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The Stories of Scott D. Southard

  • In Jerry’s Corner
  • A Jane Austen Daydream
  • Permanent Spring Showers
  • Megan
  • Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare
  • The Dante 3
  • Me Stuff
  • Man Behind the Curtain
  • September 7, 2012

    “Starting School” post is up on Green Spot Blue (a quick update with the link as well)

    My article on my son starting school and my reaction to him growing up is being shared as well on the parenting/literary Web site Green Spot Blue. You can check it out here.

    Please take the time and check it out. Green Spot Blue is really a great site and has a lot to offer for hip and educated parents to read and enjoy. I’m really honored that they ask me to contribute to it from time to time.

    As a quick follow-up my son did great that first day, honestly, much better than me. He found his seat and started coloring right away. And while other parents and children were dealing with all of their own unique levels of drama (there actually was a line for the teaching assistant to give each child a hug that needed it after the departure of their parents), he just colored away.

    I could have left, but I didn’t right away. The gravity of this moment being strangely hard for me to let go of. Finally, when I realized I was one of the last, felt it was finally time. I gave him a hug, kissed the top of his head and told him how proud I was… and I am.

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  • September 6, 2012

    Indy this weekend…

    This weekend, Raiders of the Lost Ark opens for a limited run on IMAX… Now this is a movie I have seen over a dozen times in my life, but on a big screen like that it is tempting again.

    So very, very tempting.

    The trick is just working this out with the schedule. I have to take my son to a birthday party on Sunday (it is at a Martial Arts studio which with a bunch of five-year olds sounds like a disaster just waiting to happen), and there are groceries and the typical errands around the house. And that is not including the writing and editing I need to do around Chapter 8 of my book (I’m worried I might be getting behind, and it was so nice to be a week ahead). And, let’s be honest, with two very little kids you are putting a burden on the partner when you leave them with the kiddies while you do something selfish like this. But it is Indy… on IMAX…

    I hear the theme song everywhere I go… Okay, that might be because I have the new whip sound app on my iPhone. It’s freaking awesome!

    Scott D. Southard's avatarThe Stories of Scott D. Southard

    While my first real memory is seeing R2-D2 on the big screen, the first time I felt real fear in a movie theater belongs to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

    I was seven, and for some unexplained reason my relatives thought I was the perfect age for seeing the Temple of Doom on opening day, the first PG-13 movie. I chalk it up to a very selfish decision on their part personally; my parents were not thrilled that they did this by the way and complained to them later. As everyone on the planet knows, the Temple of Doom is a dark movie that only seems to get darker with each step it takes into those underground caverns.

    For most of the film, my seven-year old frame was on the edge of my seat, somewhere emotionally between terror and excitement; I wanted to see what would happen…

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  • September 5, 2012

    It’s time! The eBook version of MY PROBLEM WITH DOORS is available! (Links, samples, and a new introduction to the work is included in this post)

    The eBook for MY PROBLEM WITH DOORS is now available via Google eBooks for a mere $9.99. You can find it here.

    This version can work on any eBook reader from Kindle to your iPad or iPhone. 

    If you would rather have a paperback copy of the book, it is still available via amazon.com (here) for $15.95.

    There are a few samples from the work available out there if you would like to check it out first. You can find a sample from the work via the official Google eBook page for it (here) as well as a sample on my own website (here) of one of my favorite scenes in the work.

    If you have read the book and liked it, please consider sharing it with a friend. If you haven’t read it, I hope you will check out this unique and surprising novel. I am very proud of it. A new introduction to the creation of the work is included below. (more…)

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  • September 3, 2012

    Starting School

    “Can you believe our firstborn is starting school?” My wife asked me this question a few days ago, her eyes going wide as she said it, and it ridiculously enough took me completely by surprise.

    My son is about to start Begindergarten, which is a cute way of saying an “Early Fives” class. He is going to attend it in an elementary and he will be there all day just like all of the bigger kids, using their same cafeteria and their playground (not at the same time, of course). My wife and I were so focused on getting him into the right school in our area for the last eight months that I didn’t realize until recently how much this change meant for all of us in our little family and for him.

