Apress have started putting their entire catalogue online as e-books, available from their home site. I’m not sure if I’d laugh or cry at this. It’s great to see them offer another way of selling their books to the public, especially as the prices are significantly lower than their paper counterparts. I also like that the books I’ve written for them are given another way to finally make back the advance they paid me and get me some royalties. On the other hand, seeing them back as files again (albeit laid out pdfs) is a bit like they never went away to be printed. Ashes to ashes, doc file to pdf..... One thing they haven’t done though is rework the index or table of contents - paper book page numbers don’t help here lads. We need Chapter number, and then page number within that chapter. Oh and the download page has a fairly obvious flaw at the mo.

Anyway, here are the links to my Apress e-books

• Beginning VB .NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional
• Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Databases: From Novice to Professional

Not strictly speaking a giveaway, but I have 15 copies of my latest book Beginning VB .NET 1.1 Databases to mail to people and all I ask is two things:

• for you to send me some feedback on the book when you have received and read it
• to cover postage and packaging, which translates as £5 for posting within the UK and £10 to the US. I’ll need to check postage to other places if you’re based elsewhere.

Just contact me using the link to the left and we’ll go from there.

Finally, a copy of Beg VB.NET Databases has arrived through the door. It looks good and is now available from Amazon. If you'd like to reserve and buy a copy online, there's a list of vendors here.

Well, it only took six weeks to translate it from the original C# but then another two months to proof and print, but I'm happy to announce that yet another book is out the door, courtesy of Apress. Beginning VB .NET 1.1 Databases : From Novice to Professional will be available in the all usual outlets, some listed below at a list price of $50. It's a bit odd being able to work so quickly through a single book, but given the number of changes I made to the text to maintain consistency in the flow of the book, code conventions, differences in languages (its always events, isn't it?), I think this is definitely one of the better books I've done. Get it at

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• Bookpool
• Barnes and Noble

Three new editions for you to watch out. The collected Sandman Library paperbacks are now available in shiny new covers as are the first six discworld novels by Terry Pratchett to celebrate the 21st anniversary of The Colour of Magic. Oh yes, and then there’s the VB .NET edition of Beginning C# Databases that I’m working on at the moment. Expect it in January. Maybe February depending on how the holiday season affects printing. No, Peter Wright isn't writing it regardless of what the Apress site says