Author Interview – Scott Finley

Today I interview an author of mystery novels who shares my interest in ships. We differ in the types of ships we love. He dreams of the grand ocean liners of yesteryear. I met Scott Finley at a bakery and tea shop, though we didn’t go there for the cupcakes. Leaves Bakery and Books, in Fort Worth, introduces local authors to the community. Scott and I participated in two panel discussions there. If you crave murder mysteries with smart female sleuths, you’ll enjoy Scott’s interview and his historical novels.

Bio

After graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in journalism Scott launched a 39 plus year career in broadcast news where he worked for all four major network affiliates. Following that was a stint doing training and corporate videos, and then he transitioned into doing media for non-profit entities, including the Alzheimer’s Association where he covered their media for the entire state of Texas.

Along the way, and despite his best efforts, he collected one Emmy® nomination, 19 Telly Awards, three Aegis Awards, two Addy awards and five Best Newscast in Texas awards from the Associated Press, as well as an honorable mention from PR News for blogging for a non-profit. Outside of media and broadcast, he is the author of “A Little Theatre,” a two-act comedy that has been produced by Texas community theaters with relatively few over-ripe tomatoes thrown at the actors.

Scott lives in Dallas, Texas with his legal counsel Gabrielle, two cats, and a neurotic dog.

Interview

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?

Scott Finley: I believe that early reading is the start to early writing. Once I learned to read, I burned through Dr Seuss and then anything I could get my hands on. From that it was a short step to writing my own material. My English teachers through the years encouraged this wasteful habit, with the result that I knocked out my first book in high school (and it’s staying locked in a drawer) and just kept going.

P.S.: What was it about Walter Lord’s book A Night to Remember that stirred your imagination—in sixth grade!—about trans-Atlantic luxury ocean liners?

S.F.: Ha! It was the fact that here was this great ship, a floating city with its own restaurants, amenities, medical facilities, all alone at sea except for the sketchy radio signals.

For some reason or other it absolutely fascinated me — and then there was the minute by minute account of the sinking. At the time I read it, in 1969, there were still survivors alive and I began to see little articles on them in the newspaper, tangible proof to my young eyes that this actually happened. I began looking at other ocean liners in books, and wanted one to put in my backyard. Sadly, growing up in Texas, ocean liners are scarcer than the amount of real estate it would have taken up in my backyard.

P.S.: In Shadow of the Queen, multiple murders occur and the ship’s nurse, Maeve Chandler, works to solve them before the killer can get away. Tell us about Maeve and what makes her different from female sleuths in other murder mysteries.

S.F.: First, Maeve is working on a tight deadline. When the ship reaches its destination, the killer is going to walk off and disappear unless Maeve can pin them down first. Maeve is a widow, her husband died in the influenza epidemic of 1919. Maeve also holds a degree in chemistry and has been looking after herself her entire life. She had a brother who died in the War (it was not called the First World War until there was actually a Second World War). Her parents were educators so she has had a lifetime of being curious. She is also a bit clumsy, usually at the most inopportune time. Maeve is also assisted by a passenger on board the Victoria in solving the crimes. In the first book, the passenger is a young Agatha Christie traveling to New York to meet with her publisher. In the second book, she is paired with up and coming diamond dealer Harry Winston.

P.S.: Tell us about the awards you’ve received working in broadcast news. They sound prestigious.

S.F.: I was fortunate to work alongside a lot of really talented people over my career in broadcast news. These were all team efforts – five Best Newscast in Texas awards from the Associated Press, multiple Telly Awards, a regional Addy award, an Aegis award, and one regional Emmy nomination.

P.S.: You’ve written a comedy play performed at some community theaters. Tell us about the play, and what it’s like to see your own play performed.

S.F.: The play is titled “A Little Theatre” and takes what is possibly the worst community theater in America through auditions, rehearsals, and opening night of what is possibly the world’s worst mystery play, “The Murdered Violin.” It’s been done multiple times in Texas, and each time I see it it’s like it’s brand new with different actors putting their own stamp on it. I find myself anticipating the laugh lines and it’s great fun watching the audience as they get caught up in the production.

