12 days of thankfulness – Day 5: I’m published
Day 5: I’m published
On the fifth day of thankfulness…
This year marked two years since I began my beer blog (found here, for those who came in late). It was a blog that I initially set up to keep track of the beers I was drinking, as a kind of personal diary and reference point to help take the strain out of beer choice. Now in its second year, Mason Hell-Cat’s Beer Blog remains still a diary of the beers I stumble upon, with input from a great bunch of regular readers. Through that blog I had a bloke in Scotland (who just happened to own a bottleshop) get in touch with me and mail me beers – simply because he wanted to read my thoughts on them. I’ve had a couple of different breweries also stop by the site and leave their comments, and better still I have a couple of local craft brewers following me on Twitter which blows my mind. I guess I’ve always believed it but it became very clear that my beer blog is a bit of fun that people appear to enjoy being a part of. And I welcome that participation.
Then things took another step forwards. At the start of this year, Andy McLean from Charter magazine gives me a call and asks if I would be interested in contributing a monthly review for the mag. Wow. This to me was like a laminated ‘Perfect Attendance’ certificate awarded to a kid in grade 3 – the best compliment a guy could get. I jumped at the opportunity, and in August 2011 my first ever review was published to an average monthly readership of 50,000 people. This opportunity has served as further justification that my beer reviews are something people are interested to read. I have fun writing the reviews, I have fun drinking the beer.
I am thankful for this writing opportunity. I am thankful for good beer. I am thankful for people who take the time to read my reviews and share my enthusiasm and passion.
You wouldn’t be published unless you were a good writer who knows his stuff. You got that gig on merit Hellcat. Keep up the great work.