Son, husband, father, law partner, “young Turk,” church Elder – W. Brantley Harvey Jr. has had many titles in his 85 years on this earth. This “favorite son” of the Lowcountry has co-written with Cheryl Lopanik Paschal the stories of his lifetime in his recent memoir, W. Brantley Harvey Jr. - Palmetto Patriot.

 Beaufort writer Cassandra King will celebrate the launch of the essay and photograph collection Carolina Writers at Home with a holiday signing event at McIntosh’s Book Shoppe, 917 Bay Street, on Saturday, Dec. 12 from 2-3 p.m.

By Margaret Evans, Editor

I think I’ve mentioned this before. Whenever I find myself scrambling around for a column topic – which happens more than you’d imagine, given my delightfully opinionated nature – I can always count on my husband to deliver the following advice: “Write about the outrage.”

So you think you’ve got a black thumb – that you kill any plant you try to grow. We get lots of really desperate questions from gardeners at the Master Gardener booth during the warm months at the Farmers Market in Port Royal, but those questioners aren’t the real Black Thumb brigade.