P.S.: Your novel Queen of Diamonds finds Maeve once again solving multiple murders, possibly connected to a fortune in diamonds, with a locked room mystery as well. No armchair sleuth, Maeve puts herself at risk to solve the crimes. What is the toughest spot she gets herself into in this novel?

S.F.: Maeve just can’t keep from nosing about where she’s not wanted, and she comes dangerously close to annoying a professional gunman while on her search for a cache of stolen diamonds.

P.S.: Is it true you’ve done some acting, appearing in dozens of theatrical productions? What were those experiences like, and did they impact your writing?

S.F.: Yes, I’ve done everything from playing the Cowardly Lion in the “Wizard of Oz” to Mortimer Brewster in “Arsenic and Old Lace”, and it seems everything in between. The great thing about acting and writing is you learn proper pacing and timing in dialogue which transfers over to writing.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

S.F.: This will sound strange, but the easiest thing for me is doing rewrites. It’s like polishing a rough stone into something pretty. After that it’s all the historical research, which readers can partake of in the lexicon provided at the end of the book. Most difficult is getting that opening sentence down, and doing Maeve’s musing that is always found at the beginning of every chapter because it sets up the action that’s about to happen.

P.S.: You’ve said the ocean liner in your books, the Queen Victoria, is fictional. Still, you’ve researched real ships of the time to give your novels authenticity. Please describe the Queen for us, and tell us how that setting works in your stories.

S.F.: The Queen Victoria is based on the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked at Long Beach, California as a floating museum, social destination, hotel and convention center. She is the only survivor of the age of the great ocean liners. Launched in 1936, the Queen Mary is a fabulous work of art you really have to see to believe. She doubled as a troop ship during WW2, and still holds the record for most people packed onto a ship – over 16,000 for one voyage from New York to Southampton in 1943. You have to remember that the ship was designed to carry around 3,000 passengers and about a thousand crew. A reviewer said that the Queen Victoria is itself a major character in the books. The ship is a slice of social strata from 1929 forward.

P.S.: The book covers of your series depict a noir vibe. Maybe they also include subtle clues? Beneath the title Shadow of the Queen, there seems to be a shadow of something in the water. Beneath the title Queen of Diamonds, there are diamonds, but also a key. Are these things significant? If so, could you tell us how?

S.F.: Absolutely! The shadow in the water is a first class passenger’s body floating as the ship steams away. For Queen of Diamonds, the ship seems to be awash with real and fake diamonds — and the key represents the locked room murder mystery that Maeve must solve.

P.S.: Next up in the series is Queen of the Sky. Would you mind revealing a little about it?

S.F.: It’s March of 1930 and in the course of a normal voyage, the Queen Victoria picks up a medical distress call. As the nearest vessel, and the only one with a fully equipped surgery and medical staff, she answers the call. When they arrive at the location, there is nothing in the water — but floating overhead is the German Graf Zeppelin lighter than air ship. They have an emergency appendectomy case aboard, but the patient is too ill to transfer to the Queen Victoria. Instead, the Zeppelin lands gently on the water and Maeve and her ship’s surgeon cross to it in a lifeboat, go aboard and perform the surgery. Unfortunately for them, a weather incident is brewing and so the Zeppelin must leave the area – going in the opposite direction from the Queen Victoria. Trapped aboard, Maeve witnesses a man fall from one of the engine nacelles on the Zeppelin – but was it an accident or was he pushed? Throw in five nationalities and aspiring Nazis and things begin to heat up rather quickly.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring authors?

Scott Finley: Read! Old favorites and new material, it doesn’t matter. Somewhere you’ll see how someone turned a phrase or structured dialogue or description and it might just sneak into your writing style. I read books in my time period – not books written FOR the time period, but books that were actually written DURING the time period. Great source for slang and other things. This should go without saying, stay away from AI. I only use it to set off research strings. And once you are done reading, write! Set aside some time every day for writing. Call it training for your brain. You don’t have to write a perfect first draft. I highlight in red phrases or words I find questionable, but I keep writing. I come back to those highlighted items the next day. Writing is an art that must be practiced on a daily basis in order to flourish. It doesn’t matter if you just spent four hours producing one page, it still means you are on your way.

