Former Sentinel writer launches new book, ‘The Murder Plague’
A former Orlando Sentinel writer has launched his second full-length novel, weaving a tale of dystopian fiction that touches on pandemics, mass murder and a society plagued by quick-trigger anger.
Ground zero for this new virus is Orlando, as “The Murder Plague” details in scenes at Universal CityWalk, Disney and other recognizable Central Florida locations. Scott Michael Powers, who wrote for the Sentinel for 15 years before working at Florida Politics, used this fictional novel to touch on real-life topics.
“A new pandemic breaks out from a research lab. The virus attacks the brain and causes people to go into psychotic rages,” he said. “They go around and kill people. You’ve got the risk of being killed almost anywhere you go or catching the disease yourself.”
While he started writing this book before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said the reality shift that began in 2020 helped inspire parts of his writing.
“I think we all learned a great deal about how society responds to a pandemic,” Powers said. “There’s a great deal of quick-trigger anger right now.”
The storyline was inspired by a real nightmare Powers had one night.
“It was a zombie-esque dream where everywhere you went, people were trying to kill you. Except they weren’t zombies,” he said. The two main topics here are mass murders and the threat of pandemics in our society. We’ve been living through both of those.”
In this fictional universe inspired in part by real events and places, Powers said that people initially don’t take the virus seriously until the novel’s protagonist, Kenetha Wilson, starts sounding the alarm.
“Her friend was one of the first ones to go crazy. She is convinced that this is causing normal people to act abnormally,” he said. “It takes a while for society to begin to accept and believe
that maybe this is a biological virus that is causing this to happen.”
One of the benefits of fiction writing, Powers said, is the limitless creativity that can be explored in comparison to fact-based journalism.
“Kanetha Wilson ended up becoming such a strong person that I followed her while writing the book. She kind of took over,” he said. “You can plan the heck out of the book if you want, but write those plans in pencil.”
Even as he wrote, revisions were made right up until the point the book was set to print.
“The writing process is never finished until it's printed. I was making revisions for this weeks before the publication date,” Powers said.
Purchase “The Murder Plague” for $21.95 on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble or direct through the publisher at blackrosewriting.com/ thrillers/themurderplague.