From time to time, I get copied on mass emails from my agent looking for an author for a book on a specific topic. In early November 2022, I got such an email. Wiley was looking for someone to write Mastodon For Dummies. I wrote my proposal that night, in spite of being in the thick of writing a 900-page programming book that was pretty much consuming every waking minute of my life. My proposal was accepted, and I was teamed up with Mike McCallister so the book could be written as quickly as humanly possible.