Sunday Sesh #19 - One Fifty Lashes Pale Ale

This Sunday's Sesh is brought to you by James Squire's One Fifty Lashes Pale Ale. I can't provide a link because on the Malt Shovel website, the pale ale hasn't been added for some reason, and on the only other site (called The Squires Bounty), there's nothing about the actual beer - just an advertisement for its launch last year.

Anyhoo, the review.

James Squire's One Fifty Lashes Pale Ale

This is another winner from the James Squire stable. It's light and a little cloudy and not much head and smell crisp and fruity. Very refreshing and easy to drink, and went down a little to quickly to be honest.
It's just a little sweet - almost shandy-ish, but not quite. Highly recommend this one.

I think the lesson here is, if its a James Squire, you won't be disappointed.

Continuing on from last week's post about goal-setting for the new year, I've downloaded and read (on my sparkly new kindle) a couple of books that I hope will assist me in building my "author platform". In other words, how to get people to like me and buy my books, and how to get THOSE people to tell OTHER people to buy my books.

It's going to be a hard slog. I'm under no illusions, however, that it will be any different from writing my books - a marathon rather than a sprint - and damn hard work.

If you're interested, the books are How I Sold a Million Books in 5 Months by John Locke, and two books by Kristen Lamb - We Are Note Alone and Are You There Blog? It's Me, Writer.

If you're at all interested in writing and particularly in self-publishing, I highly recommend all three books. John's is very similar to Kristen Lambs, but John gets you fired up and Kristen Lamb sits you back on your rear and tells you like it is.

Anyway, there will be a few changes around the blog over the next few months. As I said last week, the Sunday Sesh's will continue, and that's because I enjoy writing them. And yeh, ok, I also enjoy the beer.

They will be the only blog posts on here for the next month or so though (unless something really takes my interest), as I re-design the blog and the direction I want it to go in. I need to re-focus on my writing as well, and it all needs to start overlapping. I've started the hard slog towards defining who my readers are, and I now need to work out where they hang out after work. That's harder than I first thought, but it has also helped me to decide where to focus my efforts with regards to which of my (currently) 18 ideas I will concentrate on over the next year or two to build my audience.

Enough of my writing plans though, because I want to tell you, if you're after a fast-paced, fun and dangerously addictive read, you need to check out John Locke's Donovan Creed novels. I downloaded and read two in two days, and I am just waiting for my book budget to tick back over into the black to buy the rest of them. They are purely entertainment, so if you're after literary genius, they're not for you. And at 99c a pop for the kindle editions, what's not to like? They're also in paperback, so you don't need an e-reader to enjoy them.
Donovan Creed, Locke's main character, is a gun-for-hire and is strangely endearing, even if he does have better relationships with prostitutes than real women, and even if he is happy for people to get their come-uppance.

My pick of the two I've read so far is Wish List. Without going into too much detail, it's about a group of friends who enter their wishes onto a website, never thinking for a moment that they would start to come true. As always where Donovan Creed is concerned, there are consequences. This book had me cringing and laughing out loud. Very highly recommended.

That's enough from me this week. I have to decide what beer I'm reviewing next week, since the cupboard is bare. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to give them a go. I'm always after recommendations on what to stock my beer shelf (ok, shelves) with, so don't be shy.

Until next Sunday's Sesh,
Cheers!

Sunday Sesh #18 - New Year's Double-down

Since last Sunday was a dry sesh because of Christmas, this weekend is a double-down. That's right - two beers in one Sesh. Incidentally, Christmas wasn't exactly "dry", as much as I just never got the chance to write about the beers I drank while I was home. So anyway, here are the first two beers of the New Year.

First off the rank is a Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale.

Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale

This one is a big brew, and there's not much pale about it. It's a dark golden colour, smelling fruity and citrusy - fresh enough for summer.

It's got some big flavours but it's not overwhelming as you might expect. There's a bitterness that lasts a little while, but it's not too over-powering. They say to have this with roast meats, but I accompanied my beer with a rump steak and veg. It went down quite nicely and suited the steak well.

