ASP.NET MVC book: Not going to happen (for now)

After a great deal of soul searching (and a PDF draft of chapter 1 posted), I've decided that I'm not going to follow through on this book. I've got a total of four chapters, two of which are at 75%, but there are a number of reasons that I've decided to focus my attention elsewhere.

The biggest issue I have right now is that I don't see an obvious personal benefit to following through at this time, especially when I compare it to other projects. Since I'm essentially "self-employed," and foresee that as a lasting condition for some time given the sad job market, I really want to pour more energy into things that look and smell like income. Self-publishing, for all of the benefits, doesn't pay up front the way an advance does through a mainstream publisher and, you know, I like to eat and do summer stuff.

I've also had a lot of fun in the last two months tweaking and analyzing my existing Web sites. CoasterBuzz is doing very well, with page views up 20%. I've been shooting video and photographing rides for the site too, something I love to do but kind of let go of over the years. I'm really getting back in touch with the stuff that motivated me to get into software in the first place.

Perhaps most important, I'm getting back into some basic level of fitness. I'm married again, and I have to look after myself for someone else's benefit as well. The nasty high stress crappy job I lost really had me pushing aside just common sense eating and exercise, and I want to make sure I'm balancing all of that out.

The content I've written so far will not go away, and it will see the light of day one way or another. Perhaps it'll appear as a finished book for a future release, or as a series of long Web pieces. I haven't decided. The simple blogging app used as the example code will be released as well, probably sooner than later (in part because I'm hell bent on proving that 95% of what you want to do can be achieved by 10% of the average "best practice" or "sample" app).

This wasn't an easy decision, especially given all of the wonderful feedback I've received so far (and even some outright hate mail). At the end of the day, I need to chase what gets me out of bed, and unfortunately, this just wasn't it.