This blog began as New Year’s resolution. While some off-handily plan to get rich or find love or have a child, etc., at that midnight hour, I declared: “I’m going to make a blog! And I’m only going to make it about me! My writing! My life! And my opinion about everything! A site on me!” (You can add the hiccup with the whiff of alcohol there.)

My first real post on the site was shortly after New Year’s last year. That post can be found here and besides the questionable look in the picture with the file (I was a Beatnik at a holiday party), I don’t dislike what I wrote… well… too much.

The funny thing is I never in my wildest dreams expected my site to find readers. If someone was to have told me that by the end of the year I would have over 29000 unique views, 257 blog followers, over 200 likes on Facebook, and 10,000 followers on Twitter, I wouldn’t believe them. Seriously, I would have been shocked.

This site was started for purely selfish reasons, I admit that (wanting to build up my writing voice to where it once was since I was coming off a long writing drought). The fact you are coming along for the ride is a wonderful surprise. It encourages me like you wouldn’t believe, and I am so incredibly flattered and inspired by your views, likes, sharing, and just reading. Thank you. And I promise I will do my best not to suck in the new year.

Now what about my old writing goals for 2012? Well, for many I actually reached them, which is unique for any year that I’ve been on this planet. Yes, I would say that having this blog has helped focus me more, which is a piece of awesomeness in my opinion.

So what are my hopes for 2013?

1. Keep up the blog! That means, not five posts each week (and yes, there was a time I was doing as much as that every week), I plan to aim for 2 to 3 a week. That seems reasonable, and also gives me some wiggle room to focus on writing that I am not sharing with the world… Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll be playing video games. (Did I mention I got Epic Mickey 2 for Christmas? Can. Not. Wait.)
2. Make A Jane Austen Daydream a success. This is not going to be an easy one. Every indie published book has an uphill battle in front of them. It comes down to marketing and word of mouth, and time… a lot of time. So far I am really impressed with my publisher and the work they have done around the book, and I plan to support every step along the way. The trick with the book (what has always been the trick) is to get people outside of the Jane Austen world to pick it up. While it is Austen-esque, it is also very literary with some new writing twists and tricks in it. In other words, I think more than the Austenites can get a kick out of it if they give it a chance. So this will be one of my battles.
3. Finish Permanent Spring Showers. My online novel is down to the last three chapters. Wow. The fact that I have almost completed a new novel still takes my breath away. It especially does when I consider what the book is and the size of it. It is definitely not a normal Scott Southard work (if that is possible to say) and I am kind of surprised that it is joining my library of work. Moving on! After completing it online, I need to lock it down as a novel for actual sending out to agents and publishers. At that point (maybe in February or March), I’ll probably take the earlier draft off the site. Really, this process is all still in flux. For the time being I am writing like a fiend. I need to make this a strong ending. That is my main goal right now- Finish, get it ready for publication, and then send it out and support it as much as I can with fingers always crossed (and if you are a publisher or an agent reading the book… Well, hi there! Call me!)
4. Plan… something. I’m not sure what this something will be. But I need to plan something. Something new… Maybe a collection of short stories or maybe a new novel. But I will need to create something before the end of the year. Right now I have no idea what that might entail, and considering that I am busy writing a new novel I’m not feeling too pressured right now. But in summer or autumn of next year, I’m going to need to stop, take a breath and plan… something…
5. Figure out something to do with my screenplays. I have six screenplays, five I feel ready to shoot tomorrow. I have one holiday movie, one black-and-white mystery, two romantic comedies and one adaptation of Shakespeare. Yes, I adapted my own vision of a Shakespeare play. I kid you not! It was a dream project of mine and took a lot of planning and research. Finally one summer I forced myself to sit down and just do it… And I did. Getting my movies made has always been elusive to me. I’m not sure what I can do differently (living away from Los Angeles now), but I will dream and hope. I do love those stories.
6. My other novels need to come out. I’m not sure what to do with my other unpublished novels. They are Cassandra on the Island and Maxmillian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare (which I wrote about here and shared a chapter from here). I love both books. Actually, I will go on record as saying they are two of my favorites of my works. I would love to see both of them out there, but unfortunately based on how they were written they would not work well on a blog like this. It would have to be in print or eBook, the only questions are how and when… and who. Okay, the who is a publisher or an agent (again, agents and publishers… call me!).

So basically, I want to keep writing this blog, find success for my books out there (Not forgetting My Problem With Doors and Megan), finish my new book, and then create something else… and then get other projects published or produced. Okay, 2013 should be a very lazy year for me.

Damn.

Happy New Year!

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If you liked reading this post, why not check out one of my books? I’ve had three novels published in the last few years, A Jane Austen Daydream, My Problem With Doors and Megan. You can find them via my amazon.com author page here, or as an eBook on Google eBooks here.  Thanks for reading!