Scott Douglas Vaughan

On Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, Richard Evans Sale, 83, died in Florence, SC. I saw the announcement of his death in the November 2017 issue of The Baptist Courier, the monthly newsmagazine of South Carolina Baptists. I immediately went to Legacy.com to read Rev. Sale's complete obituary. You can read it here . In short, Rev. Sale was a Southern Baptist pastor, but will forever be known for his 40-plus years as both a hospital and a law enforcement chaplain. He was a graduate of the FBI Academy's Chaplain Training Course in Quantico, VA. Within his obituary, it mentions Rev. Sale's 60 years of service to the local church, his community, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Within that long descriptive paragraph, there is the mention that Rev. Sale " was a member of the Kiwanis Club . " Kiwanis, as you may know, is one of our country's historic community service organizations born during World War I when suburbs were being created and service organizations ju...

I bumped into a friend who reminded me of a story. Once upon a time, I was a young newspaper reporter, covering a crowded local election in a south Georgia community. I won't lie to you. I was so deeply embedded in that election that I had a personal favorite - I wanted one of the candidates to win. But, I had to remain neutral, obviously, because back then newspaper reporters at least worked hard to be neutral. The candidate that I privately supported had a big uphill battle to win, but I've always, always supported the underdog in everything. On election day, I went to a polling location where I knew many of the candidates would be voting. The person I privately supported was walking out of the polling location and I stopped him. "How do you really feel about your chances?" I asked him. "What does your gut tell you?" "Every single person I've spoken to in the past week is voting for me," he said. "Based on that, I'm pretty ...

I have never strapped on running shoes and participated in an organized race. I actually enjoy a pleasant walk or even a good hike, but in this Earthly existence, you will probably never see me run. Unless I'm running for my life. My Vicki, 1987, with her Peachtree Road Race shirt I have been to a race. In the two years between the time my Vicki and I married and our first son was born, Vicki actually ran in a couple of races. In 1987, she ran in and completed the big July 4 Peachtree Road Race in downtown Atlanta. In preparation for that race, she ran a 5K sponsored by a local elementary school PTA in Lawrenceville, GA. I couldn't get close to the finish line of the Peachtree Road Race, but I was there at the PTA 5K. I stood with a cup of coffee and a free doughnut along with a bunch of other people. Well, okay, two free doughnuts. We were in position at the finish line, lined up on both sides of the runners' approach, ready to cheer for everyone. When Vicki approa...

With both my books, Brookwood Road and Elm Street , I took 90 days to write the initial drafts of 103,000 and 108,000 words, respectively. With each book, it took another seven months (210 days) for editing and proofreading. You read that correctly - it took about 3x as long to edit and proofread the books as it did to write the initial draft. That's why I say that writing is the easy part. It's also why I say that people with sensitive feelings have no business writing books. You will absolutely get your feelings hurt during the editing process. If you don't get stepped on during the editing and proofing process you are surrounding yourself with dishonest people. Sincere and thoughtful editing is a precious gift that's going to hurt. The hurt makes the book much better. Keep telling yourself, "This isn't about me." I have been edited for so long now - 46 years - that I just let it roll off my back, listen to most of it, and laugh at some of the com...

I like it when authors insert song lyrics into a book to make a statement or help the reader with a place in history. One of the masters of this is Stephen King, who has used song lyrics in many of his famous horror novels. When I wrote Elm Street last year, I wanted to include lyrics from commercially popular songs of the 60s and 70s as one way to remind readers of the times. I used select lyrics from four songs - Three Dog Night's Joy To The World, Last Train To Clarksville by the Monkees, Larry Norman's I Wish We'd All Been Ready, and Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues. I didn't randomly choose these songs - each had a specific purpose behind its place in the book. Reading the first draft of Elm Street, one of my many editors advised me to get permission to publish the lyrics. Knowing that was the right thing to do, I sought permission. I received an interesting education and obtaining the publishing rights was relatively easy. I first researched the actua...

Of all the secondary characters appearing in either Brookwood Road or Elm Street , none has caused more curiosity than Van Piper. Van Piper is first introduced in Elm Street's introduction as all the junior high students are gathered for graduation. "There was Van Piper, who was just mean as hell, and everyone knew it and everyone stayed away from him. It was a miracle that Van was even at this graduation, but there he was, sitting close to his smaller sidekick, Travis Jackson. Neither of those two would have been chosen to speak (at graduation) unless they had scared everyone into voting for them." Van Piper is plain and simple the largest boy in the class and a first-rate bully who comes and goes during the book, at least once, to juvenile incarceration. Van disrupts first grade (Chapter One), assists a fellow student (Chapter Two), challenges a student to a dangerous playground competition (Chapter Eleven), instigates the torment of main character Frank...

This past Sunday, Vicki and I were able to visit with a book club that meets only a few miles from Brookwood Road in the southern end of Forsyth County, GA. There were about 15 ladies in attendance; most had read or they were reading Brookwood Road. This was not my first visit to a book club. My Vicki has been in a monthly book club for more than 20 years, and they have been nice enough to invite me to visit on occasion, specifically when I published both Brookwood Road and Elm Street . Visiting the book club, this past Sunday, in my hometown was especially fun. Vicki and I used the opportunity to go "home" to visit my mom, watch some football with family, attend church with family, and then attend the book club. It was also fun to be back "on location" in the exact area that inspired both books. At Sunday's club meeting, after a great dinner of Greek food, I told the club members my story, growing up with a passion for reading and writing my own storie...