Ken lives near Washington, DC with his wife Pat and short-haired tabby, Sunshine. Born in Shanghai at a time when all the rest of the Americans had evacuated, Ken enjoyed the vagabond life of an Army brat, living in Japan, Germany and states on both coasts.
After a year at The Citadel (during Pat Conroy’s time there) Ken felt the need for a place that was more about creativity and academic freedom, than the fine art of marching and weapon management. At Windham College he had the good fortune to study writing under John Irving, Bruce Dobler and Don Harrington. Lifelong friendships and a love of Vermont were forged there. His first novel Dead End File is set largely in Brattleboro and Putney. Ken has recently completed his second novel, Beyond the Boathouse which is set in Southwest Harbor, Maine. He is actively seeking representation for his fiction.
After teaching in Fairfax County, Virginia, Ken embarked on a career in publishing. At the outset of his publishing career, he carried a Congressional press pass, covering the news in worker safety, equal employment, energy and environmental regulation. Sex Discrimination in the Workplace, Noise Control in the Workplace, and The Occupational Safety and Health Compliance Manual, and The Orthopedic Patient Education Manual are professional reference books written by Ken Lawrence, published by Aspen Publishers, Inc. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001 Ken created and developed EMPro, a web-hosted reference that helps hospitals develop their own emergency management systems. This was published by Global Village Publishing, Inc. Ken also held top DC-area publishing posts with Aspen Publishers (Wolters-Kluwer), The Association of Corporate Counsel, Government Institutes, and Bernan Press.
Ken is currently working on his third novel as well as short fiction. He has written an unpublished collection of poetry Spiders, Cattails and Other Things. Individual poems from this collection were published in Altertide, The Paper Mill, and Bark literary magazines. He received an award from the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences for excellence in poetry and another for best nursing reference by the American Library Association.
Ken is a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, the Washington Book Publishers Association, and the Bethesda Writing Center.