Mike Stonecypher
Mike Stonecypher was born June 5th Nineteen fifty one in Grady Hospital in Atlanta Georgia. He was the only child of the union of Willard Horace Stonecypher Senior and Doris Jean Parker Treadwell. They were divorced when Mike was two years old. Mike's mother remarried and they moved to Central Illinois. This is where Mike spent most of his elementary school and high school years. They family grew with four more children from the union of his mother and his step father .His step father was a farm hand and worked in the fields for other farmers for meager wages and there were times that there was not any food in the house or shoes for the children to wear to school. The family moved to a new situation often for better wages or benefits such as a side of beef or a hog and sometimes housing was provided as part of the step fathers wages. The housing was usually an old farmhouse that was subpar with no indoor plumbing or central heat. They were lucky to have a coal stove in one room or an oil heater. Many times the only heat for the house was to use the oven. This constant moving was why that Mike attended fourteen different schools in fourteen different school districts in his primary school career. Mike's mother had to work at a job as a waitress of nurses aid at night so the step father could watch the children while she worked but this meant that she could not sleep during the day because the small children need care.
Mike was inspired by his mother who would keep the children entertained by tell stories about her life growing up in Atlanta as a foster child during the great depression. This many times was the only entertainment that the family had because there was no toys to speak of or television. They only had their imaginations to use to make up games and stories. There was no lack of love because their mother made sure that every child knew that they were loved and that she would die to protect them from any danger.
His family moved to Atlanta in the fall of nineteen sixty eight. His step father got a job as a correctional officer in the federal Prison in Atlanta. This was Mike's junior year of high school. He attended Fulton High school and graduated in the spring of nineteen seventy. He then attended Texas Bible College in Houston Texas the school year the fall of Nineteen seventy to spring of nineteen seventy one. While he attended school he often receive encouragement from educators about his writing that he wrote for their assignments such as short stories and poems. and even at times he was asked if his teacher could keep the writings for examples of excellent writing. The family moved to Terre Haute Indiana in the fall of nineteen seventy one. His step father was transferred to the federal prison there as a correctional officer.
In Terre Haute Mike started his apprenticeship as a minster. There he worked for about ten years and received his general minister's License. He became a pastor of a small church in Indiana and ministered there for about six years. Mike was married to Barbara Derr while he was an apprentice in Terre Haute. They had two children one girl and one boy. They Named the girl Charity Ann and the boy Michael Aaron. After thirteen years of marriage they were divorced.
Mike decided to finish his college education and enrolled in the Indiana University. While attending there he was enrolled in a writing class and his professor asked him to allow him to use his writings for examples of good writing for future classes. Then because of finances and personal issues the college education dream had to be put to rest because It was no longer feasible.
Mike worked in various jobs until he retired in two thousand and nineteen from working in public and that was when he started to write. Mike wrote his first book and it was publish in December of twenty twenty four.
The title of his first book is There's a Girebra in the Forest It is a story about a small woodland creature on a journey of self-acceptance and understanding. Through his whimsical interactions with other woodland animals, the main character is able to not only discover who he is but also inspire others to be more empathetic. The journey is filled with danger, but he remains committed to complete his mission and honor his truth.
