The Stories of Scott D. Southard

May 31, 2012

Which Beatle am I? I have no idea anymore
I have always identified myself with The Beatles. There was something about their energy, their creativity, and their artistic exploration that called to me.

I know this is not a unique thing.

Almost everyone feels some kind of connection to the fab four, but for me, I would mark my time based on theirs or I would relate myself to at least one of them from time to time, thinking something like “Wow that is just like John,” even though I knew it was never really the case… but it just made everything feel a little more important.

When I was a young struggling writer, I saw myself as a young John Lennon. I wore a sailor cap like he did all the time and wrote comic short stories. Yes, I connected to this early John in a major way. I even dressed as him for Halloween once with the sailor cap just so over my bangs… strangely (thanks probably to my blonde hair) most thought I was the Dutch Boy from the paint cans as compared to the young rock god. (more…)
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May 30, 2012

Time to Share! Some Southard Samples
Today, I thought I would link to some samples I have shared from some of my novels in the past. Think of this as something like Show and Tell, but it is my turn and no one gets a turn but me… Oh, and everyone has to listen and applaud at the end with a hint of jealousy… oh yes, and run out and buy all my books and love me.

Okay, maybe not all that, but you get the gist.

I have two novels currently in print. They were both honored in a novel-writing competition before being selected for publication by a new indie press. They are Megan and My Problem With Doors. I am really proud of both books.

Megan is the story of Megan Wane. Megan lives in two different worlds. In the real world, she is a very bored office worker, frustrated by the direction her life has taken and dealing with a micro-managing boss. In her fantasy world though, Megan is a princess superhero, The Great Defender.

In this excerpt (here), Megan deals with a very “bureaucratic” dragon. You can find my book on amazon.com here.

My Problem With Doors is the story of Jacob who has been stuck time traveling ever since he was a toddler. His “problem” is a unique one; doors do not work for him as they do for us, and when he enters one he never knows what he will meet on the other side.

In this excerpt (here) from the novel, Jacob has dinner with Jack the Ripper. You can find the book on amazon.com here.

A lot of my work over this year has been trying to find a home for A Jane Austen Daydream, my most current novel. Last year, it was selected to be shared online by greenspotblue.com. (Those links to the chapters from the book can still be found on the A Jane Austen Daydream page.) My hope is to find an agent for the work and then get it published. So if you are an agent or publisher reading this… ah… hi...

A Jane Austen Daydream is not a biography, it is not even close to being one. In the book, I am “retelling” Jane’s life as if she was one of the characters in her novel, giving her the love story she deserved and never had.

This selection (here) is chapter two from the first part of the work.

Thanks for reading! And please, if you like what you read, share the work on your page or share with your friends or buy the books or visit the Austen page or tell your aunt who is an agent about me or send me cookies… I like cookies. Who doesn’t?
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May 29, 2012

Final Fantasy XIII-2: Why, Why, Why???
Some are haunted by ghosts, others by regret or the past… Me? Well, I am haunted by a video game.

Last week, I finished every bit of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Typically, I don’t play a game for full 100% completion, but this one I did… and I am haunted by it. It has entered my dreams, right there with that embarrassing situation in third grade I don’t want to discuss here.

Final Fantasy games are some of my favorite video games out there. Not because of the role-playing aspect (there is nothing new about roleplaying), no, for me it all about the story. And Final Fantasy, when it is at its best is a torchbearer for Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey (If you don’t know what I mean, I recommend you check out some of his books, here is one, they map out how all great stories and characters follow a “hero” journey and the stages of them. These stages also relate to our own lives when they are lived to their full potential. For my fellow nerds, this is also what inspired Star Wars… No, the good first one). We grow with the characters, we experience their struggles, their realizations, and when the endings come (after hours and hours and hours of play) they can be emotional.

Yeah, they make me cry, so what? (more…)
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May 29, 2012

Upon The Ground: Full Of Her
The next short story from my collection Upon The Ground is up at greenspotblue.com This short story is called “Full of Her” and can be found here.