Poseidon’s Scribe: Very useful advice. Thanks.

Web Presence

Readers can find out more about Scott Finley on his website, which includes a tour of the ship, and on Goodreads and Amazon.

March 23, 2026Permalink Leave a comment

I’m All Aglow About my New Globes

Did you know you can order a custom globe—one with your own map printed on a spherical surface? You can. I did.

Your Own Little World

If you’ve ever enjoyed sketching your own planet with continents, islands, mountain ranges, oceans, seas, bays, and rivers, you can hire a service to convert your map into a globe.

Or if you’ve loved novels with world maps, such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea, Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse series, or H.P. Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle series, you could have any of those made into globe form.

Perhaps you accomplished a trip around the world—by ship or plane. Or you relished the idea of tracing someone else’s circumnavigation—say, Magellan’s or Phileas Fogg’s—on a globe. Put away the Sharpie. Get a globe to order.

The three inch and seven inch globes

Seasteading World

For my book, The Seastead Chronicles, I drew a map of our world’s oceans, with all international waters carved up into countries. (I call those countries aquastates.) My stories span a future history of many decades from humble beginnings to a world full of aquastates. As the concept of seasteading spread, I assumed countries would form based on seabed resources (mineral nodules, petroleum deposits, etc.), and bottom features (hydrothermal vents, deep trenches, etc.).

In time, competition for resources would result in conflicts over borders—diplomacy, and even war. Each aquastate would take on specific characteristics based on who settled there, the country’s main economic income, and its type of government. Over a period of decades, perhaps, they’d reach a point of relative stability, and that’s what I depicted on my map.

Globe-building Experience

I wondered If somebody could construct a globe based on my map—a globe worthy of displaying at science fiction conventions and other book-selling events. I hoped the model of my seastead world would attract potential readers.

After searching for custom globe companies, I settled on SnapSpheres. They proved easy to work with and answered all my questions. They seemed just as enthused about my weird idea as I was.

For my map, I used a rare projection that looked like an orange cut into unequal slices and flattened. However, with mine, the slices cut through continents to emphasize the oceans. Cartographers call it an Interrupted Goode Homolosine Oceanic View projection. I sent that map to SnapSpheres and the rarity of it didn’t bother them at all.

Goode Homolosine Oceanic View projection – before adding aquastates

Matt, at SnapSpheres, sent me pictorial depictions of what the finished globe would look like. I loved it. After I approved the design and paid the invoice, the product arrived in short order.

Resulting Globes

I received two globes, one three inches in diameter and one seven inches. The small one is all pentagons, and the larger one includes pentagons and hexagons. The pieces attach with magnets and snap into place. Assembly and disassembly are easy, and I can store all the pieces of both globes in small boxes for convenient transport.

When I put a puck light inside the larger globe, it shows through the translucent pieces in an attractive way. I bought a stand that rotates the larger globe for a more enticing display.

The larger globe shows off the aquastates better, but some book-selling events limit my table space. For those, I’ll put out the smaller globe.

They say writers live in their own little worlds. That’s true, now, for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 22, 2026Permalink 2 Comments

Could a TikTok Challenge Get America Reading Again?

Count me among the two thirds of American adults without a TikTok account. I’m slow, therefore, to pick up on TikTok trends and challenges. Having only just heard about the 75 Booked Challenge, I figured I’d offer my thoughts.

75 Booked Challenge

Image created on Perchance.org

Unlike many TikTok challenges, this one doesn’t involve dancing, music, or posting videos, and it poses no physical danger to participants. Over the course of seventy-five days, you must:

  • Complete two 45-minute reading sessions each day (one of them not in bed),
  • Finish drinking a bottle of water during each reading session,
  • Log all your reading in a physical journal, and
  • Read books (paper, ebooks, or audiobooks) you already own, or that you bought secondhand, or borrowed from a library. Do not purchase new books for this challenge.

You can learn more about the challenge itself here, here, and here.

Benefits

Not long ago, I lamented, in a blogpost about the decline of reading in America. In that post, I cited a study showing reading for pleasure reduces stress, increases creativity, boosts empathy, improves your vocabulary, and aids sleep.

