Scott smith author biography

American author and screenwriter (born 1965)

Scott Bechtel Smith (born July 13, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter. He has written two novels, A Simple Plan (1993) and The Ruins (2006). Both were adapted into films – A Simple Plan (1998) and The Ruins (2008), respectively – based on Smith's own screenplays. He also wrote the screenplays for the films Siberia (2018) and The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019). His screenplay for A Simple Plan earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Early life and education

Smith was born in Summit, New Jersey in 1965 and moved to Toledo, Ohio as a child. He is the son of Linda and Doug Smith. He told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reviewer Regis Behe that, as a child, he read his father's "castoffs," the novels of Clive Cussler and Jack Higgins. "Growing up, I also read Ray Bradbury and Stephen King," he said. "I just had a sense of how to create these places that aren't real world places, but just with this provisional attachment to the real world. It is very much of your imagination, and I felt very much I could do that." After graduating from Dartmouth College and from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing, he took up writing full-time.

Career

He has published two novels, A Simple Plan and The Ruins. His screen adaptation of A Simple Plan earned him an Academy Award nomination. The screenplay won a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and a National Board of Review Award.

His second novel, The Ruins, was also adapted into a film, released on April 4, 2008. Stephen King called it "the best horror novel of the new century." King had also called A Simple Plan "simply the best suspense novel of the year."

In 2016 it was announced that TNT had greenlit a pilot for Civil, a new TV series created by Smith about a second American Civil War following a hotly contested presidenti

Born

July 13, 1965

Genre

Horror, Mystery & Thrillers, Entertainment

Scott F. Smith continues the spirit of the Old West created by his father, Cotton Smith, author of the first two books of the Corrigan series and other wonderful Western adventures, such as Pray for Texas and Behold a Red Horse. 

Vengeance Wears a Star is Scott’s debut novel and is rooted in the elements that made Cotton’s books great—grand themes, moral conflict, and courage. He grew up with a love of American history, reading, and Western movies and is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Boy Scouts of America’s Silver Beaver Award. He continues to volunteer with Scouting to help develop tomorrow’s leaders.

As a youth, Scott was introduced to the ceremonies, customs, and traditions of the Plains Indian. Research for Western storytelling heightened his appreciation for and spiritual connection to the land. For many years, he participated in the Desert Caballeros trail ride, covering a hundred miles in a weeklong trek through the Arizona mountains each year. 

Scott is an award-winning writer and producer for corporate clients and relishes the experience of staring at a blank piece of paper or computer screen and creating a story within an easy-to-imagine world. He previously taught high school media and video production, having enjoyed sharing his storytelling expertise as well as helping students bring their own tales to life.

A member of the Western Writers of America, Scott and his wife, Cindy, are global explorers but call Lawrence, Kansas, home.

You can find Scott’s work at ScottSmithWesterns.com.

Catholic American author

Scott L. Smith Jr. (born 26 May 1983) is a Catholic American author and attorney. Smith is the author of several books of Catholic theology and devotion including Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families co-authored with Fr. Donald Calloway, Pray the Rosary with St. John Paul II, The Catholic ManBook, and a new translation of the Preparation for Total Consecration according to Saint Louis de Montfort. He is the past Chairman of the Men of the Immaculata.

Career and personal life

Smith graduated from Edmond Memorial High School in 2001 and Texas A&M University in 2006 with a degree in chemical engineering. He then entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Smith received his Masters in Theology at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he studied under Dr. Brant J. Pitre. He received his juris doctor from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center of Louisiana State University in 2013.

Smith served as an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General from 2015 to 2019 before entering private practice.

Smith lives in New Roads, Louisiana with his wife Sara Ashton LaGrone and their five children. He is a 13th generation resident of New Roads, Louisiana, seat of Pointe Coupee Parish. Smith's ancestor Jean Baptiste Pourciau immigrated to Pointe Coupee Parish in 1720 from the Diocese of Cambrai, France.

Writing projects

In 2010, Smith began a series of articles exploring the Lembas waybread as a symbol for the Eucharist in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lembas, for example, originated as a waybread for the Elves' Great Journey to the Undying Lands, as the Manna was the waybread for the Israelites during the Exodus to the Promised Land. These articles were eventually