Stan R. Mitchell writes action-packed thrillers, which readers have compared to the works of Vince Flynn, Lee Child, and Stephen Hunter. He's the author of "Sold Out," "Soldier On," and "Little Man, and the Dixon County War."
Mitchell grew up in the South, in the mountains of East Tennessee. He learned to hunt and shoot at a young age and joined the Marine Corps after high school, insisting his recruiter guarantee him in writing an infantry billet.
During his time in the Marine Corps, Mitchell served as a rifleman and earned a Combat Action Ribbon when his platoon took part in hostilities in Albania in 1997 (Operation Silver Wake). He was honorably discharged as a Sergeant after four years of service.
Mitchell entered college after the Marines, attending the University of Tennessee. Ambitious as always, he carried a heavy workload each semester and refused to take the summers off, instead going year-round and working close to 30 hours a week. He also launched a furniture assembly business on the side with a friend, and as fate would have it, this bout of entrepreneurship would not be his last.
Following graduation from UT with a journalism degree, Mitchell worked as a reporter at several newspapers and refined his style of writing. But he would eventually feel the tug of entrepreneurship again, so he launched his own weekly newspaper at the age of 27.
With just $20,000, Mitchell founded The Oak Ridge Observer in 2004. He would go on to call that decision something even crazier than entering Marine Corps boot camp at the age of 17. Despite a divorce, a near bankruptcy, and a bout practically homeless living in a friend's basement rent-free, Mitchell's newspaper managed to survive its early years and continues to grow more than eight years later.
Mitchell lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and when he's not working at his newspaper with his wife Danah, he's usually either writing, working out, or practicing martial arts. Learn more here: http://stanrmitchell.com.
