The Stories of Scott D. Southard

April 30, 2013

A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is out! My new book available on amazon.com!
I am proud to announce that my latest novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is now available for purchase from Madison Street Publishing! Exclusively through amazon.com, it is available in both print and eBook. Here are the links (and the prices) where you can find it in the USA, the United Kingdom, and Canada. (Of course, it can be found anywhere there is an amazon.)

In the United States:
- In print for $14.95- http://amzn.com/0983671923
- In eBook for $3.99- http://amzn.com/B00CH3HQUU
In the United Kingdom:
- In print for £8.96- http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0983671923
- In eBook for £2.70- http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CH3HQUU
In Canada:
- In print for CDN$ 10.71- http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0983671923
- In eBook for CDN$ 4.10- http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00CH3HQUU
For those that follow my blog and enjoy my writing, can I ask a favor? I would love for this book to have a strong opening week. Let’s surprise people! Please consider checking it out and maybe also telling your friends and family to do the same. Tweet, share on Facebook, Good Reads, e-mail, post on blog, pin on Pinterest, book club, etc., every little bit can help. I like to believe there is something for everyone in this book, even those that do not know anything about Miss Austen and her stories.

You can learn more about this surprising, funny, touching, and experimental book via the A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM page 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 hope you enjoy my new novel!
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April 29, 2013

Austen in Stealth: Introducing My New Novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM
A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is published by Madison Street Publishing and can be purchased in print and as an eBook for only $3.99 via amazon.com here.

–

My wife doesn’t like to buy me presents.

This is not an anti-love or an anti-affection thing. No, not at all. This is because I am the King of Presents. Seriously, I could teach classes on the subject. I remember conversations, take notes, and buy things early when inspiration hits. And birthdays and Christmases, because of my mad skills, are filled with tears and exclamations of “How did you know?” or “How did you remember that?”

How did I remember that? I’m the King of Presents, that is how I remembered!

The fact is when it comes to receiving gifts, I try to make it easy for people. This goes back to a mistake by “Santa” when I was in fourth grade. I wanted a CD player, and by mistake the old man in red got me a tape deck. Since then, I keep a gift list up to date with ideas (which I forward to family members, including my wife, before every holiday) and I even highlight the stuff that means more to me that year (last year it was the new Indiana Jones blu-ray set). Yes, I go away happy with every holiday, but there are no tears, no surprises, and the exclamation is usually a nice “Thank you.”

It is one of the sacrifices of being the king.

(more…)
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April 26, 2013

NovelTravelist.com is sharing “Visiting Austen”
My article “Visiting Austen” is being shared today on the NovelTravelist.com. In the article, I share how a visit to the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton led to a breakthrough for me in understanding Jane and how I would write her in my novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM. You can read the piece here.

The Novel Travelist is a fun site for those that love experiencing the world and the impact it can have on one’s perception and fiction writing.

A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM will be released exclusively through amazon.com on April 30. It will be available in print for $14.95 and $3.99 as an eBook. You can learn more about the book via the A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM page as well as other articles around the book on it. I hope you like the article (and the book too).
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April 25, 2013

My Time Lost in Books…
Like I said in my post “The Five Books That Made Me” I can get pretty sentimental about books and my history in reading when one of my novels is about to be released.

It’s like a kid going off to college! Packing the bags could be working with the editor, the drive there could be finalizing everything with the publisher, and dropping them off is the big goodbye. So that’s me this week, the parent trying to hide the tears.

Okay, I’m a little surprised this analogy is working…. What would that make the aftermath of the publishing? No idea there, but the grades are reviews, right? Perfect. Hopefully, my book won’t party too much.

A Jane Austen Daydream is set for release on April 30 exclusively via amazon.com, ending a project of years in the making. I could not be happier with the novel and I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks of it. Until then I am going to continue to enjoy my sentimentality. Care to join me? Here are ten of my favorite posts on my site around books:
Only a few days left!
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April 24, 2013

My new book A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is almost here! Only a few days left on the book giveaway!
On April 30, next Tuesday, my new novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM will be released!

It will be sold exclusively via amazon.com in both print and eBook. The price for the print version will be $14.99 but the eBook will be only $3.99. (Links will be suplied later.)

Also, there are only a few days left on the book giveaway for the novel on GoodReads.com (a really fun site for readers). Two lucky readers will win a free copy of my new novel! I hope you will consider entering, you can do so here.

To prepare for the release of the book and introduce the work to readers I’m writing a series of articles on this site around the creation and inspiration for this experimental, fun, and surprising novel. So far I have written two. They are “Braving Austen” and “Visiting Austen.” I hope you will check them out.

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.

The countdown is almost over!
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April 23, 2013

The Five Books That Made Me
Our lives are filled with landmarks. And just like the sites that dot our landscape, these moments dot our lives, creating the definition of who we are. For me, I can see them like a map spread out in front of me from movies to TV shows to experiences to relationships to plays to books… oh… a lot of books.

I was the kid who would come home with a pile of library books each weekend, who later would take his bike out to only ride to libraries, having three in my vicinity to choose from with a separate card for each. If I could have had a collection of cards with aliases I would have done it. See, I would lose summer days just wandering through the aisles like visiting old friends, allowing my fingers to grace along the covers as I walked past, secretly hoping that a book would reach out and grab me.

