That’s 7.5 hours a day.

Plus I have a business to run. I have to assemble the “Core Concepts of ZFS” tutorial for EuroBSDCon. (If you’re in Europe and want to see me, this is your chance until some time in the 2020s.) I need to spend 2-3 nights a week on my martial arts practice.

The upshot is, you won’t see me around much until November.

The good news is, I’ve done the hardest parts of AF3e first. And I’ll squeeze in some time on weekends and evenings to get ahead.

But for now: book!

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