75 Days

The 75 Booked Challenge seems a fine way to re-start a stalled reading habit. The duration of seventy-five days spans enough time to challenge you, but not so long as to seem impossible.

Two 45-Minute Sessions

The two sessions per day allow enough time for focused reading while still permitting time for other daily tasks. However, for many people, those ninety minutes will force other important daily chores and activities to the sidelines during the challenge.

Physical Journal

I find the requirement to log the accomplishments in a physical journal interesting. The challenge doesn’t mandate full book reviews or anything specific. However, logging anything about the book you’ve just read may help you retain basic facts about it. The log serves as a record of your accomplishment. At the end of the challenge it will stand as proof of what you’ve done, and could spur you to continue reading, and logging, at some level.

Already-Owned Books

I support readers purchasing books, so this aspect of the challenge disappoints me. However, it helps clear out the TBR (to be read) list of books people bought and haven’t gotten to yet.

Water Bottle?

I puzzled over this aspect. Water and reading occupy non-overlapping circles in any Venn diagram. Still, drinking water won’t harm you.

Conclusion

All in all, this challenge could benefit most Americans. I hope it catches on. Personally, I do plenty of reading, but a writing challenge might be better bet for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 15, 2026Permalink Leave a comment

Authors Playing in the Leaves One Afternoon

On Sunday, March 8, I participated in a panel discussion with other authors at Leaves Bakery and Books. I’ve appeared there before and blogged about my visits here, here, and here. They haven’t had enough of me yet, I guess.

Ashlee G. Rosales, Susan Ayres, Scott Finley, and Steven R. Southard at Leaves Bakery and Books

Ashlee G. Rosales

I hadn’t met Ashlee before this event. She’s written a romance book called Let Me Protect You: A Granite Falls Romance. In the novel, a woman hires a bodyguard, but that protector turns out to be her ex-boyfriend.

Susan Ayres

The lone poet on our panel, Susan was another new acquaintance for me. She’s titled her newest chapbook of poetry Red Cardinal, White Snow. One reviewer wrote, “These poems are a master class in the art of becoming human.”

Scott Finley

I’d met Scott at a previous visit to Leaves, so was familiar with his Voyages of the Queen series. Each novel involves a ship’s nurse aboard an ocean liner in 1929 who ends up solving murders.

Me

I babbled some answers to the questions put to us by Tina, our moderator. I also read from my short story, “Weathervane Wally,” which appears in Ain’t Our First Rodeo.

A small audience showed up for this event. (A larger audience wouldn’t have fit in the available space.) Perhaps out of courtesy, they didn’t fall asleep during the blathering of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 10, 2026Permalink Leave a comment

What Happened to Reading in America?

Across our country, reading for pleasure has declined by 40% over 20 years, according to the journal iScience. I consider that unfortunate. Why and how should we improve?

Image from Perchance.org

Beginning

For most of us, reading began with us sitting on the lap of a parent or guardian while they read a children’s book to us. Each page turn revealed new pictures, plus some funny black squiggles we didn’t understand. The adult’s voice took us to another world, where animals talked, or children went on adventures, or other crazy and fascinating things happened. We associated reading with fun. Once we learned the meaning of the squiggles, our world opened up and we read with abandon.

Decline and Ending

In middle school and high school, teachers assigned books to read, boring ones they said were good for us. Reading became a chore, drudgery, something to slog through so we could dash off the required report.

As an adult, no longer in school, a part of us recalled the fun of reading, especially fiction. We wanted to resume the habit. But life crowded in. Work, commuting, appointments, and obligations left no time for fiction. Reading to children didn’t count, since we did that for their enjoyment, not ours. We felt a nagging guilt about it, but where were we supposed to find the time?

Advantages

According to this article by Adithi Ramakrishnan, studies show reading for pleasure reduces stress, increases creativity, boosts empathy, improves your vocabulary, and aids sleep.

Fiction as Metaphor

We’re pre-wired for stories. As individuals with unlinked brains, we find ourselves in a confusing world, a world of problems. We seek coping strategies, solutions to the problems that will lead to favorable ends. Not coincidentally, fiction provides make-believe characters facing problems in a strange world, learning to cope and solve their problems. We get to read fiction with no risk to ourselves, and maybe learn something, or at least get entertained.

