B. / Britta

Books and bartending have been passions of mine for as long as I can remember (and yes, I was doing bartending activities even in elementary school). The drinking part was there, but never a big thing for me – until it was – then it took just about everything I loved away from me.

01/29/21 – my sobriety date. After the first week of hell, I remember being so excited to be able to read again because the words were no longer blurry, and time passed without drinking when I was lost in a good book. So I grabbed that with both hands and READ, and read, and read. I’m pretty sure I read close to, if not more than, 300 books that first year. Three months into sobriety I was able to get back behind the bar. Fuck, it felt good to be home. I finally felt like I was getting parts of my life back. And that’s where my sad story telling is going to end.

I was scrolling social media one day and came across an ad for a huge book convention FOR ROMANCE READERS that was happening in Denver, CO (yes, it was the one that shall not be named – IYKYK). I couldn’t believe it. Despite the nerves and anxiety, I made sure I got the time off work and went by myself. I was absolutely blown away. Never in my life had I seen or met other book lovers like me, out in public, openly discussing their love of smut and romance books! It was mind-blowing and as dramatic as it sounds, that weekend changed my life. That was my opening to the book world, beyond the book, and I knew I had found my people.

I did, however, struggle with how I could find my place within the online book community. Despite being a bartender, I am a big-time introvert, I didn’t know the first thing about being able to take pretty aesthetic pictures, I barely had any physical books, and I sure as hell wasn’t trying to get on camera.

A total pun and play on – my love of reading, loving bartending, and a tipping of the hat in acknowledgement, and even bigger f*u, to my drinking problem. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember which name came first (ABWABP or Taps & Tropes). I think it may have been my alter ego name and when I started thinking of all the things I wanted to do, I realized I needed an overall company name.

If I remember correctly, the day it hit me was while I was reading Don’t You Dare by CE Ricci and the drink that would have matched perfectly to the book landed so hard in my mind that I had to stop reading. From there my ADHD brain did what ADHD brains do, and I spiraled, became hyperfocused as hell and started scratching random notes on paper and just imagining all the things I could do with this concept.

For me, making drinks for books was like translating my feelings about the book into something tangible, something others can see, and something I can share. I can’t draw character art... but I can mix a cocktail.

I wanted something to represent the blending of both my love of bartending and reading books. I was also trying to think of something catchy and would have a representation of both things in the name. Then the idea of beer TAPS and book TROPES hit – it was two T’s so it flowed, it was short and punchy, and it stuck. I hope one day I can find the notebook that I wrote down all the other names I was tossing around.

My daughter drew my logo when she was just 12 years old! She wanted to do something to help support me in this new adventure and that’s what she came up with. My husband digitized it and all the sudden I had a logo to this dream that just started with scribbled notes and scattered thoughts. I LOVE that it has each of their fingerprints in the making of it.

After the first year or so of making drink cards for authors, I always found myself wondering why I was keeping myself from making themed drinks unless authors asked me to. I had them in mind and I would always sit there thinking how this and that drink would be perfect for a book that had X and Y. That’s where the idea for Bookish & Boozy started. Rather than just being for a specific book, these are cocktails (or mocktails) that can be used for specific tropes, across hundreds of books. It was a way for me to make the drink pairing a more inclusive thing, across a much larger audience.

The short answer is, because I couldn’t list “A Bartender With A Book Problem” as an author name, lol. As much as I wanted to, I’m learning that publishing doesn’t work that way. So, I had to come up with something to list as an author’s name. As much as I wanted a cool name and to get creative with it, I knew I also needed a name that I would remember to respond to. Growing up, a lot of people have always called me “B”, and my husband still does, so I figured it would be functional and still hold a truth.