The Stories of Scott D. Southard

September 10, 2013

My Greatest Hits! Editing, Literary Agents, and New Writers
As part of my introduction on Rebecca T. Dickson’s website for editing/writing services, some of my older writing posts are appearing up there weekly. These are my greatest hits, people!

Currently, three can be found on her site, with more to come…
- The Necessary Humbling of Editing. You can learn a lot about my editing philosophy in this post, as well as my experience working with editors. Oh, and there is a writing horror story as well in it.
- What I learned from having a literary agent. This still is one of the most popular writing posts I have ever written. It’s good to know that my bad experience has helped so many…. Okay, I jest. There are some good lessons in it, and yes, I would still work with an agent again. To be honest, I hope to find one for my new book.
- Welcome to the World of Writing: My Advice for New Writers. What would I have liked to have heard when I started down this thorny path of authoring? This is that post.
If you would like to learn more about hiring me as an editor, you can do so via this page. Or you can contact Rebecca T. Dickson and ask for more information via her site, which you can visit by clicking the image below.
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September 9, 2013

Happiness Forever in Waiting: A Writing Update
I expect never to be happy in my writing.

Never happy with a final draft of a book, never happy about the success (or non-success) of any work, and all together grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Yup, that’s my dwarf… at least as a writer. Usually, I would consider myself somewhere between Dopey and Doc as an actual person. Of course, Doc can play the organ. I can’t, even though my grandparents had one while I was growing up. It didn’t have birds and all that wooden trickery, but it did have great buttons with options for fun noises…. Okay, I lost my train of thought.

Happiness! Lack of it in writing!

This is all not a bad thing really in my opinion (I have even wrote about this before on this site as a writing lesson here). I’ve trained my brain to always consider the next step, to accept when something is done and immediately begin to think what needs to happen next. Happiness would probably just delay everything else. It is frankly too distracting. (more…)
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September 6, 2013

Free eBook for the weekend! Only a little longer left to grab Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare
The clock is ticking and the haunted McGregor Castle is awaiting your arrival!

At the end of Sunday (September 8), the free ebook giveaway for Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare will come to an end. You can grab a copy by visiting Amazon.com here: http://amzn.com/B00CXSDEBE. Throw it on your Kindle now!

I have always had a great fondness for this story, and have written on its creation a few times on this site (which you can read on the page for the book here). It’s a mad experimental tale, trying to capture that excitement I used to get finding a dusty book at a library, filled with mysteries and new literary surprises. Anything is possible in a story like this, as you will soon see…

Here is the description from the back of the book:

The cursed and foreboding McGregor Castle is the most terrifying and haunted location in all of the British Empire. Only a brave (or foolish) soul would consider visiting it, let alone staying within its walls for five days. In other words, a perfect dare for a man like Maximilian Standforth!

Maximilian Standforth, famed playboy aristocrat and private detective, is a genius with dangerous tastes. With Bob (his trusty carriage driver, biographer, and body guard) and Maggie Collins (actress, spy, and maid) by his side, Maximilian will experience horrors and madness unlike any seen before. For it is at McGregor Castle that the team will discover more than they ever could imagine in this very experimental and genre-breaking thriller.

If you do take this opportunity to download my free novel, please consider checking out my other books as well- A Jane Austen Daydream, My Problem With Doors, and Megan. If I can promise anything with MAXIMILIAN (and my other tales) it is that you will find something very, very new.
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September 4, 2013

Free ebook for a limited time! Gothic, quirky, spooky, unexpected- Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare
“If you like your supernatural books where reality mixes with the impossible, the inexplicable, then this is the book for you…. It is beautifully written.” A five-star review from GoodReads.com

Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare is a book pretending to be a gothic Victorian-period mystery. From its dashing hero to foggy London streets and abandoned castle, all the markings are there… but hidden underneath is a book questioning the very nature of storytelling.

For a limited time the book is a FREE EBOOK on Amazon! Here is the link- http://amzn.com/B00CXSDEBE.

The description of the mad tale:

The cursed and foreboding McGregor Castle is the most terrifying and haunted location in all of the British Empire. Only a brave (or foolish) soul would consider visiting it, let alone staying within its walls for five days. In other words, a perfect dare for a man like Maximilian Standforth!

Maximilian Standforth, famed playboy aristocrat and private detective, is a genius with dangerous tastes. With Bob (his trusty carriage driver, biographer, and body guard) and Maggie Collins (actress, spy, and maid) by his side, Maximilian will experience horrors and madness unlike any seen before. For it is at McGregor Castle that the team will discover more than they ever could imagine in this very experimental and genre-breaking thriller.

If you do take this opportunity to download my free novel, please consider checking out my other books as well- A Jane Austen Daydream, My Problem With Doors, and Megan. If I can promise anything with MAXIMILIAN, and my other tales, it is that you will be surprised.

“If you have read any Jasper Fforde, imagine him writing whilst tripping on acid.” A reader from amazon.co.uk
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September 3, 2013

The Importance of Delusions: The Four That All Writers Need
When I was a child, I never had one imaginary friend. I could never limit myself to one. And when I did seek them out, I would steal them left and right from books, having in the end something more akin to a kingdom in my head.

The funny thing is this kingdom is still around. No, I don’t need any help, but they are there, transformed now from warriors and wizards into readers, editors, agents, interviewers and publishers.

