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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
  • June 28, 2012

    Life’s After Thoughts

    I don’t believe in ghosts.

    I can say, for example, that someone died in my bedroom  (It is an old house) and I have yet to see any specter on a dark moonlit evening. No screeching screams demanding I leave the premises; nor have I felt even the slightest presence in the room. For my children, it is the refuge they go to after a bad dream or to seek comfort. There is nothing there to scare them away.

    One of my favorite stories about the “unknown” comes from my little brother when he was a kid. He and one of my young cousins got their hands on an Ouija board and decided to talk to demons. He came running up to me later declaring that they had spoken to Satan!

    I, being the arrogant teenager I was at the time, said something like, “Oh yeah? How did he spell his name?”

    My brother proudly replied, “S.A.T.I.N.”

    The Reason

    My grandfather, my last grandparent, passed away earlier this year (I wrote about writing his obituary here). To say my grandparents had an impact on my life is to put it mildly. Next to my parents, they were one of the most important influences on my life. They were my safety net and they caught me numerous times while growing up. (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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  • February 14, 2012

    This Writing Guy’s 9 Romantic Movie Recommendations

    I’ve always found romantic films, and especially romantic-comedies,  to be the weakest of the movie genres. It’s formulaic, it is ridiculous many times, and usually inconceivable that one character would actually be interested in the other (Because, let’s be honest, in every romantic film one of the leads is a jerk that doesn’t really deserve the attention of the other).

    When I first started writing screenplays, I really wanted to fix this genre; expose it for all its weaknesses. I created a serious romantic comedy, a silly romantic comedy, an experimental romantic comedy, and even a musical romantic comedy. Suffice to say, none of them got made, so they are now all enjoying a very nice home on a burned CD someplace in my house. Was it because I wanted to avoid all the formula gimmicks that they met their demise? For example, the chase at the end to prove the love, the annoying supporting characters (Don’t get me started on Love Actually and the mind-blowingly dumb storyline of the waiter that comes to America looking for love), etc. Who knows?

    Well, I could go on and on and speculate on why they are still around (Let’s all agree on a lack of dumb luck they are still only on paper), but instead here are my favorite films about love.

    There is not one Nora Ephron film listed… Not a one. Oh, and no reference to Titanic either (I mean, she seriously dropped him like a load of potatoes the second he died in the cold water, didn’t she?). (more…)

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