Hello, August

August is the month when I hunker down and get ready for autumn. I don't do well in the summer heat of interior northern California, and autumn can't get here soon enough. (The equinox is on September 22 at 5:05 p.m. Pacific time.)

Last week, I received payments for two of the three custom Dummies books I've been working on, and I received the PDF file of the Dummies e-book I co-authored with Cloudera. Now I'm getting ready for fall by purchasing a new branded hat and T-shirts, getting some office supplies, and ordering some replacement stuff like a UPS battery. Getting my jackets dry cleaned is on the agenda, too.

The third edition of Instagram for Dummies will wrap up this month, and this will be my sixth Instagram For Dummies book I've written with Corey Walker and Jenn Herman. They're wonderful co-authors, and you can pre-order the third edition here: https://bit.ly/4pNvXfm

I expect to receive editorial judgments on two proposals – one at Wiley, one at Entrepreneur Press – in the next two weeks. If both are approved, I'll be engaged and stay out of trouble for the rest of this year.

 But I'll continue to take neighborhood walks and get outside as much as I can. The neurostimulation therapy isn't going well so far, and I don't expect to know how it's working until later in November. Walking in my somewhat hilly neighborhood keeps my neurons firing.

 I'll share news about the new custom Dummies books when I receive those books either via e-mail or snail mail, and if one or both of those book proposals come through. In the meantime, we get five full weekends of August this year, and I hope you're enjoying this first one!