Well, I have been under rock for the last eight months, but it has been for a good reason. At last year’s SXSWi, I met Wendy Sharp, the editor of a web buddy Robert Hoekman Jr at the Great British Booze up party. We spoke briefly, and she told me about a book that she wanted to get a book written about troubleshooting CSS. I told her that I used to teach web design and development, and that I used to focus heavily on teaching troubleshooting skills so that my students would stop freaking out when their pages didn’t look as expected, and that writing something like that would probably be fun. She said she would contact me later and follow up with our conversation.
Well, true to her word, she emailed me a week later, and within two months, I had a book contract with PeachPit press. I have loved many of the titles that PeachPit has produced over the years and used them extensively in my courses, so I was (and am) thrilled to be associated with them.
So, fast forward to today: the book is finished! With the help of Wendy, my super-awesome tech editor, Estelle Weyl, and the copy editor, Jacqueline Aaron, and the whole fantastic production team at PeachPit, I present to you, The CSS Detective Guide, going to the printers on March 12, and available April 2, 2010.
And if that wasn’t enough, through my volunteering with the WaSP InterAct EduTF, I am also a co-author on the upcoming book, InterAct with Web Standards: A holistic approach to web design. How incredibly cool is that?
Ideas take a while to marinate, simmer, and then come out fully cooked. After a lively conversation with Daniel Burka at FOWA earlier this year, I have had the idea for a presentation about the practical outcomes of following your passion (and what happens when you don’t). Based on my own experiences, I have found that not listening to your inner voice and doing “what you are supposed to do” has actually been detrimental to my career. Instead of keeping me safe with a “good” job with “good money” (one of my biggest pet peeves of phrases), working jobs that I was not passionate about kept me small, disguntled, and actually chipped away at my belief in myself and my capacities.
When I saw a tweet from Rick Tuttle (@RickTuttle) that LaidOffCamp Miami was looking for presenters, I knew that is was time to take that presentation idea out of the oven of my head and set it on the table in front of a potentially hungry audience. Edwin (@TheRealEdwin) fortuitously videoed the presentation (in two parts), and also wrote a nice recap of the event. Take a gander so that you can get fired up about all of the possibilities that exist for you in the world too.
If you can dream it, you can live it.
video – part 1
video – part 2
slides
Denise R. Jacobs is an Author, Speaker, Web Design Trainer, and Creativity Evangelist. Based in Miami, Florida, she is author of