"Delighted" Barely Describes It: Jack's Beer Rides Again

As I've mentioned here on many occasions, of the many pleasures that writing the beer book has provided, perhaps none as meant more to me than knowing that I helped Jack McAuliffe get the attention and credit he deserves. (For those just tuning in, Jack founded what is rightfully regarded as the first American micro-brewery.) (For more information, see this piece by my pal John Holl; it's the most substantive bio available online.)

Jack's an intensely private person and so, no surprise, also a bit of a recluse (one of many reasons he's a man after my own heart). (*1) When the beer book first came out, and people "discovered" him, he was uncomfortable with the attention. I'm happy to report that he's managed to overcome that discomfort (proving, apparently, that old dogs CAN learn new tricks) and that's a good thing because in the past couple of years, he's gotten plenty of love and respect from the "good beer" community.

And now a new, and truly exciting, honor: The folks at Sam Adams (aka Boston Beer Company and Jim Koch) invited Jack to brew up a new batch of his old (and long gone) New Albion Ale. The beer will be introduced at the Great American Beer Festival in October, and released to the public in January 2013.

For details of this happening, see this terrific piece of reporting from my pal John Holl.

I could not be happier.

Oh: And by the way, Jack and I will be signing copies of my book at the GABF in October. Hope to see you there. (Tickets go one sale to the general public on Thursday, August 2. They sell out VERY quickly, so if you're thinking of going, don't think too long.)

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*1: Other reasons I'm so fond of him: He's smart, talented, creative, crazy as a loon, and eccentric as hell. What's not to like?

Yo, Man! Ambitious Brew is DIGITAL!

Can you tell that I'm excited? Yes, I am. I am, I am, I am. Ambitious Brew is now an e-book, and for the low, low, price of just $8.25. (*1)

Sometimes it pays to ask: about six weeks ago, I asked my editor if there was any chance that AB would ever go digital. And she said, sure: get the photo permissions covered for an e-book and my wish would come true.

And YOWZA! There it is.

Yowie zowie kapowie! (No, it doesn't take much to set my excitement meter in motion.)

PS: Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell the world!

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*1: And remember: You do NOT need a kindle to read a kindle book. All you need is some a digital device and the Kindle app for that device.

Smell That? It's RAIN! (Not Really. More Like "It's SCIENCE!")

Was just about to post this to Facebook and thought "NO, fool! Put it on the blog instead. Bring back that  habit!" This is SO cool. Yes, I can smell rain a'coming, and have all my life. (Out where I live, I can see, smell, feel weather all the time and that's a good thing. A necessary thing.)

But I had no idea the reason was so complex (although, doh, of course it would be!). I just figured it was the rise in humidity.

Anyway, this explanation from Scientific American is marvelous and fascinating. Enjoy!

Trying to Stay Cool? How's About Some Science Fiction History?

Maybe if I just aim for dinky stuff, I can "blog" w/out feeling guilty as I dig into the revisions of the manuscript of the meat book (folks, when a writer has a great editor, her/his edits make revising as difficult as writing the manuscript in the first place) This is utterly cool. Truly.

A  timeline of American science fiction, in the 1950s, from prose to politics to TV's view of the future. (The 1950s = a fascinating decade. For many reasons.)

"Found" this thanks to Twitter (an amazing tool for tracking ideas, events, new books, music, politics, general societal weirdness, etc etc etc....fill in the blanks as your imagination ponders the notion of a free-flowing ether of ideas!). (Specifically latched on to this via Ron Charles, a book reviewer for the Washington Post and a first-rate humorist/tweeter. Also on Facebook.)

Enjoy! (Me? I'm off in the astonishing heat of the summer of 2012 sitting at a desk staring at words, words, words.....)

On Writing, Fiction, Non-Fiction, and . . . Possibilianism?

Some days the hits just keep comin' (er, um, because I'm on my lunch break??). Apropos of all the other writer-related stuff (about which I've written more in the past week than in all of the six years I've maintained this blog), this interesting interview with David Eagleman.

A couple of money quotes:

On making complex ideas accessible (something dear to my heart):

I just follow the rule I tell all my students: if you can’t explain it to an eighth grader in a way that he/she would understand it, then you don’t understand it. As a corollary, one must understand the importance of narrative. Our brains have evolved to care about story. If you want to penetrate the brain of a listener, wrap the information in things they care about.

On writing "academic texts," non-fiction, and fiction:

In academic texts there is a particular landscape of facts that needs to be surveyed. In nonfiction one chooses a particular path through that landscape, taking the reader on a special journey of your choosing. In fiction one takes off into the third dimension.

Also, Eagleman is also responsible for a "movement" (his term, not mine) called "possibilianism." Who knew?

Have I mentioned how much I missed blogging?

And Speaking of Fantasy, Literature, and Science . . .

. . . which I wasn't, but this is so COMPLETELY connected to the whole ball of wax I've pondering so intently the past few days that I've got to pass it along. A project that aims to learn about how literature influences science and scientists. As the "what this is about" note points out, typically the interest goes the other direction (how does science influence literature?). Take a look. Good stuff. Again: Do we live in interesting times or what?? (And if you're missing the connection between this, genre writing, science fiction, fantasy, the turmoil in contemporary writing/publishing, well, really: there IS a connection. At least in my mind.)

Back to work.