Larry Brown is one of the leading writers and been praised for his graphic, raw fiction about the rural South and stories featuring characters who are common and poor, and struggling with such real-life issues as marital strife, alcoholism, suicide, and the shock and ordeal of war. Brown labored in a number of jobs over the years, which included carpenter, lumberjack, and many minor jobs like these, however he began his writing career while his career as a firefighter, when he retired to write full-time. Brown's first book was a collection of stories, Facing the Music published in the year1988.