An Interview with Scott D. Southard, author of Megan
What was your favorite book when you were a kid?
The funny thing is that that is not an easy question to answer. Ever since I could read I was obsessed with books and would devour any book I could get my hands on, from one to two to three a week. The books that always had the greatest impact on me were the ones that offered pure escapism. They were not about learning new words, but exploring new worlds; and their characters were not stick figures, but fully developed personalities that I felt I knew.
Since we are talking about a semi-fantasy novel, I will say I remember the first time I read The Lord of the Rings very clearly. That was an overwhelming experience… Of course, one of the reasons I remember that reading so clearly is that one of my cousins evilly ruined the ending for me! Just mean.
What was the last book you read?
Recently, I’ve been going through a jazz kick and have been reading biographies on some of my favorite artists. The last two books I read were both about John Coltrane (Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff and Clawing at the Limits of Cool by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington). 
What are your other hobbies and interests?
My main interest has always been around storytelling to some degree, be it in movies, TV, or even certain video games. But for me to show a strong interest in something it has to have something unique in the tale…
I also love music. Big fan of jazz and some rock artists. Way too obsessed with the Beatles, some would say.
Which authors have influenced you the most?
Kurt Vonnegut, definitely. Ray Bradbury. Charles Dickens (love his characters). Jane Austen (Goddess).
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Looking back at Megan, I think there are three main influences on the book. For her “reality,†I have to say Richard Brautigan and Virginia Woolf; for her “fantasy,†I am immediately drawn to C.S. Lewis and the language and style he used in the Narnia books.
Do you write to a routine?
I’ve found that whenever I try to incorporate myself into a schedule, my creativity disappears. It doesn’t work on cue for me. Usually, an idea sits with me, filling up like a bucket drop by drop, idea by idea, until I finally have to sit down and put it to paper. So while I may be thinking about a work for quite a considerable amount of time (many times years), the actual writing of the first draft could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months when I finally have no choice but to put it all down on paper. It’s odd, but it works for me. How successfully is for someone else to decide…
Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what kind of music?
Definitely, a major necessity for me! Music helps me hit the emotion or feeling I am aiming for in a work or a tale. It helps me keep my focus, you might say. Usually, when I am working on a book I will get obsessed with a specific artist or album. (Much to the chagrin of my wife who has to listen to the same songs over and over again.)
I remember when I was writing Megan I was listening to Carla Werner, Beth Orton, and David Gray.
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What was your inspiration for Megan?
The idea of Megan came to me while I was working a series of temp jobs. My wife and I had just moved back to Michigan from Los Angeles, and I was working wherever I could to support her going through grad school (she was at the University of Michigan). It’s fascinating the perspective you get coming into a strange new office and watching the people in it for a short period of time. The relationships between the people and how each of the workers feel about themselves and their work, without realizing it people tell you a lot more themselves than they know. I met a lot of Megans. I’ve also met variations on all of the characters. In many ways the characters in the book are caricatures of many of the people I saw during those two years, good and bad. I couldn’t point to a specific person for any of them.
But I think what drew me the most to write the book during that period in my life was the feeling of want I kept feeling from many of these workers I watched. The unattainable. The goal off in the distance. So many people seemed to work at a job that they didn’t want to define them or their lives and yet they spent a majority of their lives there.
The “Fantasy†idea fell into my lap though in a much more playful fashion. My wife and I were on the road and the idea just popped in. I asked for her help, and while I was driving, she took down some notes for me. I still owe her one for that.
Was it challenging for you to weave the two threads of the novel—the real life events and the fairy tale fantasy elements—together?
The really challenging thing for me was to keep it together as one book! In many ways, the fantasy part almost took over the book for me in the writing. I had to fight to keep it in its rightful place in the work. It’s supposed to be merely a representation of everything going on in her reality, it can’t control the reality! I couldn’t add adventures or characters that I could not justify in the real world, no matter how much fun I thought it would be. Plus, one was an adult story and the other was almost a teenage fantasy adventure. So, overall, I had to really keep a strong hand on the fantasy adventure.
Do you imagine that readers will see themselves in Megan, relate with her predicament?
The last thing I want to do is put any high hopes on anything I write changing someone else’s life. I’ve never tried to be that kind of writer. And, really, I’ve found that when people have that perspective their work can get a little too heavy handed. I wanted to just be true to Megan in the tale.
But if the book inspires someone to pick up that old paintbrush or to start that hobby they always wanted to or to go visit someplace they always wanted to in the world, I would feel great. My hope merely was to tell a good yarn, everything else that comes out of it is a bonus for me and maybe the reader.
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 upsidedown and shake her to the foundation. Can Megan turn disaster into deliverance?