J.M. "Mike" Hayes was a town kid in Hutchinson, Kansas until his grandfather died when Mike was seven. His family moved to a farm to live with his grandmother and school was suddenly ten miles away. Playmates were no longer nearby, but space was-a quarter section (160 acres). From then on, books and their authors were Mike's best friends. When he wasn't securely tucked between their pages, he was dragging their plots and characters out to the family's fields and outbuildings. That's part of why he writes, to try to repay the gifts authors gave him in his youth-wonderful companions who filled many lonely hours.

Mike hopes his Arizona WWII historical novel, The Grey Pilgrim, and his fictional Benteen County, Kansas, Mad Dog & Englishman series, with its frantic Murphy's-Law-kind-of-day mysteries, have done the same for others. The latest, Server Down, combines Kansas, Arizona, the magical realm of a massive online computer game, and a jab at political corruption. Mike's passions include reading, running, swimming, and annoying politicians through neighborhood activism. He lives in Tucson with his wife Barbara in a house full of books and German Shepherds.