Acknowledgments¹

¹ Many at my publishing house thought that my acknowledgments section, as well as other parts of this book, were a bit risqué, so the original has been edited down to what you see here. I apologize if you are offended by anything I wrote, that was never my intention. Apparently, I’ve been told, my sense of humor is not appreciated by all. If you do like bad fart jokes, then please follow me on Twitter @markbates.

I said it in my first book, and I’ll say it again here: Writing a book is incredibly hard work! Please make sure no one ever tells you differently. If they do, they are either an incredible liar or Stephen King. Fortunately for me I fall somewhere in the middle.

Writing a book is simultaneously a very independent and solitary activity, as well as a team effort. After I put the kids to bed, I head down to my office, crack open a few Guinesses (is the plural Guinei?), crank up the tunes, and work, by myself, into the wee hours of the morning. When I finish a chapter, I send it off to my editor, who then sends it off to a bunch of people who take what I have written and improve it in ways that I didn’t know possible. Whether it’s as simple as correcting grammar or spelling mistakes, to something more complex such as helping to improve the flow of the book, or point out where example code could be improved to further clarify a point. So, while the writing may be done alone in a dark room by yours trul....