Here is a snippet from the beginning:

–

“Full of Her”

She was going to do it again.

He could read it in her eyes. He could read it in her hands as they moved awkwardly with the knife and fork at the table. God, he could read it in the air, her presence before she even walked up to the table. Before she sat down across from him and looked up at him with her eyes, he knew. Everything else was just waiting for the inevitable

She was going to do it again and the only question running through his mind was what approach would it be this time.

She put her fork back down on the table and looked up at him. “Joey,” she sighed. “You’re my best friend…”

It was approach number 12 again.

–

You can read the rest of the story here. I’ve also put up links to all of the other stories via the Upon The Ground page on this site. Thanks for reading!
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May 25, 2012

Episode Eight: Time Out Of Mind
Episode 8 of

Time Out Of Mind,

The Sequel to

The Dante Experience

“Dinner With the Folks”

OPENING CREDITS

Scene 1

SOUND: Of heaven and a computer typing.

MICHAEL: Ok, I have some bad news…

SOUND: Of computer stops typing.

MICHAEL: I’ve been searching for three hours now and I can’t find our group of heroes. Ever since Adam threw that rock and hit the time machine, our team has been lost in time… They could be anywhere.

KELLII: Can we play another game now?

REPAIR ANGEL: I have Stratego.

KELLII: Yeah, get that one. Anything better than Monopoly. Monopoly just doesn’t work for two people.

MICHAEL: Can you two please leave?

KELLII: I want to wait and see what happens next?

MICHAEL: What happens next? I’ll tell you what happens next! Your father shows up and kicks my…

REPAIR ANGEL: Hey, let’s watch the language.

KELLII: So he is a little protective.

MICHAEL: He threatened me for just taking you on a date!

KELLII: See, protective.

REPAIR ANGEL: Wait until he sees the website you created. (more…)
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May 24, 2012

Star Wars: One Fan’s Remembrances
Today, Stars Wars (or as some like to say A New Hope), turns 35… which means officially I am old.

To celebrate this cultural milestone (and personal success for seeing this day. Woohoo! Survival!), I thought I would share excerpts and links from two editorials I wrote about Star Wars over the last few months.

The first one was my reaction to the blu-ray release of the series. To say, I was a little annoyed that the original trilogy without Lucas’ changes is not included is put it mildly (Han shoots first!). Still I decided to share my own personal memories around each of the films. It is called “Goodbye to a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” It can be found on GreenSpotBlue.com here. Here is the beginning:

Soon the Complete Star Wars Saga will be hitting on blu-ray, and for a member of Generation X, it can’t help but make me stop and take pause over this creation and its influence. For my generation, this is our Beatles, this is our man on the moon, this is our disco. We wear the t-shirts, we recite the lines at random times: (more…)
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May 23, 2012

Some Writing Advice: Leave Home
We writers are isolationists, introverts. How else do you explain the fact we spend our time alone creating friends and worlds? We are not made for the outside; we’ll rather stay inside, thank you very much.

When I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, as much as I cared about the degree, I was more interested in something else. See, ever since I could remember I had been planning a trip to Europe. It was always my dream to be that young traveler/writer by himself going through Europe, with nothing but a notepad and a few paperbacks in a bag. I saw myself sitting under trees in the Lake District, opening my soul to the romantic poets, or wandering the halls of Charles Dickens’ home hoping for a message from beyond. I even sometimes thought about smoking a pipe (I didn’t, but wouldn’t it look cool?)

What I actually experienced though really was not at all what I expected. Oh, the traveler in my kicked in after a bit, but the rude awakening of being thrown out of my “universe,” my norm; well, I had to adjust for that first in a major way.

There were no little safe places to go, like I could when I wanted to write or just read at home; here everything was new and different (as well as the people around) and for an introvert it can make one’s hair stand on the back of one’s neck… permanently.

