An April Update At Last

We're already a week into the second quarter of 2026, and I'm already forgetting to update this website in a timely manner. I've kept busy with a couple of projects and a new one about to begin.

The third edition of Instagram for Dummies has reached the 25 percent milestone, and I was largely responsible for it. I wrote and updated content for the introduction as well as Chapters 2 (navigating Instagram) and 3 (taking great photos). There may be a few things to add or edit to those chapters later in the writing process, but for now, my co-authors Corey Walker and Jenn Herman are hard at work on the remaining chapters.

This week, I'll start writing a custom Dummies book for Cloudera, a hybrid data and AI company. Custom Dummies books are 48 pages long in a 5.5-by-8.5-inch size, so they're not only easy to digest, they're easy to distribute to potential customers. Here's a cover of one book I did for Laserfiche last year.

The Cloudera book will be book number 60 that I've authored, co-authored, or ghost-authored since 2000. Book number 58 will be Instagram & Facebook All-in-One For Dummies with Amanda Robinson, and that book will be out on May 4. Number 59 will be Instagram For Dummies, 3rd Edition, which will be out in time for the holidays.

There's Always a Health Update

I won't announce the all-in-one book on the day it launches because I'll be having brain surgery. My neurosurgeon at the University of California, Davis Medical Center will implant electrodes into my brain for deep-brain stimulation. The goal is to reduce the amount of body pain that will incapacitate me at some point, and I hope that point isn't reached before the surgery.

The pain is just one part of the problem, because I'm having worse headaches and head pressure variances that medications can only control for an hour at best, if they can control my brain at all. There is a real risk of a stroke before, during, and after the surgery, but the pain has convinced me that the risk is worth it.

So, I don't expect to have another update on this site until mid-May when the surgery is behind me and I know how my brain likes the electrical stimulation.

What I'm Reading

My friend Tony Barcellos transitioned from this space almost two years ago, but his impact is still felt by everyone who knew him. April 4 would have been Tony's 75th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Bruma Publications published Tony's second and final novel, Count Me Out: The Education of Paul Francisco.

Tony had a lot of leftover material from his first novel Land of Milk and Money that he decided to use as the basis for a second novel. Paul Francisco is Tony's alter ego, and many of Paul's experiences in both books are based on his own experiences growing up on his family's dairy farm near Porterville, California. Count Me Out goes even further and gives a chronological recounting of Tony's life (through Paul) from his earliest days until he became a math instructor in 1987...with some variances.

I helped Tony self-publish Land of Milk and Money in 2010 as Dear Dairy, and that self-published version got him a contract with Tagus Press to publish the book with a new title. Land of Milk and Money was hailed as one of the best expressions of the Portuguese immigrant experience in California. Tony was proud of his Portuguese heritage and grew more involved in Portuguese organizations in his later years.

Part of that involvement included connecting with Diniz Borges, the head of the Portuguese Studies program at Fresno State, as well as the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI). One arm of PBBI is Bruma Publications.

Tony worked on multiple drafts of Count Me Out in the mid-2010s and shared those drafts with me and a few others, but he shelved the book in 2017 after he had a bad experience with an editor. He talked about finishing the book once he retired from teaching math at American River College in Sacramento in 2025, but never had the chance. Tony's family approached Diniz to publish the book, and Diniz enlisted the help of his editor (and Tony's friend) Kathie Baker.

Reading the book again for the first time in a while, I remembered many of the stories not only because I read the drafts, but because Tony lived many of the stories and shared his experiences with me.

Though Tony is gone, I can always return to the Kindle version of Count Me Out and the printed copy of Land of Milk and Money to remember good times with my good friend. I'm glad he left behind such valuable gifts.

You can purchase both of Tony's books on Amazon. Now it's time for me to start working on the Cloudera book so I can have at least the draft done before surgery. Have a prosperous month, and ad astra!