Pressure

2008_07_botw29
Originally uploaded by bridgeportseasoning.

A few weeks back Gabriel Magliaro of Half Acre Beer e-mailed me and said he wished to nominate me for the Michael Jackson Beer Journalism Awards at this year's Great American Beer Festival.

I was flattered, actually. As is my nature, however, there's that niggling though in the back of my brain that thinks I'm not deserving of the nomination. Sure, writing about beer is my freelance bread-and-butter, but confidence level writing about it (hell, freelance work in general) ebbs and flows. Even though I've written about it for so long now that breweries, distributors and other beer geeks now come to me with tips and suggestions for stories. I feel that some editors might take a look at the AP style errors I miss, realize the jig is up and stop giving me work.

Due to the nature of the rules, I had to grant Gabe permission first, sign a waiver acknowledging this and provide clips for submission Naturally, I waited until the last minute to sort through my clips. Found a couple pieces on Chicagoist that might pass muster, Googled another Sun-Times story that I wasn't displeased with and printed that out at work. I'll probably have to root through my Sun-Times clips at home to find another one I think isn't cringe inducing. Ultimately, it's a nice problem to have, I assume, to have someone think enough of your work that they want to recognize it in some form.