Scott Douglas Vaughan

Most of you are not going to like me. I am a morning person. My own sweet Vicki doesn't like me . . . first thing in the morning. She is not a morning person. I go to bed early and I get up early, and I get up singing - usually something from Marvin Gaye or The Four Seasons. I often dance, too, which Vicki finds especially annoying because I dance whether she joins me or not. Aside from all this, I'm my friendliest and my most creative early in the morning. What I consider my best writing often occurs before Noon. Almost every morning, on the way to the office, I stop at one specific convenience store. I like this one store because traffic around it is never too bad, and it's on my way which means it's on my right and easy to enter and exit. I stop for coffee. "Slim" - my nickname for the nice guy at the counter - is the skinniest man I've ever seen. He calls me Shake because they used to have a counter where they made chocolate shakes. I was thei

Terry Thompson during his baseball days It's been 35 years since that telephone call from Terry Thompson. ***** A good friend of mine, Bob McMillan, called last week and invited me to help him coach his Spring baseball team. I couldn't help him because his team plays on the weekends, and those are precious real estate for me with a mother in Georgia, a son in Ohio, and another son in western Tennessee. Bob's call, however, inspired me to call my friend, Chris Davis, who continues to coach in our local recreation league. I volunteered to help Chris coach his team this Spring, and by coach I mostly mean keep the scorebook at games, encourage the players, and help with some practice drills. Chris's team doesn't play on the weekends. Helping Chris - and his gifted assistant, John Bush - this Spring means wobbling out of retirement. I was a head coach in our local baseball league from 1996-2012, and one season was the head coach of two teams in two different l

Facebook Live makes me think of a Mad Scientist This Thursday, March 8, from 8-8:45 p.m. ET, I'm going to read a chapter from my new book Hickory Trail. This is the third and last in a three-book series about my life - fictionalized to make it more interesting. The chapter I've chosen is one that I had a lot of fun writing. I've also referenced it in, well, in a sermon or two preached along the way. Neither of those churches invited me back, which is probably just as well for everyone involved. The chapter has nothing to do with a Mad Scientist, pictured at right, but Facebook Live makes me feel like a Mad Scientist. Incidentally, the chapter I'm going to read has nothing to do with Science of any kind - regardless of emotion (mad or not). You will need to visit my Facebook Page on Thursday night for all this fun. If you already 'Like' the page you may get a notification when the Live gathering starts. Click here for the page . The actual &qu

Mark Your Calendars: Next Thursday, March 8, 8-8:45 p.m. ET, I'm going to use Facebook Live to read a chapter from my new book, Hickory Trail . If you visit my Facebook Page ( click here ) and Like the page you will get reminders about the event. The book will be out mid-October. So, check out the reading next week. You may enjoy the story, but you may also enjoy watching me make a fool out of myself, live, on social media. :) **** Readers of my book Elm Street have said they especially enjoyed when I detoured from stories to explain what was happening in the world. They also said that using music lyrics helped draw them into the small-town life of the 1960s and early 1970s. I refer to these historical notes and music lyrics as mile-markers. When my Vicki read through the first draft of Hickory Trail, she said the mile-markers were especially helpful in recalling the late 1970s, when Hickory Trail takes place. Honestly, I had a lot of fun researching and remem