Today, on WKAR’s Current State I reviewed the new novel by popular writer Wally Lamb. It is called We Are Water. You can listen to my review online here:
http://wkar.org/post/book-review-wally-lambs-we-are-water
If you would rather read my book review, you can do so below.
We Are Water can be found on Amazon.com here. If you would like to hear/read more of my book reviews you can do so via my page for my Current State reviews here.
I hope you enjoy my new book review!
“For now, let me warn you of the morbid and sad tale ahead of you. This is a
tale filled with horror, dark passages, ghostly apparitions, and deaths I would
give my last shilling to forget.”
For a limited time (and just in time for holiday shopping and holiday travels), my novel MAXIMILIAN STANDFORTH AND THE CASE OF THE DANGEROUS DARE is on sale on Amazon!
The eBook version is only 99 cents and the print version is only $9.89! If you enjoyed my other books (like A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM) or are curious about my fiction or simply want to read something new, different, and unlike anything you will find… well… anywhere, this is for you!
Honestly, this is not a book for everyone and I adore it for all of its madness. It is the kind of book as a reader I would love to discover lost and dusty on a library shelf. My goal in it was to break down the idea of storytelling and see what remains in the ruins of it… with a lot of humor, romance, horror and mystery roped in as well.
You can find the novel on amazon here (http://amzn.com/B00CXSDEBE).
If you would be interested in kicking the tires first, there is an excerpt below and more via the page for the book on this site here. (more…)
When I sit down to write a book, my first goal is always to give my readers something new. So much of what you find on bookstore shelves can feel like a cookie-cutter recipe for a tale. Add a twist here, build to a love story here, sprinkle some comedy… That is not what you will find in one of my novels.
This Black Friday, and in your holiday shopping, consider one of my novels for your readers. You can find excerpts, reviews, interviews, and more information on each of the books via their pages on this site.
A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM
Available in print ($13.46) and eBook ($3.99) from Madison Street Publishing via Amazon.com here.
All her heroines find love in the end–but is there love waiting for Jane?
Jane Austen spends her days writing and matchmaking in the small countryside village of Steventon, until a ball at Godmersham Park propels her into a new world where she yearns for a romance of her own. But whether her heart will settle on a young lawyer, a clever Reverend, a wealthy childhood friend, or a mysterious stranger is anyone’s guess.
Written in the style of Jane herself, this novel ponders the question faced by many devoted readers over the years–did she ever find love? Weaving fact with fiction, it re-imagines her life, using her own stories to fill in the gaps left by history and showing that all of us–to a greater or lesser degree–are head over heels for Jane.
“I consider this novel one of the best not only in regency era literature, but also in mainstream fiction.” -NovelTravelist.com
MAXIMILIAN STANDFORTH AND THE CASE OF THE DANGEROUS DARE
Available in print ($9.71) and as an eBook ($3.99) via Amazon.com here.
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.
“Playing with traditional style and plot ingredients but introducing enough surprises and originality this book was great fun to read.” -Christoph Fischer Books
MY PROBLEM WITH DOORS
Available in print ($15.38) on Amazon.com here and as an eBook via Google Play ($9.99) here.
Jacob’s life changed in a single moment when, as a toddler, he walked through his bedroom door only to find himself in the office of a British officer in Capetown, 1870. This would begin a thirty-year journey which would take him from ancient to future civilizations, and innumerable places and times in between. Through all of his travels, Jacob seeks for the purpose of his predicament, the significance of his life with all of its joys and suffering, loneliness and impermanence.
“This is a most compelling book. It pulls you in to a fascinating concept from the beginning…. I give this book 5 stars.” -The Voracious Reader
MEGAN
Available in print ($15.51) on Amazon.com here and as an eBook via Google Play ($9.99) here.
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 upsidedown and shake her to the foundation. Can Megan turn disaster into deliverance?
“I am very impressed with how Mr. Southard has interwoven the two world’s of Megan. It is very artfully crafted with vivid descriptions. ” -S. M. Nystoriak, Writer’s Block
Today, I am back on WKAR’s Current State with a review of the new novel by Dave Eggers!
You can listen to my review of The Circle on WKAR’s website here:
http://wkar.org/post/book-review-dave-eggers-circle
If you would rather read my review, you can do so below after the jump.
The Circle by Dave Eggers is available on Amazon (in both hardcover and eBook) via this link or at any local bookstore. And you can check out any of my past radio appearances and book reviews on this page on my site.
I hope you enjoy my new review! (more…)
I am a little bit of a helpless romantic.
For those who read my novel A Jane Austen Daydream that is not at all surprising. And before I met my wife I thought of my writing as a gateway to the heart.
I was one of those fools that bought into the lie of the romantic novels and the romantic comedy films. You see this plot twist all the time! That grand gesture that makes a person reconsider another in a different light. Oh, it is a great idea in a story, but we all know, honestly, it goes against how people are wired in the real world.
Short stories with hidden messages (and not so hidden ones), books, and I still squirm to remember the poetry. I have admitted a lot of embarrassing stuff on this site, but this is one of those few memories I still want to crawl into a cave and live out my remaining days because of. Yup, just the hint of it makes me want to become a hermit.
