Danny January: Blog

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.

I've had a surprising amount of positive feedback on feasting and the follow on, Summertime. I've decided to continue the story and am working on Aquaman and Kim's junior year. It's taking a while so be patient.
In the meantime:

If you've never been to Charleston, pay us a visit. Spring is best. April and May see the azaleas in full bloom and it's not too hot or humid.

Emmylou Harris collaborated with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt for an album - Trio. If you like Country at all, it's a great album. If you don't like country, give it a listen anyway. Very sweet sound.

I was at the stables the other day and there was a horse that reminded me of Ghost. She was 37. I miss Ghost.

If you've ever thought about a riding vacation, a horseback safari is an amazing adventure and one you'll never forget. PM me if you want to know more.

I enjoy the comments and emails. I've made a few corrections, mostly typos and such.

Before you send me an email telling me about an error, realize I'm trying to write this from the POV of Jack at 15. I've learned a lot of Spanish and physiology since then. I know there are errors in some areas. Most of it is intentional.

Merry Christmas, ya'all

I just re-posted Science Experiment and Cousin Removed. I did a bit of editing, providing some clarification where needed, made a couple of continuity corrections and broke them into chapters. I may do that with other stories as time permits. I'd rather write than correct so I'll work on them a little bit at a time and post about it in my blog when I do. I've gotten a lot of feedback recently and appreciate it. Thanks.

I wrote Feasting with a Silver Spoon after a friend of mine (you might know him from Beach House) suggested it. I had an enjoyable time writing it but didn't think it would be well-received because it was basically a chronicle of a year in the life. It turned out to be a lot more popular than I could have imagined - undoubtedly because of my description of the LowCountry.

I hadn't planned on writing Summertime, but, since there was such positive feedback for Silver Spoon, I sort of dabbled at it for a while. So, I tried some new things.

I shared work experience and cultural lessons with Hector's people and then with our trip to Puerto Rico. A couple of chapters would have been easier to write in Spanish than English, but I don't think my readers would have appreciated that. Again, I've had surprisingly good response.

In both of these stories, the backdrop has been pretty important but it's probably really the people. So many people have the opportunity to have a big impact on a teen. Franklin was, and is, an enormous influence. Timex, Dane, Doctor Legare, Coach Miller, and more, each played a part.

And Veronica. She was so difficult to figure out.

At any rate, I'm sort of working on sophomore/junior year. We'll see what happens. As always, I appreciate your feedback.

The preface and first few chapters of Summertime have been published. Voting and public comments are now permitted. The story is 13 chapters long. For quality control, I plan to publish a new chapter every couple of days.

This story ends at the beginning of the school year. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to vote. Feel free to post public comments or shoot me an email. I respond to them.