Sebastopol, CA--Any honest computer geek will admit that his obsessive coding is, at heart, a futile attempt to create a world as cool as those depicted in science fiction. New evidence of the symbiotic relationship between Sci Fi and geekdom surfaced today, as O'Reilly & Associates, the geek publisher-of-record, announced plans to publish three books by Wil Wheaton, blogger, geek, and the actor who portrayed Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
"This is a very exciting relationship for me, for several reasons," said Wheaton. "First, I am a huge geek, and without O'Reilly, I wouldn't know HTML from LMNOP. I never would have been able to get Linux running, and Perl would be one of the not-quite-as-good-as-Mrs.-Garrett replacements on Diff'rent Strokes. Now, I'll be able to get my books into more stores than I ever was with my own Monolith Press. I can't wait to see how Dancing Barefoot does when it's got a major publisher behind it."
Wheaton's first two books, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek, are almost unbearably honest tales of life, love, and the rigors of being an ensign on the Starship Enterprise. First self-published by Wheaton in May 2003 and available only on the Internet and in select independent bookstores, "Dancing Barefoot" quickly sold out its initial run of 3000. The O'Reilly edition will be available in all major bookstores in early 2004.
Just a Geek, coming in Spring 2004, continues the story of Wheaton's transformation from teen actor to grown-up writer, computer geek, actor, husband, and stepfather. Along the way, Wil comes to terms with his Star Trek fame, creates the hugely popular weblog http://wilwheaton.net, and realizes that playing himself is the role of a lifetime.
In June 2001, Wheaton built wilwheaton.net (also known as WWdN), and soon garnered a large and loyal readership. The antithesis of the typical slick celebrity website, WWdN is a highly personal, opinionated, and candid account of Wheaton's life. It's also a clean, well-designed site built on code that works. Wheaton shares his hard-won expertise in Wil Wheaton's Website Design, slated for release in early 2005.
About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.