Wilcox County author Mike Stewart celebrates his 64th birthday today

Wilcox Academy grad Mike Stewart

Happy 64^th birthday to Wilcox County author Mike Stewart.

Many of you in the reading audience will know or remember Stewart, who was born on May 15, 1955. He grew up in Vredenburgh and graduated from Wilcox Academy in 1973. From there, he went on to Auburn University and then earned a law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham.

By my count, Stewart has written four novels, which have garnered acclaim in such prestigious publications as The New York Times and Publishers Weekly. His books (and the year they were published) include “Sins of the Brother” (1999), “Dog Island” (2001), “A Clean Kill” (2002) and “A Perfect Life” (2004). The first three books feature fictional Mobile attorney Tom McInnes, and the bulk of those tales are set in Alabama. “A Perfect Life” centers around a fictional Boston psychologist named Scott Thomas.

I will never forget the first time that I met Mike Stewart, who makes a strong first impression. As part of the promotional tour for one of his early novels, he held a book-signing at the Old Monroe County Courthouse in downtown Monroeville. At that time, I was a young reporter at The Monroe Journal newspaper and had been tasked with making the short walk over to the courthouse to snap Stewart’s picture for the following week’s edition.

Stewart’s book signing was held in the old courthouse’s large courtroom, which was used as the model for the courtroom in the Academy Award-winning motion picture version of Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Stewart was seated in the judge’s chair and was busy signing a big stack of books for the people who’d came to see him in person. After taking his picture for the paper, I hung around to interview him, and we hit it off right away.

At that time, I had a year of law school under my belt, so we shared a common interest in the law. Also, come to find out, Stewart was an old newspaper guy, having worked at The Atlanta Journal at one time as a copy editor. I remember that Stewart had a lot of encouraging things to say, and I’ve followed his writing career closely ever since.

Those of you in the reading audience who have read Stewart’s novels will already know how good they are. Those of you who haven’t read them are in for a real treat. Stewart grew up in our neck of the woods, and it really shows in his novels. The way he describes people and places in Alabama are spot on and are a lot of fun to read.

I don’t know if it’s even in the works, but I’ve always felt that his books would make great movies. I’d describe them all as suspenseful thrillers, and it would be a lot of fun to see them on the big screen. No doubt the film rights have already been scooped up by an enterprising studio somewhere.

In the end, I again want to wish Stewart another big happy birthday, and I hope that he has many more. I know I speak for a lot of his fans when I say that I hope he’s working on another book. While we wait, I might just go back and re-read his earlier ones just for old time’s sake.