Book Description

All Grown Up Now is an autobiographical novel about one man's journey from being a green kid on Oklahoma, to being "all grown up now".Two gay men in early 1980s Oklahoma find themselves in a lifelong friendship that transcends the simple label of “friends.” When domestic violence tears their world apart, a desperate act sets the course for healing and a profound new outlook on life. A tale of retail, revenge, re-invention, reckless behavior, and really good clothes, Kenneth D. King's debut is a rollicking coming-of-age story. Growing up as a young gay man in Oklahoma City, the capital city of Places To Not Grow Up Fabulous In, King is designing Barbie dresses by the age of four and knows that his destiny lies as a fashion designer in The Big City. Which Big City isn't necessarily named—it is more of an ideal, where pageantry, fabulous parties, and beautiful clothes are the staples of life. Working tirelessly to graduate from college with a degree in fashion merchandising, he takes his first job as a window display designer, where he meets colleague Mark and strikes up a friendship that will change them both forever.When Mark moves with his significant other, Victor, to San Francisco, he takes a job as a display manager for a chain of stores and hires Ken. Big City, here he comes! But Mark and Victor keep a dark secret of spousal abuse that strains the friendship to its limits. But when Mark needs to be rescued, Ken is there to execute an intricate—and dangerous—kidnapping to save his friend. What he doesn't fully realize, however, is how dramatically that act of friendship will change the course of both of their lives.Beginning as a collection of stories that helped King make sense of an important, tumultuous friendship in his life, this riveting, non-linear depiction of their relationship and the tragic pain caused by domestic violence is as heartbreaking as it is hilarious. Depicting moments in the author's life that sparkle individually, All Grown Up Now: A Friendship in Three Acts creates a jewel of a work that is funny, engaging, and powerful.Kenneth D. King is an haute couture designer in New York. His couture clothing and accessories are in many private collections, have appeared in music videos and television commercials, and are in the permanent museum collections of the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. You can view his design work at: www.kennethdking.com. A writer of books on different aspects of design and sewing technique, King's published works include various articles to Threads magazine, Designer Techniques (Sterling Publishing, 1996), Designer Bead Embroidery (Quarto Publishing, 2006), Cool Couture (Creative Publishing, 2008), and eleven self-published books on CD covering different couture garment construction topics. From 1994-1996 King appeared as the sewing expert on twenty-six episodes of the PBS television series "Sewing Today" and has appeared on a number of TV shows promoting his couture creations and sewing expertise.