Beer Bible Update

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Sometime Monday or yesterday--I didn't happen to notice--I passed the 200,000-word mark on the Beer Bible.  Word counts never mean anything to people, but page counts are hard to assess.  In my current cheater pagination, it's about 650, but if I do it honestly, it balloons to over 750.  I probably have something on the order of twenty thousand more words to go--another 50-60 pages--and the book is due on May 1, a deadline I have every intention of making.  (Never missed a deadline yet!)  I have one more fun chapter to write (beer and food) and one more fun trip to take--St Louis, to see the home brewery of Anheuser-Busch.  And then ...

It's a strange thing to write a book.  I can't speak for anyone else, but in my own case, it has been the experience of extreme tunnel-vision.  Beer, beer, beer, beer.  I dream in beer.  Someone will mention something and I think: that reminds me of [some story about beer].  I do my very best to remind myself that this is an interior experience, and that to everyone else these matters are of (rightly) little import.  It will be fascinating to emerge on May 2 from this weird cocoon, blinking in the sunlight, and be out of a job.  From incredible tunnel-vision to unemployment.  What whiplash that will be.  I'm trying to let that future self remind present self that he's got a great job and he should enjoy himself.

The bad news is that Workman has slated the publication for Fall 2014.  Talk about delayed gratification.  I guess we'll all be waiting a good long time for it to ripen, like Budvar.  Anyway, 200,000 words, fifty days--these are the relevant numbers of the moment. Back to my hole.