I'm happy to announce that my new book, Beginning Joomla! Website Development, is now shipping if you order it from the publisher's website! It will start shipping from online retailers like Amazon later this week.

Beginning Joomla! will take the reader step-by-step through the process of building a website with Joomla! 1.5. From beginning to end, the book will explain a concept and show how that concept relates to the development of an actual sample web site the reader can access online. This book applies each concept to a real-world example every step of the way. Once a concept is explained in theory, it is then illustrated by showing how one would implement each concept in a real web site.

If you are in the Dallas area on Monday, May 11, you can come to the Dallas Joomla! User Group meeting and hear me speak about one of my favorite topics, Joomla!. We are still getting feedback from the group about specific topics to cover during the evening, but you can take this opportunity to get some free training from a Joomla! specialist (well, almost free - the group has a small fee of around $5 or $10 per meeting to cover their costs). I plan to bring a couple of copies of my upcoming Joomla! book, Beginning Joomla! Website Development to give away as door prizes, so you definitely won't want to miss it.

The Dallas Joomla! User Group is an active group that provides mentoring and training opportunities for people who are new to Joomla!, and a great community for new and veteran Joomla! users alike. Check out their Meetup.com group or their website to get more information about the group.

If you have any topic suggestions, please feel free to add them here in the comments.

Calling all Joomla! tweeters... I have just started a topic of discussion on Twitter with the tag #t10jx where I list my top 10 favorite Joomla! extensions. The whole point of this is to share what my favorite extensions are and to find out what other people's favorite extensions are. Who knows? We may all discover some new extensions we've never used before. If you love Joomla! and you are on Twitter, I would like to invite you to take part of this discussion. Remember to use the tag #t10jx so we can all track the discussion and see what everyone's favorites are.

What happens in Vegas will definitely be blogged about here, because I have just signed up to attend Joomla! Day Las Vegas on April 4. I haven't yet decided if I want to attend any of the training classes on April 3, but they all look really interesting.

Joomla! Day promises to be a great event, with an A-List line-up of speakers, including multiple core developers. These events are always a great time to meet other Joomla! enthusiasts and learn a few tricks of the trade. I can't wait!