Welcome! I’m Duke Southard, an author, retired educator, and lecturer.
I have published seven novels, a commissioned history, and an anthology of
award-winning short stories and essays.
Please check out my blog where I write about true crime and a wide ranging variety of literary and everyday subjects.
My Programs
My programs are offered free of charge to any schools, public libraries, and educational/community groups.
Free Book
Grab a free copy of my book, The Week from Heaven and Hell
My Books
View a list of my published books, including Tainted Justice.
Recent Posts
Question for Mr. Ed Burns, The Ex-husband
As promised, here is another question posed by a gentleman at my last program on the Stacey Burns book project. (paraphrased) Why wouldn't Mr. Ed Burns, Stacey's ex-husband, or at least almost ex-husband, want to have his side of the story told in your book?(The...
Someone Screwed Up!
On August 30th, I posted a paraphrased list of questions posed by my audience at "Murder in a Small Town," a program about my work on a book project about the murder of Stacey Burns in 2009. It may be worth mentioning these questions again, one at a time, to see if...
Writing Critique Groups
This is a change of pace post. The Stacey Burns project has taken up most of my posts over the last couple of years and I've heard from some folks that maybe I should throw in a change of pace once in a while. Yesterday, while on an extended East Coast trip for our...
Percentages-Evil vs. Good
Are people basically good? In my most recent novel, Live Free or Die, a major character, Henry Bouchard, raises the possibility that this question really doesn't matter. Evil versus good makes for a wonderful philosophical argument, but, Bouchard theorizes, it is...
Evil? Mental illness?
Here's a conundrum: Does a killer kill because he/she is mentally ill or is that killer an evil person? Do you believe in evil? Was the killer in Sandy Hook evil? Was the Aurora killer evil? My favorite inspector asks this question in Jo Nesbo's book, Police. Why do...
Am I kidding myself?
Will the killer of Stacey Burns ever don the orange prison garb and be subjected to the humiliation of his or her day in court? Based on what I have learned over the last five years (plus) I'd have to say no. Will any of my books ever approach even that special level...
Unbiased observations on Murder in a Small Town
"Murder in a Small Town" is the title of a program I presented to our Men's Breakfast group at Desert Hills Lutheran Church last Thursday. Obviously, the subject was the work I've done on the book about the Stacey Burns murder case. There were some interesting...
Publish or perish?
One of my regular readers takes me to task for dragging my feet on publishing what I have written on the Stacey Burns murder book. Her argument is sound. I asked for opinions and received many differing ones, as I expected. She and others suggested that publication...
Doing nothing?
A statement in the previous post needs clarification. I said that sometimes doing the right thing is enough to make a difference. I believe that statement to be true but there is an obvious opposite to it. Not doing the right thing also is enough to make a difference....
A tale told by an idiot?-not!
William Shakespeare in Macbeth provides us with this pessimistic view of life. "It is a tale told by an idiot," Macbeth says, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Most of us will not identify with this viewpoint. We'd prefer to think that as we "strut and...
Seriously?
Seriously? You have a motorcycle? At your age? I love this new catchword for "you must be kidding!" People who know me well are aware of my extreme discomfort around deep water yet my birth sign is Pisces. Seriously? You're a Pisces? Over the course of the years I've...
An extreme act!
Murder as an extreme act-one of my favorite fictional characters is Inspector Harry Hole (pronounced Holy) in the series by Jo Nesbo. He's been mentioned in this blog once before. He is always on target with his observations as so many fictional characters are. Here...