Ken Conklin is a native of Los Angeles, he has lived in Botetourt County, Virginia, for the past seventeen years. He is the author of NORVEL: An American Hero about Botetourt County native Norvel Lee, for which he was presented a 2022 Kegley Preservation Award. The book also inspired the Commonwealth of Virginia to designate a section of US220 to be known as the Norvel LaFallette Ray Lee Memorial Highway. Ken is also the author of The Zen of Ken, a collection of his poems. His essays have been published in The Roanoke Times and other publications such as the Victoria Advocate, Easy Reader, and Microwave Journal. Although always a writer, he made his living in the technology industry as a business development and general management executive. In those roles he had the opportunity to travel throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The experiences from those travels inform his writing. Ken enjoys golf, hiking the beautiful trails of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and attending local live music events. He continues, however, to root for the Los Angeles Dodgers.