Michael A. Clement Morphs from Auditor to Architect of Alien Daydreams

In this episode of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory, Mookie sits down with Michael A. Clement, a former finance professional turned speculative fiction writer, to trace the unlikely path from spreadsheets to stories, and why it worked.Clement didn’t come up through the usual writer pipeline. No MFA. No lifelong literary obsession. Just a late-life pivot sparked by a single idea: what if a machine chose not to obey? From there, things escalated into asteroid-mining AI blackmailers, homicidal appliances, buffoonish aliens, and deeply human stories about loss, memory, and moral consequence.Mookie and Michael dig into: The moment creativity ignites—and why it sometimes waits decadesHow classic influences like The Twilight Zone shaped Clement’s moral, allegorical styleWriting as a second-act reinvention, not a lifelong identityThe power of speculative fiction to tackle real-world issues without triggering defensesMicrofiction, AI-assisted storytelling, and the strange new tools reshaping creativityThe uncomfortable truth about publishing: slush piles, gatekeepers, and a system begging to be disrupted by AI helping creators connect to consumersThey also dive the looming collision between human creators and AI—where convenience, creativity, and obsolescence start to blur. Is AI a tool, a collaborator, or the thing that replaces you? Michael's answer is pragmatic: create anyway, write anyway, and leave something behind.The GuestMichael was raised in San Diego, California. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Master of Business Administration from the University of San Francisco. Most of his career was spent in financial services. Since 2006, Michael has made Hong Kong his home. Now retired, he writes science fiction as a hobby. Michael has written seven books: five novellas: Khrysos, This Book Is A Murderer, Chasing Roswell, Pan-ego, and Zogtopia (which have been combined into a collection, Alien Journey Ahead); one collection of short stories, Cosmic Portal, and one novelette, Alien Daydreams (his latest book).His Writinghttps://www.facebook.com/Michael.A.Clement.Bookshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelaclementhttp://www.amazon.com/author/author_khrysos_bookWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show