Hello readers! (Wow, that sounded corny, sorry.) I am back on WKAR’s Current State with a new book review, this time reviewing The Quick by new novelist Lauren Owen.
You can listen to my book review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-lauren-owens-quick-wkar
You can also read my book review below.
The Quick can be found on Amazon here. If you would be interested in hearing/reading more of my NPR book reviews, you can do so via links on this page.
I hope you enjoy my new book review! (more…)
Today is the second day of the blog tour for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM!
A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is being spotlighted on the site I’d So Rather Be Reading. You can check it out here. In the entry you can read a summary, quotes and reviews of my novel.
Yesterday, A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM had a great new review on Bookish. AND You can also enter to win an eBook copy of the book! You can find the day one activities here. Check it out!
Published by Madison Street Publishing, 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 am back on WKAR’s Current State with a new book review, this time reviewing Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose.
You can listen to my book review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-francine-proses-lovers-chameleon-club-paris-1932-wkar
You can also read my book review below.
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 can be found on Amazon here. If you would be interested in hearing/reading more of my NPR book reviews, you can do so via links on this page.
I hope you enjoy my new book review! (more…)
From September 1 through 12, my novel A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM will be taking part in a blog tour sponsored by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour (more info here). There will be reviews, interviews, and even a giveaway. Here is the itinerary (with links):
On each of the days, I will share links and updates on the experience. I hope you will follow along (or maybe even read along)!
Published by Madison Street Publishing, 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 am back on WKAR’s Current State with a new book review, this time looking at the new novel by E.L. Doctorow, Andrew’s Brain.
You can listen to my book review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-andrews-brain-el-dotorow
You can also read my book review below.
Andrew’s Brain can be found on Amazon here. If you would be interested in hearing/reading more of my NPR book reviews, you can do so via links on this page.
I hope you enjoy my new book review!
Recently, author Kelly Hand asked me to take part in a “blog hop.” She had already included an entry (which you can read here). Thanks for thinking of me Kelly!
To be part of this shindig, I just need to answer the same questions as the other writers out there taking part in this hop. Cool! It’s like an international meet-and-greet for authors and readers. Everything but the little snack foods and punch bowl.
I hope you enjoy my entry below:
What are you working on?
Right now I am busy working on the editing of my novel Permanent Spring Showers, which is set for publication this October by 5 Prince Books. We are about halfway through the editing process now. I really love this book and I hope you will check it out when it is released.
One of the side projects I have going on is I am publishing a book collecting some of my personal posts from my blog “The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard.” (Yeah, the site you are on now.)That book is called Me Stuff. Should be a lot of fun (at least I hope so). I plan to have it out sometime before the end of the month. I try to write two to three things a week on this blog; it’s really amusing for me and great practice since I can write whatever I want on the site. There are no limitations. Hopefully, the fact that there is such freedom and possibility, readers will return to it from time to time to check out what is going on with me. For me, it always feels like it is evolving.
On the new fiction front I am kind of between a few things. I have a book called My Days as a Thief, which I consider the first part of a trilogy that I’ve been working on for almost a decade. The draft is done, I just got to get around to fine-tuning it. What is distracting that is this new novel idea I have. I’m writing it long hand which I think adds to the flavor of it, but will delay anyone seeing anything new from me for a bit. It kind of has a Douglas Adams, Wes Anderson, and Kurt Vonnegut vibe to it. I’m really having a lot of fun discovering it. (more…)
“Scott was a gift I gave my book. He led me on a wild and wonderful expedition, where I was expected to do all the work. By the end of journey, I had discovered that I was no longer satisfied with just scratching the surface. I trusted my guide as he pointed out danger zones and to places he thought I needed to explore further. I dug, and I dug and I dug…and lo and behold, there was my treasure. Right where I’d buried it. Hire this man, your book, will thank you for it.” -Terri Lee, terrileeauthor.com
One of the things I love to do from time to time is work as a freelance editor with authors. For me, editing is not just about finding those little mistakes (that is the easy bit), it is about finding the better book.
If you are a new writer and want an experienced eye to review your book, sadly you won’t get that through most editing services. They will focus mainly on grammar and then point you to their publishing services and charges. My goal is the same as yours, to make the best book possible. The kind of book that sweeps a reader off their feet and takes them someplace they were not expecting.
I contract my editing services through Rebecca T. Dickson (editor and founder of Write Raw and author of the book The Definitive Guide to Writing on Your Terms), you can find her and her writing services at her website here. If you would like to learn more about hiring my services or availability, you can reach her directly at beckster7219 (at) gmail (dot) com. And you can learn more about my editing, my writing and editing philosophy, and my experiences on my page for editing here.
I hope to work with you soon!
Permanent Spring Showers won’t be published until October 2014, but you can already learn about my new book (and read my bio) on their website.
Check it out here!
We live in a very fast world.
The days of quietly sitting and putting all your focus solely on the words in front of you are gone. Books are not even always on paper anymore! We might listen to music while we read, have conversations, text message, the TV might be on, etc. And then consider how we read things on the internet?
We are a pack of skimmers now. We skim articles, skim status updates, skim blogposts (Hello!), etc. Skim, skim, skim, SKIM! Yes, we might get the gist of what a writer is trying to say through that quick glance, and maybe that is enough, but we are just not consuming the words like we once did.
So, as storytellers, one of our new challenges is to fight to keep the attention on the page… or screen… or whatever.
We need to fight the distractions of television, movies, the internet, video games, and, well, life, getting our readers from page one to the last page with as few distracting hiccups as possible. Which brings me to my little controversial writing thought for the day…
Have we (readers and writers) outgrown “said”? (more…)
“Scott Southard’s Jane is a delightful creature.” -Austenprose.com
This February 14th and 15th A Jane Austen Daydream is available as a FREE eBook! You can find it on amazon.com here (http://amzn.com/B00CH3HQUU). Grab your copy now!
“…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
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.
A Jane Austen Daydream is published by Madison Street Publishing. You can learn more about the work, read reviews, and read excerpts via this page for the book.
“…Lovely, thought-provoking novel. Fans of Austen will adore this book.” – Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List
The Stories of Scott D. Southard 