About The Author


Ken Dickson lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Beth and a motley crew of pets. He is a Principal Engineer at a major electronics manufacturer; however, after surgery and medications left him mentally ill and landed him in a high-security psychiatric ward, he felt strongly compelled to prevent the same thing from happening to others. Subsequently, he embarked upon a second career as a writer and published his first book, Detour from Normal, in 2013.

While an editor reviewed the first draft of Detour from Normal (initially fiction), Ken’s creative energy continued. Over the following ten days, he wrote two hundred pages of a sequel. Later, when he met with the editor, she convinced him to re-write Detour from Normal as a memoir.

“I’ve written two hundred pages of a sequel. What do I do with that?” He asked in despair.

“If it’s in your heart to write it, then you must write it,” she responded.

Writing a memoir and following it up with a fictional sequel is unheard of. Nevertheless, that’s what Ken did, penning his own alternate history as if he had personally lived it. In 2016, he published the finished product: The Road to Amistad. Written in the same memoir style, it picks up where part three of Detour from Normal leaves off.

On April 30, 2018, Ken published his third book, a memoir entitled Aim for Justice that details the loss of his Right to Bear Arms due to mental illness and his fight to regain it. Half the size of his other books, Aim for Justice is intentionally fast-paced, down-to-earth, and lacking in fluff, making it ideal for readers with limited time who long for an engaging read.

An avid adventurer, Ken has travelled to 18 foreign countries. Most recently, he completed a 1300 mile road-trip through India and a 2100-mile, nine-day solo motorcycle ride through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. After that, he travelled to Loreto and Adolfo Lopez Mateos on the Baja Peninsula where he petted grey whales and photographed blue whales in their natural environment.

For more information about Ken’s books, please visit the Books page.

For information about his other work, please visit the Media page.