Update: This Is Too Easy. Something's Gotta Be Wrong

So. I am fully launched on my new project, a new "final chapter" to Ambitious Brew (I'm not revising the book; I'm writing a new, stand-alone chapter).

random photo series 2015

So launched that I've already wrenched my back muscles from sitting in a chair, staring too long at a screen. Wrenched because so engrossed that I fail to notice my posture.

Anyway. I decided, wisely, to do the section that is most complicated and least interesting (to me) first: Legal and laws. Ufff...

Still. I'm not complaining. Because really? This is all absurdly easy. Too easy.

I'm terrified I've forgotten how to "do" history and that I MUST be doing something wrong. Because how could I be so far along on a less-than-a-month-old project that I'm already writing the text? Typically, I spend months and months researching before I start writing.

But this. This is so . . . different. As I noted in my announcement post about this project, this new one differs in three ways.

One: The time period covers only ten years, 2006 to 2015. Okay, that's not ten, but you get my drift.

Two: I already have half a clue about the topic, something that's never been the case during my entire thirty years as a historian.

Third: Digital. This is the first time I've been able to use digital databases for research. So there's all this stuff. Right there. In seconds rather than hours. Or days. Or even weeks. 

random photo series 2015

Honey, I could get used to this.

It's amazing how quickly I can find information. Reams and piles and mountains of information. A nice payback for all those years spent reading microfilm and flipping through thousands of unindexed pages of magazines and trade journals. Maybe I'm dead? Maybe I'm in heaven? 

Anyway. It's all going so well that I'm now waiting for Some Awful Thing To Happen To Bring It All To A Halt. 

Here's hoping my wait is in vain.