Steven is one of my coauthors on Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting. He’s quite an experienced SQL Server writer – his other books include:
- Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administration
- Professional SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning
- Professional SQL Server 2005 Administration
I interviewed him over email to learn a little more.
Tell me a little bit about yourself – what’s a typical day like for you?
My ideal day would go something like, up at 6, have some breakfast, drive the kids to school, go workout, arrive at work around 10, work till 5, then head home for dinner with the family and a few hours work to wrap up the day 🙂
The reality is that too many days start of at 5, work till 8, rush the kids to school, rush to work, work through till 7 or 8, dash home, grab a bite to eat, then back online working until 11 or 12 if not later, rinse and repeat. 🙁
How did you originally find out about the book?
After working on a previous book, I swore “Never Again”, then got sucked into technical-editing a couple of chapters, and then got sucked into writing a chapter at the last minute. Now it’s done, I am swearing “Never Again” all over! 😉
What chapters did you work on, and why did you decide to write them?
I did the technical editing on chapters 1, 2, and 4, and wrote chapter 5 (CPU and Query Processing).
Writing a book is one heck of a lot of work. What made you want to do it?
I love to share my knowledge with others, and try and find a way to explain things that makes more sense than the docs I may have struggled with.
While researching and reviewing your chapters, was there anything about SQL Server that surprised you?
We probably shouldn’t say this, but even with SQL 2008, they still don’t have a solid story with the data the DMVs expose 🙁
When we make the book into an epic action movie, who will play you?
HAHAHA, I love that guy. When you picture somebody reading the book, what kind of person do you think of?
It’s a server room somewhere deep inside a massive data center, Its late at night, everyone else has left, leaving the deafening drone of the thousands of cooling fans. In a dim corner sits our DBA, all alone, struggling to figure out what’s going on, or how to do something. BOL is no help, and he turns to our book. As he finds the right section, and reads the relevant material, a light goes on, cutting through the dim surroundings and bathing our DBA in the light of understanding. He has figured it out and is able to fix his problem, letting him go home and have dinner with his wife and kids.
How’d you first get started with SQL Server?
This was back in 1995 / 1996 with SQL Server 4.2 running on OS2, and was because we were developing a VB app sat on top of a SQL Server DB and no one else knew anything about SQL Server, and as I expressed an interest I soon became the teams SQL expert, and things just kept on going from there.
Do you think you’ll do another book, and if so, what would you like to write about next?
“Never Again” 😉
Amen – I said the same thing. Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed! Readers – you can find more about the book and the other authors over at SQLServerTroubleshooting.com.
