A brief update on writing my fifth book, Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers: A Social History of Beer in Missouri.
Whew, 2024 is behind us. Let’s go, 2025. I decided to pull back the curtain and share more background about a working writer’s life through an occasional series of posts titled Writer’s Notebook. Before I rush headlong into the New Year, I jotted some notes on progress in writing my latest book through year-end.
Despite taking an extended “break” from mid-October through late December, I completed chapter drafts on Henry Armstrong beer, a Cape Girardeau brewery, and Boulevard Brewing’s barrel-aging program. I’m pleased with the results.
Armstrong was a Black triple crown world champion boxer from St. Louis. Between 1931-1945, Armstrong’s final professional record stood at 181 recorded bouts, 151 wins, 101 by knockout, 21 losses and 9 draws.He won and held simultaneous championship titles as a featherweight, lightweight and welterweight, a feat no other boxer managed. He also had ties to Kansas City, Missouri, and a late 1930s beer that bore his name and likeness. The chapter in my book about him reveals his complicated relationship with beer, insight into the highs and lows of his life, and even a distant connection to a bootlegger.
Subscribers to my newsletter will learn more about my December essay reading about Armstrong and a modern version of Henry Armstrong American Lager (see label above) on tap now at Vine Street Brewing for a limited time.
In December 2024, I visited Boulevard Brewing’s barrel-aging facility in South Kansas City. I met with barrel program manager Quinn Reeder and brand manager Adam Hall. The visit, beer sampling from the barrel, and conversation provided helpful detail and facts that appear in my chapter about Boulevard’s barrel-aged beer and the people behind it. Newsletter subscribers can view a couple of photos from that visit in my January 2025 newsletter due out this week.
Overall, I have written drafts of 33 chapters or approximately 62,593 words for Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers: A Social History of Beer in Missouri. I still have 6-8 chapters to go through early spring. I plan to travel to St. Louis and meet with some key brewers and owners to gather details about their story. By this summer, I will begin revisions and work on front matter (acknowledgements, introduction) and back matter (bibliography, index).
Meanwhile in Fall 2024, I wrote six stories for KC Studio‘s online content and upcoming issues and three stories for Martin City Telegraph during that late fall span.
The tail end of 2024 was a productive period while writing and researching the book. Meanwhile,I juggled significant demands on my time regarding a full-time job, writing proposals, health, and family concerns. Not complaining but 2024 took a lot out of me.
It was a challenging year full of disappointment, rejection, stress, and uncertainty. The year also blossomed with new friendships, the opportunity to write and create, and achieve some small wins.
To quote master printmaker Zigmunds Priede, who died in 2024, from my tribute to him in KC Studio: “Life is too short to dwell on difficult things. You’ve got to take advantage of the time you’ve got and do the best you can with the time you have left.”
Let’s do the best we can. Keep going, keep growing.