Happy Talkin'
On having a dream and doing the work: introducing my book project on English whisky, Liquid England, and what comes next.
I woke up with an earworm yesterday that lasted all the way to lunchtime. It was a song from my childhood: Captain Sensible's version of Happy Talk. And in particular, the chorus.
Happy talkin', talkin', happy talk
Talk about things you’d like to do
You’ve got to have a dream
If you don’t have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
What I didn’t know back in the 80s is that Captain Sensible was doing a cover version of a show tune from the musical South Pacific, by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Knowing that now, the parrot and palm trees make a lot more sense.
Anyway… what really matters is the idea of having a dream. It can sound a bit vague and wishy-washy. But really it’s just a song about goal setting.
What it doesn’t mention is the second part of having your dream come true, which is of course the hard work towards said dream.
And it occurred to me that this is what I am living right now with a book on English whisky that I’m calling (working title) Liquid England. That’s the sort of thing that can never exist unless someone dreams it up first, and then does all the slog of writing it.
So, for the last few months, that’s what I’ve been doing:
- Putting together a book proposal
- Talking to distillers and other industry people to make sure my angle is feasible
- Researching the potential readership and market size
- Applying for funding where I can
- Writing sample chapters
I’ve been slowly putting things in place, one bit a time, trying to turn this dream into reality.
Plenty of whisky books have a page or two on English whisky but at the time of writing there is only one other book out there entirely devoted to it. That seems like madness to me.
My agent couldn’t see the opportunity in the same way I could. We’ve parted ways — there were several reasons, but fundamentally she doesn’t know whisky like I do, and that matters for a project like this.
I don’t know yet whether I’ll get another agent and take the traditional publishing route again like I did for Gin A Tasting Course, or whether I’ll self-publish instead. I spent a couple of decades as a book editor so that’s definitely in my wheelhouse.
Either way, I know one thing for sure: I can dream this book, and I can write it too. And now feels like a good time to bring you along for the journey.
