Recently, I was contacted by the commissioning editor of a major international publishing house, based in the United States, to write a book. Of course, as much as I wish, the book will have nothing to do with the things I write on this blog, the things I enjoy writing about. The book will be on a technical matter that I am supposedly an expert on, and have worked on, for a majority of my career in engineering.
When the initial excitement wore off, I started to think about what I would write in the book. A lot of people make the writing of a book their life's work, and at most, publish a book or two in their whole life. Then, there are people, whose middle name should be prolific, and the fact that they write so many books, does not seem to affect the quality of their writing. I was wondering if I see myself in any of these categories. And, in the end, I decided that I will try to answer that question after I am done with the book.
Anyone in the technical profession, with a background in research, writes a lot of papers, which only the people well-versed in the field can decipher. Some people file patents as well, which unfortunately, only lawyers can read. I have been blessed with many papers and patents, but when I looked at them over the last few days, I realized that even I cannot recollect the specifics of what I worked on, a decade ago. So, back to the drawing board it is!
At this stage, I am sure about one thing on the book. It is going to be a long project. A very long one. But, I am going to write the book for a wider audience in the technical community. This will indeed make my job more difficult. But, it will give me an opportunity to be a teacher, something that I usually like to be. And may be, if I can make the book interesting enough, I can write another one in the future about things that I really love writing about.
Like this blog.
When the initial excitement wore off, I started to think about what I would write in the book. A lot of people make the writing of a book their life's work, and at most, publish a book or two in their whole life. Then, there are people, whose middle name should be prolific, and the fact that they write so many books, does not seem to affect the quality of their writing. I was wondering if I see myself in any of these categories. And, in the end, I decided that I will try to answer that question after I am done with the book.
Anyone in the technical profession, with a background in research, writes a lot of papers, which only the people well-versed in the field can decipher. Some people file patents as well, which unfortunately, only lawyers can read. I have been blessed with many papers and patents, but when I looked at them over the last few days, I realized that even I cannot recollect the specifics of what I worked on, a decade ago. So, back to the drawing board it is!
At this stage, I am sure about one thing on the book. It is going to be a long project. A very long one. But, I am going to write the book for a wider audience in the technical community. This will indeed make my job more difficult. But, it will give me an opportunity to be a teacher, something that I usually like to be. And may be, if I can make the book interesting enough, I can write another one in the future about things that I really love writing about.
Like this blog.
and yes it will be a long project. Nonetheless a book is any day an achievement Desi Babu, irrespective of being a medical or a technical journal. All the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks Janani. I am looking forward to the long project!
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