The book’s almost here!  It started to feel a whole lot more real when Christian Bolton sent me the copy of the dedications & acknowledgments, and I found my first error.  <facepalm>  I dedicated the book to Erika, and I left out one eensy word:

• WHAT I MEANT TO SAY:
  I love you dearly, and I love working on our next chapters.
• WHAT I ACTUALLY SAID:
  I love you dearly, and I love working on next chapters.

Daaaamn.  Leave out that one little word, and it goes from sounding sweet to sounding like a workaholic.  No matter what other mistakes turn up in the final printed version, that’s the one I’m going to regret most.  I rechecked a bunch of Twitter names several times, but I didn’t double-check that simple sentence.  Ah, well…

You Can Start Reading Now

Amazon’s page for Pro SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting now lets you poke around inside the book.  You can click on the book’s cover and read the Table of Contents, first few pages, or click the Surprise Me link to be taken to a random page.

Wiley’s site for the book even lets you download the introductory first chapter for free!  Go there and click Read Excerpt 1, and you can grab the PDF as an appetizer.

I’m also building out a web site, SQLServerTroubleshooting, to market the book, the authors, and have a place for discussing questions.

The Early Reviews Are In!

A blog reader sent me an email question, and to butter me up, he said that my book “helps me a lot for my day to day database server issue.”  I gently reminded him that the book wasn’t even out yet, but I couldn’t contain my giggling.  I posted a mention of the incident on Twitter, and next thing you know, I had all kinds of “reviews” like these:

• “Even the idea of your book has helped me. I cannot remember life before your book was written.” – SQLGal
• “I found your book to be an amazing story of a gripping struggle against the tyranny of SQL…Ive read it like 9 times.” – Dave_Levy
• “after seeing the movie adaptation of your book directed by Michael Bay, I have to say the book was better. Always.” – jzy
• “The book is always better, but the movie had its moments – had no idea SQL Sith was Luke’s father. I’m keeping the souvenir cup.” – wnylibrarian
• “Since reading your book I haven’t been able to sleep. SQL is truly terrifying.” – Jorriss
• “Your book has helped me a lot with my weight control” – ra_dewar
  
• “I’m from the future and your book has changed my life” – ChristianBolton
• “I am pleased to say your book has replace three smaller volumnes, propping up the broken leg of my kitchen table.” – FatherJack
• “The book is awesome @BrentO ! Especially the beauty tips chapter. :{>” – AndyLeonard
  
• “I, too, was greatly assisted by your work. Especially chapter 13. Awesome read – great characters; loved the plot.” – BuckWoody

That does it – I’m going to stop reading reviews from this point forward.  It can’t get any better than these.  And this is exactly why I include the Twitter community in the book’s acknowledgments.