Danny January: Blog

Something Fishy Going on is in the publication queue.

It's been a few months since Summertime and the Living is Easy finished up so here are a few refreshers.

Jack Pierce - 16. Attends Porter-Gaud, a private college prep school. Typical SAT scores are more than 300 points higher than national average. Tuition last year was $30K.

Christie Pierce - Jack's mom. Married twice. She divorced Victor Strzok when Jack was little. Married Ronnie Pierce, who provided for the family financially, but spent little time with them. He died young. Christie is engaged to Dane Edris

Dane - Yankee. Cardio pulmonary surgeon at MUSC. Moved south to Charleston a couple of years ago.

Franklin Pierce - Jack's brother - older by 10 years and recently married to Karen.

Sally Hinkleman - Jack's first love. Her father moved the family to Nashville. This didn't go over well with Sally or Jack.

Kim McTighe - Jack's second girlfriend. 16, and a junior at Porter-Gaud. She's perfect. You can ask anyone.

Pat and Mary McTighe - Kim's grandparents. Kim's biological parents and older sister died in a car crash. Her grandparents have been raising her.

Veronica - Christie Pierce's best friend. Recently went through a divorce. She is perhaps the most complex personality in all of this.

Melanie Middleton - Kim's best friend and fellow cheerleader.

Bobby Claire - Jack's friend and fellow swimmer.

Lori Newsome, Lisa, Allie, and Annie are fellow cheerleaders.

Vince Delinger - Porter-Gaud graduate and former QB.

Doctor Hank Legare - Dane's good friend, orthopedic surgeon and a bit of a health guru.

Coach Miller - Swim coach
Coach Hamilton – Baseball Coach

This is not a typical cast of characters. The friends and neighbors are affluent and Porter-Gaud is very definitely an elite school with highly motivated students. The standards are very high. Within that environment, someone rises to the top. I understand that this environment is very unusual for some readers to get their arms around. It is, however, very real. To put things in perspective, tuition at Porter-Gaud is currently right at $30,000. GPAs and SAT scores are high, as is the motivation and expectations.
Over the summer, Jack worked with Hector’s crews to earn the money for an engagement ring for Kim. Kim, Jack, Christie, and Veronic spent an interesting vacation in Puerto Rico followed by Jack popping the big question.

I hope this helps those who've read the first story get back on track. For those that haven't, this will not be enough to bring you up to speed.

I just watched the first of 6 episodes of Rucker's Reno. Reno as in renovation. Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish fame, is a native Charlestonian. He bought an old mansion on Broad St. on the peninsula, and renovated it. The whole thing was filmed and you can watch it on Freeze - Amazon Prime. There's a lot of Charleston history and scenery so for those of you that like the locale in Feasting and Summertime, here's a chance to get an inside look at the town by one of its most famous. What could be more Charleston than Darius Rucker eating Shrimp and Grits in his newly remodeled kitchen? Nothing.

I just returned from my first horseback safari since I started writing Feasting With a Silver Spoon.
First of all, September is a great time for good riding and great animal viewing. I highly recommend it and if you're interested, I'll pass on tips.
Guides and interns on this trip were from Capetown, Johannesburg, and the UK. Guests were from the UK, Belgium, France, the US, and Germany. What a variety of dialects.
We had a discussion about it one afternoon after our second ride of the day. Tennis shoes in the US, Trainers in the UK, Tackies in South Africa, and Runners in Canada. Same shoes - just different names. Anyone have any other fun examples of this?

As I write about Aquaman's junior year, I realize how limited my writing ability is. It's very difficult for me to capture various dialects and accents. I tried with Timex. It was very difficult and I think I did a terrible job but he was so unique, I had to give it a shot.

Writing Summertime, I tried to convey how much conversation that summer was in Spanish without bogging things down for the reader. Some of the people in the narrative had wonderful, unique accents that I simply can't capture.

Dane is a Yankee and so are a couple of other characters you haven't met yet. They talk fast, leave off word endings, leave the 'R' off lots of words and add it to other words. I don't like the accent but I can tolerate it. On the other hand, Doctors Calhoun and Legare both have wonderful, rich southern accents that sound so natural to me. I wish I could convey them to you but it's next to impossible.

I'm in awe of Mark Twain, who did an amazing job of capturing the subtle differences in dialect as Huck Finn traveled down the Big Muddy. I wish I had that gift.

I don't. Sorry.

This summer, we'll be returning to Africa for a horseback safari and taking some new folks for the first time. They are proficient riders and excited about the trip but concerned about all the wild critters. I doubt that I'll get that far into this story but their feelings about it mirrored mine before I went for the first time. I'm curious if any of my readers have gone on a vacation like this or what your thoughts are.