Dan Hilles is a pretty regular kind of guy - regular job, regular bunch of mates, regular male aversion to shopping. But following his break-up with long-term girlfriend, Stacey, he finds himself single again. He's been out of the game for a while and is a little out of practice. Soon, the very irregular and increasingly worrying issue in Dan's life is the extended drought he finds himself suffering. And we're not talking the climate change, scorched earth, God I'm parched variety.
You've got to hand it to Dan though - it certainly isn't from a lack of trying. With stalwart mates Ollie, Jack and Rob on hand to lend their collective pearls of male wisdom and arrange the odd road trip, you'd think Dan's days of languishing in a sexual wilderness would be numbered. Even best friends can't help prevent the kind of surreal holes Dan just can't seem to help digging himself into. And with each failed attempt, his self-esteem plummets to the point where he wonders if 'little Dan' will ever work again.
Good job he has Kelly, his reliable and sympathetic colleague, to confide in. As a woman, she can perhaps shed some female light on why he's failing so miserably with the opposite sex, balancing out the testosterone-fuelled 'advice' from the lads. Surely Dan can't go wrong with Kelly teaching him the various intricacies of a woman's mind.
Good job he has Kelly, his reliable and sympathetic colleague, to confide in. As a woman, she can perhaps shed some female light on why he's failing so miserably with the opposite sex, balancing out the testosterone-fuelled 'advice' from the lads. Surely Dan can't go wrong with Kelly teaching him the various intricacies of a woman's mind.
The first thing I can say is that The Drought made me laugh, not your normal laugh but a side splitting laugh that still make you laugh even now. The second thing is that everyone should read it...now!
The story follows Dan Hilles who after breaking up with his girlfriend is having a bit of a sex drought, no matter what he tries seems to end with him getting beaten up or a laughing stock from his friends. The story is told through entries from different days that are before and after his break up from his girlfriend and involve the main parts of his drought.
While Dan isn't so happy about being single again mainly due to the no sex issue, his best friends are thrilled their friend is single and are willing to help him get back on the dating scene again...if only it was that easy. Throughout the book you met a lot of different characters including Kelly who is Dan's co-worker and his information source for finding out what women want and how he can get one to take notice of him.
I loved the friendship between Dan and Kelly, even with his dating issues and work problems he knows he can count on her to give him the facts straight. Which is the totally opposite to the advice his friends give him. There are a number of funny pick-up lines in the book which are mainly told from his friends that let you know that they are just as bad as Dan when it comes to dating and that maybe they should all take Kelly's advice and just be straight with women instead of trying to be something they are not.
The Drought is a funny novel that has everything you want in a book, with it's dating disasters, friends who don't care if you are the butt of their advice and the situations that Dan gets himself in trying to get himself out of his drought. If you like reading about men doing funny things and getting themselves into situations that you could totally imagine happening in real life then this book is for you!
23
Review Street:
Q&A
with Steven Scaffardi
Hi Steven! Thank you so much for being on 23 Review Street
today and for asking me to take part in your Lad Lit Blog Tour. I am thrilled
to be able to ask you questions about your books and about being a part of the
genre Lad Lit. So let get down to the questions!
You have written two books so far, The Drought and The
Flood. Could you summarise what they are about?
Hey, it’s great to be
here! Thank you for having me. Both books are part of the Sex, Love & Dating Disaster series. The first book, The
Drought, is the laugh-out-loud tale of one man's quest to overcome the
throes of a sexual drought. After the stormy break-up with his girlfriend of
three years, Dan Hilles is faced with the daunting task of throwing himself back into the life
of a single man. With the help of his three best pals, Dan is desperate and
determined to get his leg-over with hilarious consequences!
The
Flood is the follow-up, but this time Dan has the opposite problem as he
has too many women! After making a drunken bet with his three friends that he
can date four women at the same time, his love life takes a rather complicated
turn (especially when the four women he dates turn out to be a stalker, the
office ice queen, his ex-girlfriend, and the one that got away).
There are more books being classed as Lad Lit now, what do
you think makes a book part of the genre Lad Lit?
Lad lit is best known
as the male equivalent of chick-lit, primarily written by men exploring
relationships, emotions and day-to-day life experiences from the perspective of
a male protagonist. Often told with humour, charm and wit, lad lit leaves many
readers laughing out loud at the scenarios men get into.
Both The Drought and The Flood are part of the same series,
do you have more planned for the future?
I certainly do! I’ve
started working on some ideas for the third book in the series. The working
title is The Pact and it follows Dan
and his pals as they travel to Latvia in search of a girl that Dan’s best
friend, Rob, dated. It’s a little bit different to the first two books, and is a
bit of a tribute to The Bourbon Kid series
of books in terms of the style and storyline. So far all I can say is that the
boys get tangled up with a Russian mafia don, two karaoke loving corrupt cops,
a pimp who is stuck in the 70s, two drag queens, a sleazy hotel boss and his
weird wife, and a henchman known as Ray the Local. Watch this space!
I loved reading about Dan’s (the main character) love life
and the troubles he experiences; do you have a particular favourite character
to write about?
Jack is my favourite character. He is the best one to write because he
knows no boundaries and always says and does the most outrageous things. He is
full of one-liners and is a real cheeky-chappie. As part of the blog tour, Jack
was recently interviewed. It’s been one of my favourite posts of the tour so
far and you can read it here.
What would a day in a life of a Lad Lit writer be like?
I guess I can only
speak for myself, but when I’m writing I try to spend 1-2 hours a day at the
laptop. In terms of ideas, they come from everywhere – my own experiences,
stories friends tell me, eavesdropping in on conversations on the train! I also
find putting together a soundtrack for your book helps get the creative ideas
flowing. I often go out jogging and play the ‘soundtrack’ to the book I’m
currently working on and the ideas just start coming together.
Other than that, you
can normally find me playing with my daughter, who has recently just turned
one, and is just about the cutest thing you have ever seen!
If you had to sum up your writing style in three words, what
would they be?
Laugh out loud.
Thank you so much for joining me on 23 Review Street!
Thank you for having
me!
The Drought is available for free download at Amazon until May 2. After that you
can buy The Drought and the new novel The Flood just 99p on the Kindle at Amazon.
Follow all of the fun
on his blog tour by following him on Twitter @SteveScaffardi or by using the hashtag #LadLitBlogTour. More information about Steven and his books can be found on his blog.
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