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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
  • February 22, 2013

    402 Followers Proud! Thank You.

    Enjoying the momentLast night, I passed the 400 mark in followers for my blog.

    Wow! Seriously, I am really overwhelmed by this. Writing is such a lonely business, so to know that there are people out there that not only enjoy your work, but also like it enough to subscribe. Well, that is just breathtaking.

    Thank you! Your support truly inspires me.

    Other than my 402 followers, I recently passed 40,000 views on my site and my Twitter followers just exceeded 14,000. So 4 seems to be the theme for the day for me.

    (Oh, and did you know you can now subscribe to my site for your kindle? I kid you not! You can learn more on amazon here.)

    The next month is truly going to be a big one for me as a writer.

    • A Jane Austen Daydream is set for publication by Madison Street Publishing in April. It is in editing right now and I can’t wait for you to read it. If you would like to learn more about the work, read an excerpt and see the new cover, please visit The Jane Austen Centre’s website here.
    • Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare is also in editing, where I am working with the editor, Rebecca T. Dickson (you can visit her site and learn more about her services here). It is going very well. I don’t know the timeframe on this yet, but I do hope to have the book out some time in the spring.
    • Permanent Spring Showers, my last novel, is still currently up on this site here if you want to read it. However, once Max and Jane have left home, I plan to begin editing the book and it will be taken down. My hope is to find a publisher for it.

    So, along with this blog, this is a busy writing time. Hopefully, I can keep generating material that brings you back.

    Thank you again for all of your support!

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  • January 10, 2013

    Neat! You can now get my blog for your Kindle!

    KindleHey, do you have a Kindle? Do you enjoy this blog? Why not combine the two? It worked for peanut butter and chocolate!

    Okay, I have really got to work on my salesman routine. But what I am trying to say is that it is now possible to subscribe to this blog via amazon.com for your Kindle!

    Click here to visit the amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AYHC5WU

    If you subscribe, every time I have a new post up, your subscription on your Kindle will immediately update as well. In other words, you will be able to read my posts (editorials, reviews, etc.), my fiction (Permanent Spring Showers), and everything else on my site on your kindle whenever you want! No longer will you have to experience my site and writing on your computer screen… You can use a smaller Kindle screen! heeheehee…

    I hope you will consider subscribing for this service. And thank you for supporting (and reading) my site.

    Cheers!

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  • January 2, 2013

    What will you be reading in 2013?

    Happy 2013, my loyal and wonderful readers!

    Have you enjoyed my editorials on this site and my original fiction here, Permanent Spring Showers and Upon the Ground? As you plan your reading in 2013, why not check out one of my three available books? Below are their descriptions and some links on where you can find them. I hope you will consider checking them out (and did I mention how wonderfully affordable they all are as well?).

    My Problem With Doors

    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 while meeting pirates, poets, loves, and even Jack the Ripper.

    My Problem With Doors is available as a paperback (on amazon here), an eBook (on Google Play here) and even as a downloadable audiobook (here).

     Megan

    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?

    Megan is available as a paperback (on amazon here), an eBook (on Google Play here) and even as a downloadable audiobook (here).

    A Jane Austen Daydream

    A Jane Austen DaydreamJane Austen thought she knew everything about love, but was there something she wasn’t telling us? A self-confessed dreamer, gossip, and matchmaker, Jane emerges from a prophetic meeting with gypsies and sets out to discover her soul mate. As Jane writes through the twists and turns of her turbulent romances, Southard ponders the question faced by many devoted readers over the years – did she ever find love? What would the story of that love be like if Jane could write it? Binding fact with fiction, courting brace new literary twists, and written in the style of Jane Austen herself, A Jane Austen Daydream is the tale of Jane’s life as a novel. It contemplates the eventual fate of Jane’s heart, and uses her own stories to fill the gaps that history left to the imagination.

    A Jane Austen Daydream is available on all major sites in print and eBook including amazon.com (here).

    …and thanks for all of your support of my writing over the last year!

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  • December 31, 2012

    My Writing Resolutions, 2013

    SouthardThis 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. (more…)

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  • December 3, 2012

    My Five Favorite Posts, 2012

    Father TimeI know we are not at the end of the year yet but I couldn’t wait. Yes, I am the kid on Christmas Eve wanting to open all of the presents early. And. let’s be honest, every blogger or writing site is going to be a doing a post like this. Why not be ahead of the curve?

    So that’s me- Mr. Ahead of the Curve.

    Before I get to my favorite posts, let me begin by saying how much I got a kick out of running this site this year. As a writer it has been very satisfying. Over the course of one year, I went from zero followers to 213 with over 25000 views this year alone. That is pretty awesome in my book, and just as satisfying this blog gave something back to me as a writer.

    • I was able to share fiction; things I have cared about that have been collecting dust around my house (and in my brain). The Dante Experience radio series is once again available to listen to, along with the unproduced scripts of the sequel.
    • A new collection of short stories, Upon The Ground, was shared on Green Spot Blue.
    • And I am writing a new book, Permanent Spring Showers, right here live for all to follow along… and many do!

    A lot of what drives me and this site right now are you the readers. I know people say things like that all the time, but I am being very honest. You have no idea how powerful a like and a comment can be in spurring me forward, inspiring me. I might have abandoned this months ago if it wasn’t for the numbers and the responses. So this year, I am the most thankful for you the readers.

    Thank you.

    Here is my list of my favorite posts in no certain order… (more…)

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  • November 28, 2012

    My Online Literary Experiment: Okay, Am I Stupid?

