Your published books include Time Management for System Administrators, The Complete April Fools RFCs and The Practice of System and Network Administration (second edition). Which book was most popular and what makes these books different from most other technical books?

The Practice of System and Network Administration and Time Management for System Administrators are both popular. I think they are both popular because they are self-help books, which help you both emotionally and technically. Usually technical books are tutorials (step by step instructions) or dictionaries (lists of commands and features). The Practice of System and Network Administration doesn't tell you what command to type to run backups, it explains why we do backups, that there are three basic scenarios that require backups, and how each scenario requires different planning. It gives readers the framework to decide what to do no matter what operating system they encounter.

Time Management for System Administrators gives a lot of help and encouragement on the emotional level. We sys admins are often beat up (metaphorically) by too much work to do, demanding users, and unappreciative management. This book isn't just about how to manage time. It gives the reader techniques that act as a defence against the stress and strain of the system administration lifestyle. My goal of the book is to help system administrators enjoy work more, get better yearly evaluations (and raises), all the while only working 40 hours each week. I'm most proud of the fact that I've gotten email from the spouses of readers telling me "thank you for giving my spouse back!"

Do you have another book in the working at the moment, or one that you want to write in the near future?

As part of my own time management I have sworn off writing any new books for a while. If I have a book idea, I post it to my blog and hope someone else writes it. I'd like to see the "design patterns" concept of software engineering applied to system administration.