Even as she gears up for a book signing at one of her favorite local haunts, My Favorite Books, new author Donna Brown admits that she never thought she’d write a book. She developed a voracious appetite for reading from her father and was praised for her writing by her peers and teachers in school.

However, she pursued her bachelor’s in criminology from Florida State University, putting her on the path to the Tallahassee Police Department.

Brown served for 26 years on the force and spent a decade of her tenure supervising the homicide unit. Writing reappeared on her horizon only after retirement, and her muse came from an unlikely place.

With the climate around law enforcement shifting in the past couple years, Brown saw an opportunity to open a dialogue between the men and women sworn to serve and their communities, and so she began to write “Behind and Beyond the Badge.”

“I’ll be the first to tell you that there are those who shouldn’t be doing the job, and when a police officer does something questionable it comes into the media spotlight,” said Brown. “I was blessed to work with some amazing people. These people live in and love the same communities, and the more I got to thinking about it, I thought this was something readers needed to know — they need to know the person.”

Brown followed up on the idea with a handful of individuals, and though she was nervous about approaching her colleagues, there was an overwhelmingly positive response to share their stories. Using her skills as an investigator, Brown devised a questionnaire that she disseminated to the “village of first responders” and police officers she chose to include in the book.

As a new writer, she said her biggest challenge was getting each story “right,” in conveying thoughts and emotions. Writing in the early morning hours is when she felt most focused, and she relied heavily on the foundation her schooling in grammar and English provided her, as well as a patient editor who taught her about the publishing process. Brown also picked the brains of two local authors, Judge Terry Lewis and William Mark.

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