    This was about to be something new…

    In preparation of this first day over the weekend we drove him to his new school and allowed him to play in the playground for about an hour. While he loved playing in the playground (trying everything he could), I kept noticing things, my parental eye kicking in.

    • Who was it that left these empty beer cans here on the playset? Will these people who would drink at a kids’ playground be around the school? Heaven forbid, or will they actually be attending?
    • Why are there so many weeds?
    • And are those soccer nets going to be fixed?
    • Is that rust?

    Yes, while this playground is better than anything I had growing up (and this is a great school district), I still was catching everything I possibly could. This could be a super power of mine. A lame super power, but still a power. You can call me “Protective Dad.” And I am here to shake my head and wag my finger at others! Irresponsible people of the world be warned! Protective Dad is among you now! (more…)

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  • September 3, 2012

    Reposting Political Article

    I’ve been dying to write about politics this entire year, but since I just started this site really this year, I wanted to avoid the controversial stuff. This early article, where I compared the election to a story and why that is important in our American worldview (actually, even though some of this is dated I still believe much of it), is one of the few times when I had no choice and gave in. And, to be honest, I still stand by a lot of what I say in this post and believe the result will still be in Obama’s favor.

    Here are other things I have considered:

    • I wanted to write about truth and how it really, really bothers me that people could justify changing the truth for the sake of the result and how others can go along with that untruth fully knowing that it is a lie. Without truth, what do we have?
    • I even started work on a comedic piece about why I think conventions are usually structured like a bad high school award night. (It’s why I was inspired to reblog this post for those curious.)
    • I even had to fight myself from at one point comparing Romney—and the fact he has run away from his past and old beliefs (pro-health care mandate, pro-choice, supporting gay rights, believing in global warming, etc.) to achieve his goal—to a Greek tragedy. Think about it: when you abandon everything you have done in the past and changed all of your beliefs for the sake of a victory, who are you in the end since you are no longer yourself…. See classic Greek tragedy. God, it could be one heck of a play! You would just need someone next to him telling him that he is making a mistake (probably the narrator of the play, maybe the character can be one of his sons?) and he would have to abandon that person… and after he loses that one person comes back to remind him that it is gone, and no one (including himself) knows who he is anymore.

    Who knows? Before November they might appear on the site. For the time being, they are on my list of possible future topics.

    Scott D. Southard's avatarThe Stories of Scott D. Southard

    As children we are raised to think of our history as a story.

    I’m not sure when this way of teaching American history began, but it was definitely prevalent throughout my education. Textbooks would present events, not as simple linear moments but as stories with beginnings, middles, and endings; each with their own book or chapter.

    Consider, for example, how we look at the Civil War: The Civil War has a beginning with the election of Lincoln and Fort Sumter; a middle with Gettysburg; and an ending with Lincoln’s assassination. Everything else that occurs is seen in the context of that storyline. You can do this same trick with other wars and major events and you will see how it has affected your view on history as well. We all do it, we were taught to do this; we probably just didn’t realize it at the time that is what…

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  • August 29, 2012

    Falling Out of Step: A High School Marching Band Farewell

    Last night I had a dream that my yard and driveway were taken over by a marching band. I can’t explain how it happened and why they chose my little house to park in front of and warm up their instruments by but there they were and they were everywhere; the sounds of the horns and percussion seemed to engulf every room.

    I went to my front porch, now fully aware that I was in a dream, and watched transfixed as these high schoolers acted as if it was perfectly natural for the drum line to practice by my tree, the saxophones to tune each other on my sidewalk, the flutes to gossip while sitting on the edge of my porch, their feet dangling and kicking over the precipice. Even the color guard was there, stretching and practicing their throws and catches on the street in block formation.

    In the dream I walked through the crowd of kids, feeling very much the adult, and found a surprised parent, I’m not certain why she was surprised, she just was. I asked what school is this? Why are they here? She didn’t answer my question, only asking a little hesitantly if it was okay.

    I smiled and said it was great. And then I woke up. (more…)

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  • August 27, 2012

    MEGAN is now available as an eBook! (Only $9.99). The link to purchase, samples, and a new introduction in this post…

    I am proud to announce that my novel MEGAN is now available as an eBook!