And if I am walking my dog on a late evening, there is a chance I might be working out a pretend interview in my head or I might be thinking of a meeting with a producer interested in one of my books, figuring out how I would pitch the material. Typically, I don’t talk out loud (even my dog would question my sanity then), but those conversations are there as I am always planning, considering my options and thinking of the next steps I might need to take in my career.

Yes, the imaginary friends or the capability for internal debate like this is still around and it is now a tool I use. And using my imagination like this has grown, assisting and encouraging… and not always truthfully. Spawning dreams and delusions that I use as tools as well.

All artists have delusions, some are big and some are small. They empower our debates, drive our inspiration forward, and give us hope even in the bleakest of hours. There are, in my humble opinion, four universal delusions that all writers share. (more…)
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August 30, 2013

The Awesomeness of TeeFury
This article was just shared by TeeFury in their official email. Pretty cool. The funny thing is I was so excited by the announcement that they do youth sizes now (my son is going to love them) that I totally missed the mention of me until a friend pointed it out! LOL.

The Stories of Scott D. Southard

I live everyday with TeeFury regret.

This tragic tale is from last year, sometime in the autumn. It was before I purchased my first TeeFury shirt and this one was a combination of Calvin and Hobbes and Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog.

Let me repeat that- Hobbes and Kermit.

Basically, the artist took an image of rambunctious Calvin carrying his stuffed tiger and replaced it with a child that looked like Henson carrying a puppet of the awesome frog. And for 24 hours I stewed over this shirt, weighing each of the arguments pro and con for getting the shirt (or maybe purchasing it for others). I even shared the link to the shirt with friends and family who I thought might like it! But as the hours dripped by, I forgot about the shirt until it was the next morning… and there I was, head down on the computer…

View original post 1,128 more words
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August 30, 2013

“A bit of fun” Austenprose Reviews A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM!
When A Jane Austen Daydream was released there were two reviews I was the most nervous about. The first was with the Jane Austen Centre (which you can read here), the second was with Austenprose, probably the most prominent voice in new Austen literature. Seriously, if Entertainment Weekly or the New Yorker found the book, I wouldn’t feel this amount of stress. (Okay, I might as well… and I would love to be tested on that, by the way! Do you hear me book reviewers?)

Yes, A Jane Austen Daydream is my novel and can be read by those who are not schooled in the works of Miss Austen (with some post-modern twists in it), but I really, really wanted my book to be accepted by the Austenites as well. Well, today, I got the review from Austenprose (here) and I am right now breathing a deep sigh of relief.

Here is an excerpt from the review, the reviewer’s response to my depiction of Jane Austen:

The good news is Scott Southard’s Jane is a delightful creature. She is clever and witty and determined to do the best she can for herself, even when things take a turn for the worst. Jane’s dialogue is one of the bright spots in the novel and her thoughts and comments had me smiling (and even laughing) on more than one occasion.

You can read the rest of the review here. If you would like to learn more about A Jane Austen Daydream, you can do so on this page for the book (here). A Jane Austen Daydream is available via Amazon (here), where you can find it for the low price of $3.99 for eBook and $13.46 for print.
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August 29, 2013

New WKAR Book Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of its publication and as part of the #AustenInAugust events taking place online, this week’s book review is on none other than Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice!

You can listen to the stream of my book review via this link (http://wkar.org/post/book-review-200th-anniversary-pride-and-prejudice) or read below, after the jump.

Also, as noted in an earlier post, I have an article on Jane Austen and my inspiration for my Miss Austen in A Jane Austen Daydream on the website RoofBeamReader.com today. You can also enter to win an autographed copy of A Jane Austen Daydream. You can learn more here. (more…)
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August 29, 2013

Book Giveaway and Guest Post for #AustenInAugustRBR
As part of the “Austen in August” literary events, I have a guest post on RoofBeamReader.com, which you can read here! It is about how I found the character of Jane Austen for my A Jane Austen Daydream while visiting the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton. I hope you will check it out.

Also, there is a giveaway to win an autographed copy of A Jane Austen Daydream! To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment under the post on that site.

You can check out the article and learn more about the giveaway on RoofBeamReader.com here.

I hope you enjoy the post and good luck!
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August 27, 2013

“A great achievement” New book review and interview for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM
Author and blogger Christoph Fischer has recently given a wonderful review for my new novel A Jane Austen Daydream. Here is an excerpt:

An excellent concept and a great achievement, a must read for Austen fans open for a playful read and those who wish Austen had written more. This is like a little welcome encore for us fans.

I also agreed to be interviewed about the book and my writing. It was a very interesting interview with some fun and serious questions mixed in. This was my response to the question about how the idea of the book came to me:

It was in reading a biography on her that I realized how little her life actually mirrored her books. She did not have a Darcy waiting for her at home, and died far too young and only with her sister and mother for company. So at the heart of A Jane Austen Daydream is my hope to give Jane an adventure she might have wanted for herself… with a few post-modern twists to it. The big twist in the book (which I won’t ruin here) actually grew out of a joke I made once. I still can’t believe I had the guts to do it. But there you go, it’s out there now forever. Let’s see what happens.

You can read the complete review and interview on Christoph’s website here. I hope you will check it out. If you would like to learn more about A Jane Austen Daydream, you can do so on this page for the book (here). A Jane Austen Daydream is available via Amazon (here), where you can find it for the low price of $3.99 for eBook and $13.46 for print.
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