The Stories of Scott D. Southard

February 5, 2013

A Writing Update: I Don’t Like Roller Coasters
I don’t like roller coasters.

I never have, and the few times I have dared ride one, I stiffen up, feeling all of my muscles tighten and lock in place from my toes to my face. I’ve even been known to get kinks in my neck from the experience that can last for hours afterwards. Yes, I suffer from a good roller coaster. You may scream in joy, I’m the guy in the back with the gritted teeth screaming in terror like a child in a haunted house.

The only roller coasters I have been known to enjoy are not considered intense in anyone’s book. For example, I like the ones at Disneyland (Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, etc.) and I think part of the reason I like those is because I have something to look at, as compared to the ground rushing towards me, preparing to swallow me up into the black of death’s eternal oblivion.

Well, last week for me and my writing was a roller coaster. In a matter of a week (and just a week), I had my old publisher close up shop, got a termination letter, received my last check, and watched my beloved novel disappear from amazon… AND in that same week- I got a great new publisher for it and decided to try something new with one of my other books! So on the roller coaster I went screaming down and then rose up in relief, safe to live once more, and strangely and magically stronger and happier for the experience.

Here is an update on what is going on right now with three of my books: A Jane Austen Daydream, Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare, and Permanent Spring Showers. (more…)
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February 1, 2013

My Adventure in Self-Publishing: Taking the Plunge
I grew up with a swimming pool. My grandmother also had a cottage that was on a lake perfect for swimming. So you would think I’d be pretty used to water, maybe even brave around it, with amazing diving abilities and incredible endurance.

Nah.

When I get into water, it is like watching an old dainty woman with a hairnet covering her blue hair slowly easing her way in, inch by inch.

Maybe it’s the shock of the change in body temperature, but it has never felt natural to me and because of it all of the mad skills I should have (surrounded by water my entire life) is lost on me. I do not flip when I have to jump in, I plummet.

So in other words, I am not prone to plunging into anything. (more…)
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February 1, 2013

The Press Release for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM!
Madison Street Publishing, my new publisher for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM, just posted a press release for the publication of the book!

You can read the press release here: http://madisonstreetpublishing.com/2013/01/31/new-msp-author-scott-d-southard/

The book should be out in April!
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January 31, 2013

A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM is coming back!!!
Hi readers!

After a few lousy days and the painful experience of watching the eBook disappear for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM (with the old and troubled print version shortly to follow), I can triumphantly declare that a new publisher has emerged for the book!

I can’t say too much more at this time since the contracts still are being signed, but after another quick edit and preparation work the book should emerge back on the market better than ever.

I am happily overwhelmed with this development and I look forward to sharing this new release with you in two to three months.

Thank you for reading!
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January 3, 2013

Two New Reader Reviews for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM!
There are two new reader reviews for A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM up on amazon. Both gave the book five stars! Here are some excerpts:

…With wry humor, wit, and poignant sensitivity, Scott D. Southard has created characters that are so real that they seem to have only a tenuous hold on their fictitious world. When Jane walks, the reader walks. When Jane finds, loses, and finds love again, the reader will find herself warning, comforting, and cheering this character on.

Southard’s novel is well written and full of witty characters…. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Jane would have too.

I hope you will consider checking out my new book. You can find it in print and eBook here:
And remember- a new chapter of Permanent Spring Showers will be up tomorrow!
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December 4, 2012

The First Trailer for A Jane Austen Daydream
A video of me introducing A Jane Austen Daydream and talking a little about the book. Also includes the first glimpse of the cover.
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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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November 8, 2012

Reblogged: Folio Society Article
An extended version of this editorial (yes, writers can do director’s cuts of their articles) has been published on The Folio Society’s website. I’m really proud to be on the site and I hope you will consider checking it out (and buy a book while there, they are lovely). Here is the link: http://www.foliosociety.com/member_stories/the-folio-society-celebrating-literature/

The Stories of Scott D. Southard

I have never understood why we readers treat literature so poorly.

We confine our classics to cheap paperbacks, five-dollar hard copies, bulk versions, and we throw them in bargain bins alongside fake biographies of yesterday’s celebrities.

Worse, sometimes we even add zombies to them…

Why aren’t readers more shocked by this treatment? These are our Rembrandts, our Van Goghs, our Monets. Basically, the classic books are what makes literature art, and yet we treat them so utterly, utterly horribly. Its like we take them for granted; we even dare write in their margins and use highlighters on them! (Okay, I did that too in college, but you get where I am going with this.)

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October 23, 2012

The Folio Society: Celebrating Literature
I have never understood why we readers treat literature so poorly.

We confine our classics to cheap paperbacks, five-dollar hard copies, bulk versions, and we throw them in bargain bins alongside fake biographies of yesterday’s celebrities.

Worse, sometimes we even add zombies to them…

Why aren’t readers more shocked by this treatment? These are our Rembrandts, our Van Goghs, our Monets. Basically, the classic books are what makes literature art, and yet we treat them so utterly, utterly horribly. Its like we take them for granted; we even dare write in their margins and use highlighters on them! (Okay, I did that too in college, but you get where I am going with this.) (more…)
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October 2, 2012

Drowning in Tweets: A struggling author tries to understand Twitter
I dream the same dream of thousands of other people.

Yes, I am one of thousands (probably a lot more) and we are all part of the same collective consciousness, wired into the same hopes of finding writing success. And while we all know in our hearts that there are not enough readers on this planet for all of us to succeed, we all keep dreaming together, sharing the same hopes, avoiding expressing the same fears.

It is all a beautifully sad thought, like a fleeting, quiet, and hopeful melody lost in a romantic symphony.

-At the time of this writing I have 2370 followers on Twitter-

I need to begin by blaming my brother (@AESPiano).

I had just reached over a 100 followers on my blog and he thought it was ridiculous that I had more blog followers than Twitter followers. He first reached out to his followers to find me and follow me, and then he tried to convince me to do some outreach myself on the great social media site, claiming that it would help my writing career.

Frankly, I didn’t see it, but I decided to do some investigating into it just out of curiosity. I found a fellow writer who was following me and started to scroll through her followers, looking for other writers, and clicking follow on the ones that I felt might be interesting. (more…)
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