Ron Walden has lived on the Kenai Peninsula for more than 40 years and has written 8 books based on his experiences with criminals. Walden was at the new Walgreens grand opening is Soldotna recently to do a personal book signing.

“My books are all Alaska-based stories, they’re fiction-based novels, but everything in them, all the locations are Alaskan. Whatever the story is about, fishing, the pipeline is as real and accurate to Alaska as possible. The people may not be real but all the locations are real, so local people will find their local haunts in all of my books, places folks have seen me at,” said Walden.

Before Alaska, Ron said he hailed from North Idaho.

“We decided if we didn’t get up and move we’d be in the bottom of that valley the rest of our lives so we hooked up a fifth wheel trailer and headed north. I told my wife I thought we were the oldest hippies on the highway,” he said.

For twenty years, Walden worked with the Alaska Department of Corrections.

“That gave me the opportunity to associate with a lot of criminals in my life, which are the experiences I draw from, even though the stories are all fiction. I call them true-to-life stories because each one is plausible and as real as I can make it but not true. I salt my experience with a vivid imagination and association with a lot of criminals over the years that make my books a good read or page turner as some would say,” he said.

Walden will have another book signing at the Sterling Senior Center on Nov. 13 and 14, and will be at the Kenai Fine Arts Bizarre after Thanksgiving on Nov. 27. His books are also available electronically from Amazon.com and other book websites.