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Ken Miller
was born in Brooklyn, grew up in California
and since 1970 has lived in Tacoma WA. His work
has included community organizing and corporate
public affairs. A political science graduate
of the University of California, Santa Barbara,
he's been active in politics for 40 years.
Ken's
writing reflects his interest in the intersection
of public and private interests. At that intersection,
he says, we can see some spectacular crashes.
He's driven through more than once. As public
affairs planning director for a Fortune 100
multinational, Ken worked with lobbyists at
the local, state and national levels to identify
the company's public policy goals and craft
strategies to pursue them. Sometimes this pitted
one company against another; often it meant
reconciling shareholder goals with the larger
public interest.
Drew
Alexander
is the central character of Langata Rules and
a projected series of adventure novels. Drew
is in his late 20s, a Londoner who grew up traveling
the world with his diplomat mother and his father,
who may have been a spy. Drew joined MI 5, Britain's
domestic security force, after college and helped
investigate the Tube bombings. Then, partly
because of his language skills, he was seconded
to MI 6, the international force, akin to the
American CIA. Drew worked on the border between
Pakistan and Afghanistan until he was captured
and tortured. He returned home, got a masters
in economics from the London School and joined
Tembley Marine, a shadowy shipping company with
government connections and illegal cargos. Drew
is ironic, lethal, unlucky in love. On a spectrum
from James Bond to George Smiley, he's closer
to Smiley but not dumpy.
----The
second book in the series - tentatively titled
Edible Air - is set in New Orleans, where Drew
investigates the death of a Tembley crew member
and gets embroiled in an international competition
for control of a lithium field in Central America.
Lithium is an essential and scarce element in
electric car batteries, and the field happens
to lay under a massive cocaine operation.
----The
third book will focus on environmental degradation
in advance of Olympic Games. The fourth will
be set around the Black Sea, and will deal with
international traffic in women and girls.
----While
the books stand alone, they're unified by Drew's
unfolding character, and by the nexus of politics,
private interests and crime.
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