I always get a little sentimental when a book is released (A Jane Austen Daydream). I can’t help it. This is a new kind of landmark; I’m adding to my own landscape now. And if I am lucky my work might find its way on to another’s map. See, that is the thing for me. It’s not about money, it never was. It was always about the love of a good yarn, with surprises and new adventures.

When I look back at my life there are five books that stand out the most in inspiring me. This is not to say they are my favorites, or what I consider the greatest works; no, not at all.

They are just the ones that grabbed me just when I needed them to. (more…)
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April 22, 2013

Visiting Austen: Introducing My New Novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM
A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is published by Madison Street Publishing and can be purchased in print and as an eBook for only $3.99 via amazon.com here.

I went to England to find Jane Austen.

To be honest, I also went to find Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George Elliot, John Keats, William Shakespeare (or whoever wrote his plays), J.R.R. Tolkien, and Winnie-the-Pooh.

(Winnie-the-Pooh? Yeah, with some research, I figured out where the real 100-Acre Woods is located and spent a day wandering the fields, visiting Roo’s Sandy Place, sitting at the Enchanted Place, finding the north pole, playing poohstick on the actual poohstick bridge. As a kid who has fond memories growing up with A.A. Milne’s classic books, I was in children literature heaven. It is a magical and natural place, please don’t tell Disney!)

That was me at age 23, Scott the explorer, the new college grad, future “bestselling” author (in my mind), chasing down the legends, my heroes. I’m not sure what lofty goals I had, per se, in making the six-week solo trip to England. I mean, I wasn’t expecting any “haunting” encounters or secret treasures to discover, but it was a voyage I needed to take. I needed to escape the confines of my small West Michigan world, and chase down the locations that made my heroes… well… heroes. (more…)
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April 15, 2013

Two weeks left! What is A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM? A Book Giveaway.
On April 30 my new novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM will be released. It will be available from amazon in both print and eBook (I’ll share the links once they are up). At this time there is a book giveaway where two lucky winners will win a free copy of it on Good Reads. You can enter it by clicking here.

Also, over the remaining weeks, I’ll be writing posts on my experience around the book. The first post “Braving Austen” was released last week. You can read it here.

A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM stars Jane Austen, but this is a novel. Yes, it does have romance, but it is also a story about a writer finding their voice, creativity and inspiration. While I truly think the work has something special for fans of Austen (the Janeites and Austenites), if the book was only that… well… it wouldn’t be my book. In many ways, when I think of A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM, personally, I think of it as a love letter to literature, to books that we love and cherish. And because of that it includes many of the things I hold the most dear in reading- characters, surprises, wit, and something unique to experience. Unique?

More than unique, A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM has something very revolutionary in it. If you enjoy my posts, my fiction on this site, I hope you will check out the book. Trust me, I got something very new up my sleeve.

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.

Again, you can enter the competition by just visiting this page. The competition runs through April 29.
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April 11, 2013

Braving Austen: Introducing My New Novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM
A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is published by Madison Street Publishing and can be purchased in print and as an eBook for only $3.99. It is available for the Kindle, Nook, andKobo.

Jane Austen was one of my two Mount Everests.

The other Mount Everest in my adventures as a writer was Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Yes, I just said Hamlet.

See, I’ve always been obsessed with that play and even attempted over a summer to memorize every line of it (I discussed part of that experience in this comedy essay) and I always had a unique vision for the play (and how many of its famous soliquies could be reinterpreted on stage or on the screen). I decided to focus on a screenplay, and like a swimmer jumping into cold water, over the course of one week (one), I took my decade’s worth of notes, a torn paperback copy, and did it.

Yes, in my house and on my computer is sitting my screenplay adaptation of Hamlet. It is one of my lifetime dreams to see it made, but if it does is anyone’s guess. Whatever the case, I can look back on that mad week (with its large doses of caffeine, twenty hours of nonstop writing, and my mad acting out performance of it) as the literary equivalent of me standing on that snowy slope with flag in hand watching a new dawn.

Hamlet, yeah I did that.

But Austen? Whoa boy… That is when things get tricky. (more…)
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April 9, 2013

Writers, why does everything need to be a series?
Like a seed, a book idea begins small. So very small. Maybe it is a flash of an image, or maybe it is a question that needs to be answered. Whatever the case, it grows and grows until finally a novel emerges fully grown.

Yes, I consider writing and creating a very organic experience. And when I am done with a book, I’m happy to have one “tree.”

So I can’t help wondering why do so many writers today want to grow a forest?

–

Book One: By chance or fate the heroes meet

It was last year that I began really reaching out to other writers on Twitter. The thing that surprised me the most (besides the sheer number of all of us), is how many are focused on writing a series.

Paranormal, scifi, fantasy, mystery, thriller, horror, romance (the innocent to the definitely NOT innocent at all), historical fiction, adventure, etc., some are even a combination of genres; but whatever the case they are never a solo book. Traditionally published, indie published, to self-published, everyone seems to be on the series train.

Choo Choo! (more…)
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