Michael "Mike" Stearns is a major fictional character created by author-editor Eric Flint in the best selling science-fiction series 1632, and is arguably the most central and visibly important protagonist in the series as a whole. Cast as a "non-traditional leader type" in the lead novel 1632 (novel), Stearns is an ex-prize fighter and college drop-out that holds the position as the regional president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) local chapter, and is hosting and paying for his sister Rita's wedding reception as the first novel begins. He is introduced being painfully polite to his brother-in-law Tom Simpson's parents, and in particular the stuck-up overbearing conceited corporate CEO father John Simpson who acts as the first novels' most visible resident jerk, in-town ant