I will have this one again, but it won'te become one of my regulars.

The second of today's beers is from James Squire - Stow Away IPA (India Pale Ale) - quite appropriate since we're hosting a four test series against them this summer, but I digress.

James Squire Stow Away IPA

This also pours quite well, with a frothy but light head. You can see the big difference in these two is the carbonation, but they're almost identical in colour.

The IPA is drier and has a lot stronger bitterness in the aftertaste. It's not too bad though, and I could have a couple of these on a hot day. It also smells a bit like potpourri out of the bottle, as well as wet paper - doesn't make sense to me either, but that's what I could smell.

I prefer the Alpha over the IPA, but I wouldn't say no to either of them if they were offered.

Today's sesh marks the first day of 2012. New Year is normally when most of us take stock of what we've done with the last year and in particular, how we're going to lose the weight we've gained over the Festive Season.

I plan on having a big year in 2012, but I'm not one to make resolutions. I think they're a fast way to failure. I do, however, believe in goal-setting - something I've been lacking over the past year or so. I've been coasting a little, going with the flow and seeing where it takes me. It hasn't been too bad this last year, but 2012 is the year I take the wheel back and start to steer for myself.

The one thing I do want to get done is a revision of my writing plan. I wrote one at the start of last year that more or less just said that I wanted to prioritise my writing. I managed to do that more than I have in previous years, but this year it will go further. One of the major changes will be to set a writing schedule, and stick to it.

I will also start introducing myself to people as a "writer" instead of an "accountant". At some point, I'm hoping that my brain starts to believe it and allows me to start acting like a writer instead of an accountant - not that being an accountant is a bad thing, but it's just not what I want to be when I grow up.

I'm excited about being a writer this year instead of an accountant, and I'm excited about what I hope to achieve. One of the last things I did in 2011 (oh so far away now) was to go through my ideas - books, notes, napkins, post-its etc - and write them down on note-cards. Some of them have working titles, others just start with "The one about...". I've added short synopses on each of them so I know what they're about, and because of that, I feel a bit more organised already.

The other thing I realised is that I can no longer tell anyone I don't have any ideas. I actually have 18 of them. That's 18 novels that are waiting to be written. It blew me away when I realised, and the thing is, I only wrote down the ones that had "formed" to a point where I had a couple of characters, plot points and a general idea. I have a tonne of other ideas that are still percolating in the furthest reaches of my brain. The other thing is, a couple of those ideas are looking more and more like they could be great as series, so who knows how many books 18 ideas can turn into.

With that in mind, and safe in the thought that at any time I feel I can't write anything I can just pull out a new note-card and start working on something different, I'm heading into 2012 with renewed vigour and energy,and particularly, enthusiasm, for my writing.

Blog-wise, I'm still pottering along trying to balance what I want to write about and writing about a lot less on "me". There'll be a few changes - not least of which when Summer is over, there will be no more Sunday Sesh's, but I'm kicking around a few ideas to take its place over the colder months - perhaps reviewing coffee in the local cafes, or even better, the hot chocolates.

I'm also looking at blogging more on writing and my journey, almost as a journal, and I definitely want to include more extracts so you can see what I've been working on.

I'm also considering a weekly post on something topical - politics, scandals, something to get passionate about. I've enjoyed writing about gay marriage this year, not least of which because it affects me directly, but also because I'm passionate about it. I'm passionate about a lot of other things though, and I want to step side-ways a little and post more on the things that make me cringe, face-palm, laugh-out-loud, and yell at the television.

Apart from that, there are a host of other things that I'd like to achieve this year, but rather than bore you with the details, I'll let you go and nurse your hangovers, and if you didn't overdo it last night, pay out on those who did.

Plus, I need to get back to renovating. We're now on a fast-track to getting the house finished as we're on a dead-line. As we speak, power tools are whining away in the back yard cutting timber and drilling holes for the deck. The ceiling has been fixed and patched, so my painting skills are being called on.

