Right now, my writing is on my blogs:
- Go Go 2 Slow Go: A travel blog covering the adventures of Madeline (my lovely wife) and me. We've traveled to more than 50 countries on all seven continents.
- Preserving Family Memories: A blog to help people preserve their family's memories in digital format, protect them, and then share them with friends and family.
- PAK Systems: I'm founder and CEO of this IT consulting company. Here I cover the services we offer and give some IT and leadership advice.
I'm also hard at work on a few books. What can I say, I'm a multitasker! Below are the title and summary for each one:
Preserving Family Memories
This book is for people who’ve accumulated a lot of memories but don’t know what to do with them. I help with ways of preserving, protecting and sharing your memories. Maybe you have old photo albums? Or items you’ve inherited from your parents or grandparents? If so, you probably have photos, slides, home movies, audio and video tapes, LPs, 45s or 78s, journals, newspaper clippings and other forms of paper.
Many people have these kinds of things stored in boxes in the garage, basement or attic. They are not out to see or share. And when someone passes, what will happen to these things. What’s more, these items degrade over time.
So what can you do? Organize them, preserve them, transform them into a digital format, protect them, and then share them.
My wife and I are in this exact situation. So, my advice is earned from doing. We have inherited photos, records, papers and collections from spoons to watches to china. And we’ve learned how to do all of these tasks. My book shares all of the equipment, services and tips we’ve learned and used along the way. We can help you preserve your family’s memories for future generations.
Lessons Learned from a CIO: Best Practices to Help IT Leaders Succeed
I’ve served as CIO nine times my career. Yep, I’ve been around a while. I entered the IT world in the 1970s. Back then, I learned a lot from IBM engineers on mainframe computers. I started on IBM 360s and then graduated to the 370s. As they say, I know a thing or two about a thing or two. From yesterday’s mainframes to today’s mobile devices, I’ve done it all.
Whether you’re working your first CIO job or you’re a veteran of multiple CIO roles, this book provides valuable lessons in an easy-to-learn system I call ACTION: Assessment of your new role, Consensus building, Transformation and Teamwork, Investments in IT, Operations and Networking.
No question, the job of a CIO is vastly different depending on the size of your company and the breadth of your role. These techniques apply to any IT leadership role. Even if you are not a CIO (yet!), my book provides essential leadership advice for any IT manager. And it helps you learn what it takes to become a great CIO.
Blog Building 101: Everything You Need to Know to Create a World-class Blog
What is blogging? Blogging means different things to different people. Basically, blogging allows you to publish content to the internet on a regular basis with little technical knowledge. For the more advanced, blogging provides a creative outlet not only for writing but for artistic design and content creation.
Today, many people are drawn to blogging as a way to make money. Bloggers can create large audiences. Those audiences click affiliate links, view advertising, buy books or courses. Blogging is big business.
But blogging to make money is not simple. My book demystifies all the details and helps you build a simple business plan to make money from a blog.
100 Places You Need to Visit in the World: Curated Experiences Based on my Around-the-world Travels
My wife, Madeline, and I have visited more than 50 countries, 600 cities and 3,000 attractions around the world. While we continue to travel, we wanted to share our top 100 places we’ve seen and why they are so special. We are asked about our favorite places all the time. This book answers those questions.
I write about our travels on our blog, Go Go 2 Slow Go. My wife is a great photographer; her photos add a dynamic dimension to stories and advice. But there are so many more photos and so much more to say about some of our favorite places.
If you’re looking for travel destinations for your bucket list, this book is for you. We’ve already done the hard work and chosen the best of the best. All you need to do is pick the ones that speak to you, and then GO!
My Journey as an Author: The In’s and Out’s of Writing your First Book
Christopher Hitchens once said, “Everyone has a book in them and that, in most cases, is where it should stay.” But many of us have great books in us, but the old-world publishing industry made it hard to get that book out to the world. Snooty editors, corporate bean counters and the cost of book printing prevented many would-be authors from speaking to the world.
Amazon and social media allow authors to self-publish their work and be found without the help of traditional publishers.
Amazon started in 1994 as an online bookseller. With their Kindle e-reader they created an avenue for authors to publish their own work. The first recognizable social media site was created in 1997. Called Six Degrees (think Kevin Bacon), users created a profile and made friends with other users. Blogging started in 1999. An industry in self-publishing was born.
Today there are self-help groups, copy editors and cover art designers looking for work, social media platforms and software to format your book for print and e-books. It’s still tough work and not for everyone.
My book shows how to navigate this journey. I won’t help you write the book; You still have to do that on your own! But I’ll help you get it ready to publish—even if you want to go to a traditional publisher.
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