Powers, Dennis M.

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Powers, Dennis M.

PERSONAL:

Married; wife's name Judy; children. Education: University of Colorado in Boulder, B.A.; University of Denver Law School, J.D.; Harvard Business School, M.B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Ashland, OR.

CAREER:

Writer, educator, and lawyer. Southern Oregon University, Ashland, faculty member, 1995—. Previously worked in investment and finance and established a law practice in Santa Barbara, CA.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Legal Street Smarts: How to Survive in a World of Lawyers, foreword by Harry N. MacLean, Insight Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Legal Expense Defense: How to Control Your Business' Legal Costs and Problems, edited by Linda Pinkham, Oasis Press (Grants Pass, OR), 1995.

Beating the Tough Times: How to Win Your Financial and Personal Battles, Insight Books (New York, NY), 1995.

The Office Romance: Playing with Fire without Getting Burned, American Management Association (New York, NY), 1999.

The Internet Legal Guide: Everything You Need to Know When Doing Business Online, Wiley (New York, NY), 2002.

The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Treasure Ship: The Legend and Legacy of the S.S. Brother Jonathan, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Sentinel of the Seas, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dennis M. Powers began his career working in finance and then as a lawyer before turning to writing. "Since I was a young boy growing up, I have always loved reading books of all types and writing," Powers noted in an interview with Richard R. Blake on the Reader Views Web site. "I have written newspaper and magazine articles ranging from single life and legal matters to cooking, office romances, and overseas travel. I write fiction and short stories, and my poetry has been published. I love the process. I actually switched careers to teach so that I would have more time for my reading, writing, and researching. Nonfiction is interesting to me, because I learn about lives, living, and different eras in the process."

The author's initial books were on business and law and include The Office Romance: Playing with Fire without Getting Burned. In the book, the author offers his take on the notorious "office romance" as a pervasive part of the workplace, and provides ideas for people to minimize problems associated with a work-related romance. He also discusses the various laws pertaining to relationships in the workplace and sexual harassment. "This realistic and timely book is worth considering," wrote Joan Pedzich in the Library Journal.

In later books, Powers has turned to writing about historical episodes in history involving the sea. In The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History, Powers writes about four tsunami waves that were caused by an earthquake in Alaska and slammed into Crescent City, California, a small town near the Oregon border. The catastrophe killed eleven people. Powers tells the stories of survivors, such as Gary Clawson, who witnessed half of his family and his fiancée drown when a boat they were in capsized. "This is a very readable narrative," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Treasure Ship: The Legend and Legacy of the S.S. Brother Jonathan focuses on the sinking of the steamer Brother Jonathan off of the northern California coast in 1865 and the attempt by treasure hunters more than a century later to recover the consignment of gold coins the ship was carrying. Roland Green, writing in Booklist, commented that the author's "narrative grabs and holds with its rich details of nineteenth-century seafaring and modern treasure salvaging."