Still, I know that this experience made me a better writer. I look at what I did before I went on that six-week trip and what I did later and I see a more imaginative, more creative, more introspective, and more worldly writer.

So fellow writers, here is why, I think, you need to break out… Yes, I am telling you to step away from the keyboard and the soft couch. (Don’t worry they’ll be there when you get back.). Here are just three reason why: (more…)
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May 22, 2012

Upon The Ground: A Children’s Nightmare
The next story from my collection Upon The Ground is available via GreenSpotBlue.com. It is called “A Children’s Nightmare” and you can read the story here.

Here is a sample from the beginning:

–

“A Children’s Nightmare”

The children could have spent all day looking at that tombstone. It was the most foreboding piece of marble in the cemetery. But for the children, the size of that tombstone brought along pictures of giants and monsters. And the fact that it said “Better Dead Than Alive” under the name “Jake Hawkins,” couldn’t help but make them think that it was good he was dead. Did he terrorize a village with his footsteps? Did he steal maidens from their wedding days? Did he eat people? Whatever he did in life, there was a celebration in his death.

It might have been that problem that confused Lisa the most. For Lisa did understand death. She understood the concept at least. Her Grandmother still tells the story of Lisa when she was three and they were at the park across the street from Matt’s house. Lisa was playing on the swings and her Grandmother was talking with her Grandfather about who they knew buried in the other graveyard beyond the playground.

Now her Grandfather grew up in a strong religious background and from time to time he would try to convince people of that fact. Especially in his old age he seemed to go back to those studies as a form of support for the coming end. It also seemed to give possibility (when he truly allowed himself to believe) for a hope, feeling and moment of happiness for the people gone.

But her Grandmother was exactly the opposite of her Grandfather. She was an atheist of the strongest kind (actually she had an opinion about everything and every opinion of hers was strong). Her husband and she would spend days arguing about things like a game perfected over the decades of holding hands in their little time.

–

You can read the rest of the story here. Links for the previous short stories can be found on the Upon The Ground page. Thanks for reading!
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May 21, 2012

Why Dan Harmon Being Fired From Community Really, Really Bothers Me
I am a fan of Community. Let’s get that out of the way first, so I can wave my bias flag freely while trying to make one or two incredibly important points (And a few minor little tidbits)… Hell, this is a rant, really.

Community is one of the few shows on TV that can make me laugh out loud… actually, let me correct that- it is one of the few things anywhere that can make me laugh out loud at all. It surprises me, it can be unpredictable, and I cannot think of anything else like it on TV today. And for that point alone, it is refreshing and a highlight of my week.

To catch up, for those that don’t know, the creator of the series was pretty much fired from the show on Friday night, the day after the season finale. Oh, the people in power said he would still consult; but Dan Harmon, the creator, doesn’t see it that way, and vocally shared with the masses his experience being ousted (you can read his post here).

The funny thing is a lot of what I was seeing TV bloggers and the like write about the incident over this weekend (and I read them like drinking water, since I wanted someone to say what I was thinking, which they didn’t) was not about how Harmon was treated and what it says about the culture around writing and creating for TV, but more of a “Gee, will the show seem different with his departure?”

Yes, the show will be different!

What a stupid thing to ponder. (more…)
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May 18, 2012

Episode Seven: Time Out Of Mind
Episode 7 of

Time Out Of Mind,

The Sequel to

The Dante Experience

“In the Garden of Eden”

OPENING CREDITS

Scene 1

SOUND: Of Heaven.

MICHAEL: The trick is not to panic.

REPAIR ANGEL: You’ve been saying that for twenty minutes.

MICHAEL: Just remember that, your great glorious one. Remember that. Here you might need this brown paper bag. I find breathing into it can be soothing. Are you ready? The three remaining dragons have arrived in the Garden of Eden and they have found Adam and Eve.

REPAIR ANGEL: This is exciting stuff! (more…)
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