Beginning Again

What to do? You know how reading would help. You recall how fun it used to be. But you’re too busy now. I’ll list some strategies to re-form the reading habit, provided by Clare Mulroy in this article:

  • Avoid long books, at least at first. Read short ones to attain a sense of accomplishment you can build on.
  • Read a genre you enjoy before branching out. Again, this increases the chance you’ll finish a few books, helping to re-form the habit.
  • Schedule a daily time to read. This informs your psyche about the importance of reading compared to the rest of your daily tasks, and ingrains the habit.
  • Avoid distractions. Free your reading time from phone and computer notifications, the TV, and anything else that might cause your mind to wander.
  • Experiment with different formats. Find out what works best for sustaining your reading habit—paper books, e-books, or audiobooks.
  • Set a reading goal. Make it an easy goal at first to give yourself a positive sense of achievement. After meeting that goal, set a stretch goal. Consider telling a trusted partner about your goal, or joining a reading challenge. That adds social pressure to the task
  • Stop reading a book you don’t like, and start another. If you DNF (did not finish), that’s okay. Very few books get better after the first twenty pages. Life’s too short to read bad books.
  • Bring a book with you whenever you leave home. That way you can read during any idle times that pop up during the day.
  • Join a reading community. Perhaps someone has started a book club in your neighborhood, or you could start one. Online book clubs exist as well.

Come on, America! Let’s turn this trend around and lead the world in reading for pleasure. Doing my best to supply the demand for entertaining fiction, I’m—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 8, 2026Permalink Leave a comment

Heard this One? 7 Authors Walk into a Bar…

Opener to a joke? No. It really happened. Last Saturday, seven of us set up in the open-air seating area of the Oak Street Drafthouse and Cocktail Bar in Denton, Texas.

Selected as the fantasy portion of the Denton READiculous Book Palooza—they dared to call it the “first annual”—we sat at our tables selling books, conversing with readers, and reading excerpts of our writing.

I marred an otherwise eminent group, consisting of CCS Jones, Rhonda Eudaly, Rachel Oslin Bradford, Michelle Miles, Leslie C. Sewell, and Amena Jamali. From watching them at work and from viewing their table setups, I learned more about selling books to potential buyers.

You’re still wondering what happens when seven authors walk into a bar? They peddle books, and we did. It’s different when seven lexicologists walk into a bar. One drinks, one sips, one gulps, one quaffs, one imbibes, one swigs, and one guzzles.

Well, okay. That joke floored ‘em at the lexicology convention.

My thanks to Mindy and Jennifer and the whole staff who organized and put on the Denton READiculous Book Palooza.

If you’re going to put on a book palooza, it helps to have a bar close by. That serves to satisfy the thirsts of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 2, 2026Permalink Leave a comment

Did You See Me at FenCon 2026?

Things fell into place last Saturday when I learned I could set up a table to hawk my wares at FenCon, a science fiction convention based in Dallas, Texas.

I find the etymology of “FenCon” interesting. If “man” earns the plural form “men,” then what’s the plural of “fan?” Fen, of course. It’s a convention for more than one fan of scifi—way more.

The con organizers granted me a prime location for my table, where I sold several books and conversed with buyers and other passers-by. Fellow author Jan S. Gephardt—whom I’ve interviewed—stopped to talk while on the way to her next panel.

This marked the first opportunity to display my new glowing seastead pyramid. It attracted the eye of more than one potential customer.

Many thanks to the FenCon staff for providing a sales table for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 26, 2026Permalink Leave a comment

Bringing My Seastead Pyramid into the 3rd Dimension

When I appear at conventions or other events, I like to display 3D printed models depicting vehicles or other objects from my stories. These help, I hope, attract potential readers’ eyes.

I’m pleased to announce the addition of a new item to my collection.

Behold the pyramidal seastead from the cover of The Seastead Chronicles! My publisher, Pole to Pole Publishing, used a cover image designed by an artist known as 3000ad.

