Scott Michael Powers
Author and blogger Scott Michael Powers traded a long career as a political journalist to write about more reasonable topics, such as UFOs, murders, conspiracies, and ghosts, as a novelist and short story writer.
Scott was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up mostly on U.S. Air Force bases all over. He attended Ohio University, where he studied journalism and creative writing.
Scott accomplished a distinguished, 40-year journalism career in Texas, Ohio, and Florida, covering beats that included local, state, and national politics, the environment, tourism, business, higher education, NASA and Kennedy Space Center. His work attracted numerous journalism awards, yet his true fame more likely arose from his being locked in a fundraiser’s closet by then-Vice President Joe Biden’s advance team in 2011.
His first novel, The Roswell Swatch, published in late 2016 by Off-University Press, tells the story of UFO hunters Eve Mirada and Max Studebaker. They pursue the secrets behind a strange piece of foil purported to be stolen debris from the legendary 1947 Roswell UFO, yet are themselves pursued by shadowy figures wanting to silence them. The novel was honored in the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Awards.
Black Rose published his second novel, The Murder Plague, in early 2024 Writing. It tells the story of survivor Kanetha Wilson and scientist Dr. Mike Andrusek, as they race the spread of a terrifying disease to try to save a semi-dystopian world ravaged by the two great fears of 21st century America, pandemic and gun violence.
His third novel, The Space Coast Out of This World Tatler & Herald-Tribune, is now ready for publication. It tells the story of old-school journalists Stevie Guthrie and Mac MacGregor as they try to unravel the mystery behind a mass-shooting and the theft of dangerous nuclear materials.
He is now writing his fourth novel, Hotel Stella. It will be an extension of his short story “The Thirteenth Floor.” It narrates a struggle for power between both honorable and unscrupulous corporate executives, the sleazy heir to a crime family, and bitter ghosts, all within a century-old hotel full of dark, old secrets and contemporary oddball guests.
Two of his short stories have been anthologized by a literary organization known as the Alvarium Experiment, which compiles great speculative fiction from award-winning authors into themed collections. Powers’ short story “The Brazilian Millionaire’s Butler” was selected for The Masters Reimagined, an Alvarium Experiment anthology of speculative-fiction short-story updates to classic works of fiction. His short story “The Thirteenth Floor” was selected for The Light Fantastic, an Alvarium Experiment anthology of humorous speculative fiction short stories.
Scott has active accounts on Facebook and BlueSky. Follow him at @ScottFist.
Having raised three kids, he and his wife Connie, along with their German shepherd Merlyn, live in a nondescript Orlando, Florida, neighborhood filled with big, old trees and retired cops. He enjoys following most sports, lives and mostly dies with the Reds and Spurs, and is a rocker at heart, though he is, sadly, completely devoid of rhythm.
