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 Kevin at West Dennis Book Signing
Kevin with radio host Jordan Rich
Kevin with WBZ's Eric Fisher at an Event

Kevin Symmons Brief Bio

Over the course of a fruitful life, Kevin Symmons has had the kind of diversity and success that many would envy. He’s been a soldier, athlete, studied and has a minor in classical music (though he detoured to rock and folk in the ’70s), studied in France, is a Coast Guard certified small boat captain, a serious fund-raiser, business consultant, and much, much more.

For much of his life—between the early 1970s and the late 1990’s—his mission and that of the management team he helped to assemble grew Symmons Industries into one of New England’s most profitable and energetic manufacturing organizations. The Braintree facility where he served as President boasted hundreds of skilled employees, multiple buildings with 150,000 square feet of space, and state of the art manufacturing and office systems. Symmons and his team referred to their hi-tech computerized training facility as the plumbing industries answer to “Top Gun!”

But after three decades as a successful executive during which he’d garnered numerous awards, was appointed to the prestigious Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership, and was a sought-after keynote speaker, Kevin was ready for a change.

Early in the millennium, Kevin resigned his lucrative and respected executive position, to ski the Alps, cruise the waters of New England, take his lovely wife around the world, and spoil his soon to be born grandchildren.

Kevin, Son, and Grandson on Cape Cod Where He Spends his Summers

As Kevin would soon learn, “When you want to hear God laugh, tell him your dreams!”

Nine days after he resigned and turned in his position, while shifting a sandbag in his trunk, he suffered pain unlike any he had ever imagined. Diagnosed in Boston by a world-class orthopedic surgeon as a fractured disc, Kevin would spend the remainder of the winter and early spring of 2002 hobbled, barely able to move as he was sustained by a diet of flexerils, percosets and vicodens.

While he recovered Kevin engaged in writing business plans for non-profits and building not one but two small Internet marketing and website businesses. While this gave him something to occupy his time it was not, he soon discovered, the way he wanted to spend the many years his early retirement would leave him.

Kevin at a Major Fund-Raising Event

He sold his small interests in these fledgling ventures and at the suggestion of his wife, he began to dabble with his laptop, crafting outlines and concepts for something he had always wanted to do since college but never thought he would have a chance to fulfill: writing a novel.

In August of 2005 after spending months dabbling with outlines and some very rough drafts, he felt he was ready for the next level and signed up for the first of many writing conferences he would attend in the years ahead.

While receiving some encouragement at his first Cape Cod Writers Center Conference, Kevin had no doubt he had much more to do and plenty to learn about writing a successful novel. With the characteristic tenacity that had carried through various careers, pitfalls, and experiences, he took his manuscript home and attacked it vigorously.

What emerged within a few months was a women’s novel that has since been transformed into a screenplay by one of the area’s finest screenwriters and playwrights. Kevin sought and found a literary agent who began shopping the novel titled, When Summer Ends, to various publishers.

When he looks back fondly on those early days as he crafted his fledgling novel, dialoguing late into the night with his wife and his editor about character, plot, and setting

Kevin with his Writing Group—David Litwack, Kevin, Chris Zaniboni and Arlene Kay

Today his writing life is entirely different. Kevin has emerged as that rarest of writing creatures: a traditionally published author. His debut novel, Rite of Passage, sold well enough to be a #1 Amazon Best Seller, garnered dozens of 5-star professional and reader reviews, was a finalist in the Rom Con Readers Crown award for excellence in romantic fiction, and eventually chosen by Amazon as one of their prestigious Encore Selections.

His small but respected publisher, New York’s Wild Rose Press, currently has published four more of Kevin’s novels: Out of the Storm, a contemporary romantic thriller set on his longtime summer home of Cape Cod and was also a #1 Amazon best-seller and Amazon Encore Selection; Solo, his favorite, a sweeping, meticulously researched mainstream fiction work that deals with musical theater, publishing, and the horrific problem of domestic violence in America; Chrysalis, a YA romantic thriller, that takes place over the summer and fall of 9/11 and his most recent, Eye of the Storm, his long-awaited sequel to Out of the Storm that many say is his best yet.

In addition to his writing, Kevin taught creative writing at a local community college and served four terms as President of the respected Cape Cod Writers Center, the same place where he attended that first conference in 2005. He’s many articles (his favorite is titled, “Man in the Wilderness” and deals with the conundrum of being a male romance writer), speaks and teaches frequently, and does his best to serve as an example for those fledgling writers he often meets 

Kevin at Cape Cod Writers Center Event with Barbara Struna and Andrew Singer

When he looks back on what has now become a successful decade and a half career Kevin credits the friends he made early in his experience as a struggling author. People like Arlene Kay, a very successful author in her own right, who was his writing partner for years and would never let him give up despite the angst and frustration of numerous rejections. When asked what he tells others who are struggling and want to abandon their quest of traditional publication he tells them to keep learning, submitting, and honing their craft. To quote one of his favorite movie lines, “If it was easy everyone could do it!”

In summary, when asked what he thinks about his latest and perhaps favorite career, Kevin recalls the line from JFK during the early days of The Peace Corps… writing is, he tells us: “Is the toughest job you’ll ever love!”

Kevin has a BS from Northeastern University, an MBA from Babson College, and endless awards and commendations from a variety of organizations and industries. Contact him at www.ksymmons.com, on his FB author’s page, on Twitter (@KevinSymmons), Goodreads, Amazon.com, and Instagram

Visit Kevin on his FB Author Page, @KevinSymmons on Twitter, at Goodreads, and Amazon.

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Romance Writers of America

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MEMBER OF AUTHORS GUILD

CCWC

Cape Cod Writers Center

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