Conference season hit Amsterdam last month with the global juggernaut that is Kubecon but I eschewed the noise of that particular enormous techie event and went instead to the writer-friendly event "Stories Unfold" at Amsterdam's OBA theatre.

This was a very pleasant evening giving a selection of self-published and traditionally published authors a stage to share the stories behind their books and also highlighted a new compilation of short stories. The audience was very much made up of writers and aspiring writers and it was a lovely few hours of time well spent which also gave me renewed hope and inspiration on my writing journey.

Writing is hard, I've found out. Not the actual writing part, which is rocky and difficult, but the whole promotion, talking about yourself, putting yourself out in front of people part of the deal. You want your words to be read and you therefore need to be out there promoting yourself. This can become an echo chamber therefore it's important to have proper amounts of time, space and distance both from your work but also the work that you do to promote your work. This, I've learned, is the difference between a writer and an author.

However, that's just part of it - it also turns out that MARKETING IS HARD. When you're a self-published author, everything falls on you and in my rush to get Human Software in front of people at the end of last year, I probably should have spent a bit more time getting feedback (or getting professional advice) on how to get my book in front of the right audience.

Well, thanks to some thoughtful readers, I now have that advice, and as I start work on Book 2 (yes it's happening!) I've decided to do a little more work on Human Software as well. With that in mind I've decided to relaunch the book with a new cover and a new blurb in the coming weeks. Alongside that I'll be relaunching the website and my blog. If you'd like to know more about the reasons for this here's a LinkedIn article that explains a little bit about this decision and where it's coming from.

In other news, I was saddened to hear this week that DevOpsDays 2026 in Amsterdam will no longer be happening. As a member of the local community I find it inspirational how much effort goes into this every year and it's a shame we won't be seeing it again this time around. Times are hard in tech, and while that might inspire the world's tiniest violins from some, it's a shame when a community event like this can not be run due to what looks like a lack of sponsorship.

In the meantime we keep connecting and talking about issues that are important to us through the social media and through our interactions at work. In my next newsletter I'll share some shots of the new cover and details of where to buy but if you're sharp eyed you might spot it around and about in certain places over the coming days! The book is also still available and what's good to know is the content will not be changing at all.

I'm excited to share more with you in the next few weeks, both about the relaunch of Human Software and some more details about what I'm writing about next. Until then, have a great Sunday and keep looking out for each other.