I, Scott Southard, was the creator of bad love poems. And I have sent them, strategically left them around, and even mailed them once anonymously in the hope that it would make another stop and see me as hotter (as some kind of light rock classic kicks on in the background like in a bad movie). In the end it never worked… and, by the way, the recipient of the anonymous love poems didn’t even figure out they were from me until I said something! Ouch!
All those bad memories aside, there is something to be said for the importance of an audience. I’m not just talking about the readers all writers dream to have, I mean that more enigmatic dream of a reader. The one we hope will find our work, the one in the back of our mind that drives the creation forward. They demand the story. What many don’t realize is that dream reader can be a tool, and can help over many different steps in the creative process if used right. Just be sure to leave the poetry at home… (more…)
Today A Jane Austen Daydream was reviewed by the popular book site Laura’s Little Book Blog! Here is an excerpt from the review:
I instantly took [to] this novel, it is written extremely well and it was almost like Jane Austen herself had written it; it was written so adeptly to the period and I instantly fell in love with Jane’s character.
The author states from the beginning that this is a work of fiction and not a biography and I mean this in a nice way, but I instantly assumed it would be fictional and not biographical, although it would have been a very clever attempt by the author considering Jane Austen passed away nearly 200 years ago! So this is the authors imagining of what Jane Austen’s life would have been like and I easily could have believed this really was what Jane Austen was like.
You can read the rest of the review here.
A Jane Austen Daydream can be purchased in print ($13.46) or as an eBook for the outrageously low price of $3.99 for Kindle. You can find it on Amazon here (http://amzn.com/B00CH3HQUU). I hope you will enjoy it as well.
This week, my new novel A Jane Austen Daydream was reviewed in the recent issue of the Historical Novel Society! So very cool.
Here is an excerpt:
Novels are also little fun if predictable and in creating a story of Jane’s life, where the facts and incidents are already known, Scott Southard has managed to produce both an unexpected and unconventional story. A Jane Austen Daydream captures the warmth, laughter, folly, wisdom, and grief that must have been present in Jane’s family life and surroundings for her to have produced her novels. And in Southard’s novel dear Jane is given a much kinder end.
You can read the entire positive review here.
A Jane Austen Daydream can be purchased in print ($13.46) or as an eBook for the outrageously low price of $3.99 for Kindle. You can find it on Amazon here (http://amzn.com/B00CH3HQUU). I hope you will consider checking it out.
I have always been a book nerd.
A great example of what I mean is my first reaction to J.R.R Tolkien’s masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. I read the book that first time when I was around nine and while I loved it, my favorite moment was probably not the same as for other readers.
There is this wonderful chapter in the first book The Fellowship of the Rings called “The Bridge of Khazad-dum.” For those that don’t know or remember, this is the lowest point for the fellowship as they run to escape the dark of Moria, pursued by unspeakable evils. Yes, I worried about the heroes but really what made me sit up straight and take note was what Tolkien did in his writing and I had never seen anything like it before.
The orcs and goblins chasing our team were using drums but their drums were more than drums. They were speaking.
Doom, boom, doom, went the drums in the deep.
They are relentless, and obviously doing more than simply beating. They are screaming a warning, building to a crescendo over the course of the chapter until finally at the end Gandalf is lost and the drums then fade into the distance, leaving the fellowship and the readers all breathless.
But for me, I wasn’t breathless because of the action and the loss.
No…
I wanted to know how Tolkien did that.
I just found this great new review of A Jane Austen Daydream on Cindy Wade’s blog The Writer BackBlogger.
Here is an excerpt from it:
At times I felt as though Scott knew something everyone else didn’t. As if he had been there personally and was sharing her life with his readers.
I cannot remember when last a book evoked such strong emotions within. I laughed out loud and cried really hard and was shocked, excited, disgusted and sometimes perplexed.
I couldn’t put this novel down until the charming end after which I sat down with a cup of tea and started my very own daydream.
You can read the rest of the review here.
A Jane Austen Daydream can be purchased in print ($13.46) or as an eBook for the outrageously low price of $3.99 for Kindle.
“I consider this novel one of the best not only in regency era literature, but also in mainstream fiction.” -NovelTravelist.com
Need a book for this November? A future gift idea? Something new and different for those that feel they have read it all before?
A Jane Austen Daydream (published by Madison Street Publishing) is a book for the “Janeites” to the everyday reader. It reimagines a new adventure for Jane, something she might’ve wanted but never got… with a very surprising and daring new twist.
“…Lovely, thought-provoking novel. Fans of Austen will adore this book.” – Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List.
You can discover about this fun book via links on this site!
“…quick paced novel unlike any you can ever have read, which injects new ideas and possibilities into the world of Jane Austen.” -The Jane Austen Centre
A Jane Austen Daydream can be purchased in print ($13.46) or as an eBook for the outrageously low price of $3.99 for Kindle.
“A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM by Scott Southard, a fictionalized account of Jane’s life, is a book that should be placed on the shelf of every book-loving fan of Jane Austen because she’s absolutely “alive” on the pages of this book.” -Julie Valerie’s Book Blog
The Stories of Scott D. Southard 