Meet Mike Brown | Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

I retired from my corporate marketing and sales position in the transportation industry in 2000 and finished some degree work that led me to postgraduate studies at a seminary in New Orleans. Afterward, a “bucket list” opportunity to teach and coach football at the high school level in Alabama and Florida followed. Seven years later, I retired a second time and my wife and I moved to Newnan, Georgia to enjoy grandkids in 2010. I grew restless by 2012 and my wife encouraged me to explore my love of writing, which led me to my current love of writing southern novels. Since Sanctuary, A Legacy of Memories, launched April 2017, I have published three more novels. Along the way, I collaborated with a core group of local writers and founded the Hometown Novel Writers Association, Inc. in Newnan, GA. Since 2018, HNWA has promoted local authors to local audiences at the historic Newnan Carnegie Library and other venues south of Atlanta.

What does the future hold?

Retirement is just a term for discovering new opportunities. I passed down my golf clubs and fishing rods long ago to the grandkids. My wife and I are having fun writing, researching, and promoting my books, when not encouraging other aspiring writers.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

I love my home state of Georgia. Its history and heritage offer fertile soil for authors. My first three novels make up the Shiloh Mystery Series. Each book in the all-audience series offers a standalone mystery/suspense story based in the fictional South Georgia rural town of Shiloh. My most recent novel took me to Darien, GA—Georgia’s second oldest city which lies along the tidewater coast below Savannah. The Last Laird of Sapelo is a historical novel, deeply entrenched in Southern history and features the story of the youngest son of Thomas Spalding—the Benjamin Franklin of Georgia and a friend of Thomas Jefferson. Randolph Spalding inherited his father’s lands on Sapelo Island when his famous father passed in 1851. Like his father, he became a successful planter and a prominent politician, but he failed to prevent Georgia from voting to secede in 1861, unlike his famous father, who had swayed Georgia to not secede in 1850. In the story, Randolph faces the reality of the Union Naval Fleet broaching the horizon and threatening his beloved island home. The story tells how he accepted his commission in Georgia’s militia while racing for one last harvest before removing his family and his enslaved workers far inland. He served under Generals Robert E. Lee and Alexander Lawton. You’ll have to read the story to learn more of the tragedies and conflict he faced on Sapelo and then on Hilton Head Island, before serving in Savannah before his death in March 1862.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Newnan is a historic and picturesque town. There are plenty of places to visit, including outstanding restaurants. And if we meet on the Georgia coast, Sapelo Island and Darien are brimming with stories of days long ago and beautiful sights and great food.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

Martha Boone, a recently retired renowned urological surgeon, has written two fascinating novels based upon her own time in Newnan Orleans as one of the first female surgeons in America, and a non-fiction book where she expounds on questions her patients have asked but she never had the time to address fully in her 35-year career.

Bren McClain, the author of One Good Mama Bone, is one of the most outstanding Southern authors I know. She has been a huge fan and encourager for me personally. Her awards speak volumes, as does the fact Pat Conroy published her novel under his imprint, Story River Books at University of South Carolina Press, just before he passed away.

George Wettstein is likewise an outstanding author, but even more impressive is his commitment to leading Atlanta Writers Club and directing two world renown writers’ conferences annually for the past fifteen years. He has been responsible for an incalculable number of writers getting published.

Patti Callahan Henry’s historical and southern novels have made her a NYT Best-Selling author from Alabama. She took the time to read and review my last novel and her blurb is on the front cover. Patti is truly the Queen of Southern Authors, in my estimation.

Website: tmbrownauthor.com