    It is being sold via Google Books for only $9.99 and it can be used on any eBook reader (Kindle, etc.) or iPad or iPhone. Here is the link to my novel, MEGAN.

    I hope you will check it out and share it with your friends.

    If you would like a sample of the work first, they are available as well via Google Books, or you can find a previous sample I have shared on my site here.

    If you would rather not deal with an eBook, it is, of course, still available via amazon. You can find the paperback here for $15.95.

    Here is the amazon description of the book: Megan Wane is caught in a life of dull dreariness. She goes to work in a dead end job with a boss she can’t stand, and comes home to a silent apartment with only a standoffish cat for company. She can only get away through her imagination. And there, in her thoughts, there exists a fairy-tale kingdom with wizards and dragons. A place called Prosperity, where she is both a princess and a hero. On this day, both Megan’s external reality and her interior world will suffer tragedy that will turn her life upside down and shake her to the foundation. Can Megan turn disaster into deliverance?

    Below is a new introduction to the book and my experience writing it.

    I hope you will check out the eBook of my novel, MEGAN. I am really proud of the book and I think you will like it as well. (more…)

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  • August 22, 2012

    My Online Literary Experiment: Passing the 20% Mark

    Updates, updates, who wants an update?

    Calling From the Future…

    So somehow, without my realizing it, I got a chapter ahead.

    I know, I know this sounds impossible but it really did happen and I didn’t plan it in the least. It was all a nice little surprise or present or whatever you want to call it.

    See, one of my goals in creating the book was to force my creativity to keep up to the demands I had put upon it. Put myself to the test, as it were. So the table of contents I created before I did the first chapter were done on a whim after a quick glance at the screenplay plot which is interestingly disappearing as the book charges forward, more on that in a bit.

    Anyway, I wrote this really long chapter with two major points of action happening, it was only when I was about to share the chapter online that I realized I had made a mistake. Chapter 4 is the first part of that initial draft of the chapter, The second half was supposed to be a bulk of Chapter 5! So because of that little glitch in the Scott brain, Chapter 5 and 6 are almost done and Chapter 5 is scheduled for this Friday. (more…)

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  • August 21, 2012

    My Solo Dad Tricks

    I’m on solo dad time for the next few days.

    This is not a big deal really, I keep an eye on my two little kids without the wife around all the time, but I do admit my son has been known to call the evenings when it is just the three of us (and the mom is away) “silly nights.”

    Yup, silly nights.

    That is the dad I am in many ways. You could call me the “prop comic” of fathers, always coming up with new games and new ways to play with toys. I think I average about two to three a day, but don’t expect me to remember any. I usually forget them the minute after we have moved on to the next activity.

    I’m not the kind of parent who feels comfortable with the television and movies for helping pass the time. I don’t want that crutch. I want the parental interaction, but after eight hours I can get… well, silly.

    Pesonally, I don’t know how teachers and at-home parents do it. I would go a little stir crazy if I couldn’t find things to challenge myself mentally with during the day. I love being a dad, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about my super kids; this is all about me and it is true in most things I do. I always need my mind to be working to be happy. Anyway, I have three fallbacks I pull out if I need to keep my mind in the game. (more…)

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  • August 20, 2012

    My Wife Hates Steely Dan

    So often when you speak to married couples you hear of the sacrifices that they have given for the sake of the marriage. Bad habits disappear, strange heirlooms from the past go into storage.

    Luckily, for me my wife really married me for who I was and didn’t expect me to change…

    Oh wait…

    She did want one thing.

    My wife hates the music of Steely Dan.

    “Reelin’ in the Years”

    I grew up on the music of Steely Dan. My dad loves this band, I can’t remember a time really when Countdown to Ecstasy or Pretzel Logic wasn’t playing while he was working in the lawn or around the house.

    Over a decade ago I actually got him tickets to see the band live. And when he injured his leg, I gave him copies of their entire discography to help pass the time. They have always been a go-to possibility around my dad and presents… Other than Steely Dan and the work of Kurt Vonnegut, he is difficult to shop for, to be honest. (more…)

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