I engaged the services of a 3D-printing designer named Duane Corpe to create a 3D version of that pyramid. Not only did he produce a wonderful model, but he made it big enough that I can put a puck light inside and make the pyramid glow.

The odd shapes on the outside of the pyramid proved a difficult challenge. Much of 3D printing design involves combining existing shapes first developed by others. For the sinuous, over- and under-lapping features you see on the pyramid’s outer surface, no previous models existed. I don’t know how Duane did it, but he created a fantastic display piece!

In previous blogposts, I’ve shown off the other models in my collection. See this submarine, this Martian tripod fighting machine, this replica of Plato’s Ring of Gyges, this Ottoman spacecraft, this clockwork lion, and this airship.

Almost forgot. When you’re done gawking at the 3D pyramid, consider buying and reading the book The Seastead Chronicles, written by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 22, 2026Permalink 2 Comments

162 Years After the First Successful Submarine Attack

Today I’m updating and reposting an entry first published on February 17, 2025.

On this anniversary, let’s observe a moment of silent reading while we visualize the events of the day some brave submariners made history.

Aboard the Submarine

You’re sitting on a bench, crammed in beside six other sweaty men. Your hands grip a crankshaft, and you turn it under the command of a lieutenant sitting at the bow, to your left. You face the boat’s starboard side three feet away, a blank, curved bulkhead of iron, dripping with condensation. Stale air fills your lungs with each breath. The odors of sweat, urine, oil, and pipe tobacco assault your nostrils.

“Got ’er now,” the lieutenant says. “Dead ahead. For the South, men! Full speed!”

Though exhausted and out of breath, you rotate the crankshaft with all your strength. You’re determined to strike a blow for your side’s cause, and you’re confident of success.

You feel a powerful impact and hear a loud explosion.

CSS Hunley

By late 1863, the Confederacy searched for any advantage that might reverse the currents of the Civil War. The Union blockade of Charleston hindered vital supply lines and had proved impenetrable. If the Grey could not defeat the Blue on the surface, what about underwater?

People had tried submarines in battle before, but never met success. Inventor Horace Hunley believed his boat stood a good chance to break the blockade. Forty feet long and four feet in diameter, CSS Hunley introduced the cigar shape common to all later military submarines. Armed with a keg of explosives mounted on a spar projecting from her bow, the craft aimed to ram its prey, blast a hole in its hull, and sink it.

Poor Performance Record

An innovative boat requires a well-trained crew, and they made frequent practice runs. Just as the men began to gain proficiency, tragedy struck. On August 29, 1863, a mishap occurred, killing five crewmembers, who sank with the craft.

Still, the Confederacy needed a victory, so they recovered the Hunley and obtained a fresh crew. This time, Horace Hunley himself, the craft’s inventor, manned the boat. They completed many test runs until, on October 15, the submarine flooded again, killing all eight men aboard.

After a boat kills two crews, most of us would abandon further tries. The desperation of the South, though, had reached a point beyond rational calculation of odds. They raised the boat once more, removed its dead, and somehow obtained a third crew.

Attack and Aftermath

On the night of February 17, 1864, that crew rammed the Hunley into the side of USS Housatonic. The spar-mounted keg exploded, crippling the Union ship and sinking her with the loss of five sailors. The Hunley’s crew had performed the first successful submarine attack in history.

People waited on shore for the submarine, but the little craft never returned. Some thought the craft got sucked into the hole it created, but that proved untrue. Searchers found the Hunley in 1995, and salvagers raised her in 2000. Today, she rests on display at a museum in Charleston.

Rebel Spirit

Yes, the Confederacy fought to preserve the vile institution of slavery and lost the war. Even so, we can still admire the bravery of those men in the Hunley. They volunteered to serve aboard an experimental craft that had already killed two crews. They endured horrendous conditions in a cramped iron tube, hoping to free their countrymen from a blockade when no other recourse seemed possible.

Having served on a submarine, I feel a kinship with the Hunley crews. I’ve written a ghost story called Rebel Spirit about one of the crewman. You can purchase it in ebook or paperback format.

Thank you for sharing, on this anniversary, a somber moment of remembrance of the CSS Hunley crew along with—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 17, 2026Permalink Leave a comment