    Deep breath…

    So a few weeks ago I got called out by a writer/editor/publishing professional on Twitter questioning my goals and my thoughts behind this experiment of mine, Permanent Spring Showers. My little book inspired by Dickens.

    Twitter, in its limited word span, can make things seem harsher than the writer may actually have meant it to sound (I did feel like he was condescending) but it threw me a curve.

    Was I jarred? Yeah, I was jarred. I still am jarred.

    I also like the word “jarred,” but let’s continue.

    Basically, his argument was broken down into this point:

    What publisher would publish or consider a book that people were getting for free?

    Before other bloggers and writers take to my twitter site (@sdsouthard) to find the guy and twitter attack, let me say that about two-years ago I would have agreed with him. Yeah, I was in that camp then because I was trained in writing grad school to think of the publishing world in that black-and-white way. Heck, every book on writing and publishing would agree with him!

    But the fact is that while this argument once made sense to me, it is not that way today. The world has changed, I have changed. (more…)

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  • October 22, 2012

    The Art of the Blog: Getting Personal

    Blogs are always started with the best intention. A writer feels they have something to share, something that could enrich a reader out there in the stratosphere of the internet.

    The funny thing is you see this a lot around the newly published, both self-published and professionally published. Did I say “a lot” in that last sentence? Good, because I meant to say “a lot.” And usually on these newly minted blogs there will be a few posts about their book, their experience writing it, and a few helpful suggestions and then… nothing. The internet is littered with the remains of these kinds of websites, something akin to a field after a rock concert. The party is done, but no one bothered to clean up the mess from the show.

    Frankly, what the beginning blogger doesn’t realize is that it takes guts and stamina to write a true blog and to build a readership for it. A blog is more than a marketing tool, it is a new writing platform (and in my opinion could become its own powerful writing medium right alongside writing for plays, books, television, etc.), and if you don’t see it as such, you won’t be able to use it to its full potential. Yes, you can fill it up with advice and your opinion, but for people to come back again and again, there has to be something in your blog that is not available anywhere else on the internet…

    I’m talking about you, by the way.

    (more…)

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  • September 20, 2012

    Happy Snoopy Dance! 100 Blog followers and 1000 Twitter followers!

    Just a quick blog post to thank everyone for supporting my writing. It is really appreciative. and I have not stopped smiling all day.

    When I began this blog, I hoped that my writing might find an audience, but honestly and selfishly, I was doing it to revive my own writing voice. (I’ve written a few times about this, so I won’t bore you with it here since you might know the tale, but you can check out this post for more info on my dramatic initial thoughts around the site). Yet, now here we are; nine months and almost 15,000 views later.

    For the new readers and followers, feel free to look around, kick the tires, see what you like. I have some fiction (finished and new), short stories, and even some radio comedy. All for your pleasure.

    I hope you enjoy my writing as much as I enjoy creating it. Thanks again!

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  • September 20, 2012

    My Online Literary Experiment: Literary Dating Regrets

    I can never look back as a writer. It’s not in my literary makeup.

    I don’t end a book when I am writing, I divorce it. Yes, I have a literary breakup. “I’m sorry, it was a great run, and I really enjoyed our time together. I will always cherish it, but I need to move on.”

    Dating, in my opinion, is a great way to describe the writing of a book. There is the initial first crush, the hint of interest that drives the beginning; the first date, learning about each other; and there is even that moment of pure writing ecstasy when things all come together in a magical union of bliss…. Yes, I just compared writing to sex, let’s move on before all of us feel more uncomfortable.

    And also, sometimes like in dating,  things don’t work out and you realize after the “first date” or “second date” that you and the book are just two different and won’t “mesh” well.

    Taking it a step further, if I didn’t wipe my hands of even a completed work, and walk away, I would be forever working on a novel, rewriting passages, rethinking plots. I have never experienced the “Ah ha! Eureka! It’s done moment” and I probably won’t. It’s not in my literary makeup as well. So, for me as a writer, I simply need to know when to say when. This part of my writing brain is one of the reasons I cannot go back and read my old work easily. (more…)

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  • September 11, 2012

    Greetings, My 97 Followers! Come In & Say Hi!

    One of the wonderful surprises I never considered before starting this blog up in January was the collecting of followers.

    (For those that are not in the know, you can become a follower of a site/blog like this by adding your e-mail into the box on the left above the “Good Reads” option, and below the “other Sites of Interest.” You will get an e-mail each time an article is posted, or if you are a member of WordPress you can catch up on the blogs you follow via your own main WordPress login page.)

    Since January, I have collected 97 followers, and it is… okay this may sound like an everyday adjective but truly I mean it when I say it is “awesome.”

    So why is this so much fun for me, my followers? Because frankly how diverse all of you are and how cool and passionate each of you are about your own interests.

    I check out my followers’ sites from time to time and I have everything from musicians to dancers to photographers to writers (fiction to nonfiction) to fellow hip parents to even one person who is checking off the points on her bucket list.

    Yes, when I have free time, I occasionally visit each of your sites, wondering what is going on, happy to know that this person enjoys my writing. You guys help the old ego in a major way!

    Anyway, to celebrate the fact I am almost at 100, I thought it might be fun to have a post like this… Consider it a cyber “meet and greet.”

    Let’s do it like this:  In the comments section below, if you want, leave a comment and description about your own site (if you have one), introduce yourself to the other followers and readers (who knows? other followers might join your site as well). Share with us your dream for your own site. I would love to hear from you.

    And thanks, of course, for following my site and writing! Cheers!

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