It will be great to get the house finally finished, but we may not get to stick around to enjoy our hard work for very long. As I said earlier, I think this year will yield big things, so stay tuned.

Happy new year, and until next Sunday's Sesh,
Cheers!

Sunday Sesh #5 - James Squire Jack of Spades

Bit late in coming this week, but here's today's Sunday Sesh, brought to you by James Squire's Jack of Spades Porter.

I've ventured into the dark ales a bit over the last couple of weeks, and this one is now one of my favourites. Next time I'm at the Bottle-o I'll be grabbing myself a carton.

Little bit of history on the porter, as it's a variety I haven't come across until now. Apparently, it was one of the first "engineered" beers, being made from a combination of old (stale or soured) ale, a new ale and a weak one. It's name came about because it was popular with transportation workers (porters) in the 1700s.

This one from James Squire is made on roasted barley and they say has "hints of malt chocolate and roasted coffee."

Well, I'm not sure about that but it poured well with a creamy head and no real bubbles. It's when you drink it that it really surprises. It's a little tingly on your tongue, like sherbert, and very refreshing. It's not as heavy as it looks and was surprisingly easy to drink.

At $17.99 for a 6-pack, it's another top-shelfer.

After last weekend's whinge-a-thon, I thought I'd go for something a little different this week and talk about writing. Nanowrimo to be exact. It's been a while since I've spoken about Nano, but since there's less than a month left before it begins, I figured I better get cracking. I decided, since my desk is where all the action will happen, I'd better give it a good clean.

My desk before...

and after the clean-up

As you can see by the before and after pictures above, it's a far cry from my usual mess. In the second photo, you can see the hat which is part of my Nano Super Writer Disguise, and the frames in the background are my Nano-cartas - the two documents which remind me what I think represents good writing, and what I hope to avoid as bad writing. I've also got my reference books ready to go - two dictionaries, a thesaurus, a baby name book and the Nano bible "No plot? No problem."

The document box under my hat contains my various notes on "Pandora's Box/Elysium". I have a habit of jotting down notes on random bits of paper, but I'm trying to kick that habit. So I don't get too lost with plotting on that WIP (not my Nano WIP) all my notes go into that box, and at the end of the week, I go through them all, transfer the best of them into a note book, turf out the bits of paper and start again. It's a slow process, but I'm getting there. I just have to teach Wifey to leave my note books alone...

A little bit off track now, but still on writing - I ordered my Christmas present last week. Yes, you read right - I ordered my own Christmas present. Not because Wifey's bad at buying presents (she's quite good as a matter of fact), but because it's a new release, and I figured I might be waiting a while to get it. What did I get? I hear you ask.

A newly-released kindle e-reader from Amazon. Amazon have just released their latest suite of readers - a basic model for $US79, two touch-screens $US99 (wi-fi) and $US149 (3G), and a colour touch-screen model called the Fire for $US199. They also still have the previous models of the Kindle Keyboard available for $US99 (wi-fi) and $139 (3G) - the basic model is the only one currently available to us here in Aus, with the rest hopefully soon to follow.

Why am I excited about this? Because Amazon have just increased my potential reader market. Cheaper e-readers means more people seeing what it's all about, and that means more people looking for e-books. I'm not sure how long it will take to get my shiny new toy, but I am sure of one thing - since it's a Christmas present, there is no way Wifey will let me have it until Christmas day, so you'll have to wait (just like me) for me to give you my verdict.

If you've been trying to decide whether or not to buy an e-reader, now is a good time to be getting one. As for me, there's only one thing left to do - finish my damn book and get it onto Amazon.


until next Sunday's Sesh,

Cheers!

PS Notice I just wrote the whole Sunday Sesh without mentioning that Manly won the NRL grand final (until now) - this was the one time I hoped the Kiwis would triumph (sorry Nat). But, kudos to the Sea Eagles - they were the most consistent team through the finals series, if not the season, so it wasn't an entirely surprising result.