My new book "Wine Sense(s)"

I have been blogging less recently as my writing efforts have been focused on my full-time job and a book on wine.  I am very excited and have the book well structured, have written about 20,000 words and expect the book to be 75,000 - 100,000 words in length.  This has had an impact though by reducing the time and energy for blogging.

I originally was writing a blog post on how to appreciate wine and how wine interacts with the human senses, but it quickly grew to several thousand words without being close to complete.  I thought about segmenting it into a series of blog posts, but even that would have been a lengthy serial.  Therefore, I decided to turn it into a book which I am thinking of calling Wine Sense(s).  The book is well structured and I am about a quarter complete with the first draft.  I am taking a four day long weekend over ANZAC Day week after next, and taking two weeks off from my day job in July to focus on competing the first draft.  I am getting about 3,000 - 4,000 words written per weekend, and when focused, I can write 5,000 words per day.  Therefore, I am pretty comfortable to have a first draft complete by end of July.

But then the real work begins providing sources, footnotes, links to other resources, and finding 50 - 75 pictures to include.  Then re-writing, editing, and formatting for electronic publishing.  This may take an additional 4 - 6 months.

I think Wine Sense(s) will serve a real purpose and be of interest to a large audience.  I have read a number of books on wine appreciation, wine tasting, and the philosophy of wine, and I believe my book will fit into a nice middle ground and be of use for the novice and experienced wine drinker alike.  It will offer pragmatic advice as to why and how to to learn to enjoy and appreciate wine drinking, and to provide you with confidence and the ability to drink far better wines on a reasonable budget.

I wrote my first book Still Stupid at Sixty a year ago under the pseudonym Blake Stevens.  I have received good feedback on Still Stupid at Sixty plus learned a lot about book writing and publishing.  That effort was 75,000 words and a book I had to write.  It was only published independently and electronically and can be found on Amazon.  My book Wine Sense(s) will be published in both physical and electronic format and I am considering using a traditional publishing house.  I love writing and am passionate about wine, so it is a good combination.

I have turned my life around financially in the last few years as presented in Still Stupid at Sixty, and am now far better off and moving on.  I present it as a gift (and at $3.99, the book truly is a gift!) for others to learn from my mistakes and what to do to avoid making them.

Therefore, I will be publishing a few less blog posts over the next few months, but also taking some excerpts from my new book as preludes and hopefully to get some good feedback on the concepts before final publishing.

I love drinking wine and writing about wine and looking forward to sharing that with you even more in the near future.  Please follow and enjoy the journey with me.


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!
My Blake Stevens blog: From Blake's Bookshelf
Still Stupid at Sixty in Amazon Kindle Store