Would you like to get to know the team at Cary Magazine a little better? Sure, you can head over to our “about us” page and read our professional bios, but as a lifestyle magazine, we’d like to connect with our readers on a different level. You haven’t read her writing yet, but her hard work is coming to our pages in the April issue. Here’s your chance to put a face with the name.
Introduce yourself!
Hello, everyone! I’m the staff writer for Cary Magazine and Wake Living. I was born in Scotland and raised in South Africa and have spent the years since I moved to the US living between several states and islands. I’m excited to be a part of the team!
What drew you to become a writer?
My longstanding love of language and literature has always found its form on the page. I’m compelled to express myself through written words.
What book are you reading right now?
I tend to read simultaneously in batches, but the last book I finished was Ramona Ausubel’s heartbreaking but hopeful (and humor filled) The Last Animal.
If you won the lottery, what would you buy first?
I think I’d invest in experiences over items — though I don’t have anything specific in mind. I’ve never purchased a lottery ticket in my life, and don’t plan to anytime soon, so I think I’m safe from having to make any decisions!
Do you have any pets?
Maximus
I have a 75-pound rescue mutt named Maximus. I’ve always been an animal lover and would have a pack of dogs if I could.
What brought you to North Carolina?
Family! I’ve been visiting the state since my brother attended college here, so when the chance arose for everyone to be together the decision required very little thought. Moving to Raleigh 18 months ago was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Tell us about something you love.
Much to her dismay, I must say my daughter. She recently turned 13 and is giving me the kind of grief that tells me things are going as they should be as far as her growing up is concerned. She’s also the kindest and most empathetic friend anyone could have, and witty beyond words.
Do you trend toward tidy or messy?
Definitely messy — and not just messy, but disorganized-messy. I’d love to have things more together, but I find neatness exhausting and can never keep up with it. A certain level of disarray seems to be my status quo, so I’ve stopped fighting my natural tendency to “spread out” and have come to recognize that I’m most creative in a somewhat chaotic environment.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
I am genuinely tone-deaf, so I won’t put anyone (including myself) through that experience.
If you had a time machine, where would you go?
This was the topic of a conversation I had a week or so ago! Hands down, the Library of Alexandria at its height. But I’d also welcome a secondary mystery time machine that would take me to the scene of many notorious crimes so I could discover what really went down … though I suspect I’d only end up disappointed by the ordinariness of the truth.
Do you collect anything?
This probably won’t come as any surprise, but books. I have my favorite childhood books, as well as texts from every level of my education, near me. In fact, my body will likely be found someday under a stack of them.
What was your first job?
I was a hostess at my local Steak & Ale Restaurant, back when wide open salad bars were still a thing.
What’s on your bucket list?
I don’t maintain a bucket list, but I do keep an anti-bucket list: places I don’t want to ever go and things I never want to try … outer space and hot-air ballooning being two such examples.
I would like to see if Erin would be interested in a copy of my book, Everhaven. A futuristic retirement community run by AI. Here is my bio: Scott A. Stowell is a writer and creative producer whose storytelling spans music, film, and fiction. Before turning to novels, he served as Executive Producer on an album by the classic rock band “Zoid” and helped raise production funds for the Hollywood film “Lady in White”. His earlier works include two books on finding love and personal fulfillment. He crafts thrillers that ask unsettling questions about the future we’re building, and who’s really in control.
His debut novel, Everhaven, merges high-stakes investigation with the eerie pulse of artificial intelligence, exploring how greed, data, and human ambition intertwine in a world that feels closer than you would think. His storytelling exposes the human cost of innovation and asks one question that lingers long after the final page: What happens when the machines we build start to understand us too well?
He lives in Willow Spring, North Carolina, and is at work on his next novel in the Everhaven universe. With Everhaven, Stowell channels his passion for human connection and his fascination with the power and peril of technology into a gripping suspense thriller that explores how far we’ll go to control our destiny.