My “Except the Protagonist’s Name is Changed” project is more of an experiment in what self-publishing and the Internet allow us to do. I take public domain books and change the protagonists changed to something silly. (Though I don’t think I butcher these stories nearly as badly as Hollywood does.)

This is along the lines of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, although it is a more literal copying. And with googly eyes on the covers.

My process was to download the texts from Project Gutenberg, do a “Find and Replace” in a word processor (followed with more detailed review), create a cover (making use of Flickr’s Creative Commons licensed photos and other public domain images, and freely-licensed fonts from dafont.com), and then upload the CreateSpace.com (which will handle listing them on Amazon.com).

Here are the works:

Romeo and Juliet, Except the Protagonists’ Names are Changed to Steve and Betty ( Download PDF)

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I’ve completed my next book, which focuses on the Pygame library and making graphical games in Python. It assumes you have a little bit of Python programming knowledge. The book is free to read online from http://inventwithpython.com/pygame and can also be bought on Amazon.com for $25.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this book over the last year and a half.

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 2nd Edition, is now available in print on Amazon.com:

Buy “Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python” on Amazon.com

Of course, the book will still be available online, in full, for free under a Creative Commons license. If you like the book, but don’t/can’t buy the print version, go to Amazon and put in a review. The book is $25 (and qualifies for Amazon’s free shipping.)

I’m very excited about this. Thanks to all the readers and people who have emailed me. Thanks!

It’s been a lot of work, but the second edition of “Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python” is now ready. The book’s new website is http://inventwithpython.com

“Invent with Python” is a free book that teaches kids (and adults) how to make computer games in the Python language. It’s aimed at people who have had no experience with programming before. The website also has some nifty features: online diff, a tracing tool, and (soon) video tutorials to accompany the book.

Thanks a lot to everyone who’s helped out!

Starting Out, by Albert Sweigart

“When starting out,” the sculptor said,
“First lay out your tools with care.
And always remember, through and through,
The most important thing is to prepare.”

The sculptor’s tools were neat and ordered,
His studio was well-lit and clean,
He always began by sweeping eleven times,
And sometimes twelve or thirteen.

Centered was an untouched marble block,
His raw, undeveloped masterpiece,
Here is where the magic was made,
On this stone his genius would be released.

“But not so fast,” the sculptor warned,
“Great works don’t just fall from Heaven,
After all, it takes nine months to make a baby,
And sometimes, ten or eleven.” (more…)