Danny January: Blog

With some serious editing from Steven, I've updated Cousin Removed. It had some grammar error, typos, and a few places that needed clarification.

The weather in the Lowcountry has been glorious and I've spent a lot more time riding than writing lately.

I'm working on junior year. When I wrote feasting, it was by far the longest piece I'd ever written, not to mention the most detailed and complex. When I wrote Summertime, I did it sort of on a whim, until I remembered how much happened that summer and it grew to be much bigger and more complex than I thought.

If you've read both, you're familiar with a bunch of people. Some make their entrance, have an impact and disappear from the story. About a dozen characters are fairly central and consistent in their place in the stories.

Question for my readers: Is there any particular character you wish had been fleshed out more? I wonder what happened to so and so?

Feasting and Summertime have generated quite a few questions from readers. Let me try to answer some.

1. Owning a horse isn't cheap. Before you do, I suggest you learn to ride. Not just a little. Take lessons for a couple of years first and decide if you want to compete or just ride for fun. If you need more saddle time, consider leasing a horse on site. You share time with the owner. It's a pretty smart way to go until you're certain.

2. Horseback safaris are a real thing. There is a huge variety. Some are not much more than a dandified pony ride through an animal park. Others are pretty intense. The most important thing, IMHO, is to match your proficiency with what the provider offers. Some require advanced riders. There's a reason for that. Don't overestimate your proficiency.

3. Learning to box is a great introduction to martial arts. I could say it's the best but it's actually the only one I know. First, you learn to hit and get hit without having a panic attack. Too many karate schools may as well teach theory. Part of that is due to skyrocketing cost of liability insurance and part of it is due to many of their students being afraid. Learn to box or teach your kid to box, then introduce them to the other martial arts.

4. Puerto Rico is a fantastic vacation destination. Really.

5. Biomedical engineering is still a growing field. We need people who can innovate. If you or your kid wants to enter a challenging career field where you can really make a difference, this might be it. Just make sure you study math like you mean it.

6. Family law can be heartbreaking. Be sure.

7. Lots of harbors have boating clubs where you can join the club and use their boats. They're a bit like an aquatic time share. They aren't cheap but they are cheaper than owning a boat. Charleston has a good one. I believe many port cities do.

8. The world will always need heavy equipment operators. Generally, the bigger the equipment, the better the pay.

That's my short answer to some of the questions I've been getting. I figured some people who didn't ask might want those little nuggets as well.

Danny

Well, it's that time of year. I enjoy looking at who readers have nominated for the coveted (cough cough) golden clitoride. Truthfully, it's a great time to explore the works of authors I've never read before. If you've never looked at the nominees before, I encourage you to do so. If nothing else, you get to discover what other people like. That can be very entertaining. And then, some people are just plain weird, so there's that. Have fun.

If you've read Feasting with a Silver Spoon, and Summertime and the Living is Easy, you know that I love Charleston and the LowCountry. There's a lot to like and more to love about it. But the weather can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Today, we had a severe weather warning, and a tornado watch.

That meant checking the fences (bad fences can mean escaped horses), checking the generator, marking phone numbers on our horses (actually painting the number on the side of the horse), then debating whether to turn them out or not. A lot of people think you should turn your horses out if the weather is really bad. We're sort of torn.

Lots of preparation, and then nothing. A little wind, a little rain, and that's it.

Such is life in Charleston.