Book Tour: Lost Valley Lost Innocence by Ken Tipton

 

 

The True Story of Best Friends Trapped in an International Boy Scout Sex Ring

Two best friends. One hidden network. A childhood stolen under the cover of Scouting.

From 1964 to 1967, Kenny Tipton and Greg Connor were barely teenagers when men they had been taught to trust groomed and sexually exploited them through Boy Scout camps, trips, and activities.

What began at Lost Valley Boy Scout Camp outside St. Louis grew into an organized network that carried the boys through more than twenty states and into the hands of businessmen, law-enforcement officers, politicians, priests, educators, and other powerful men.

To survive, Kenny and Greg depended on each other. They made rules, kept secret records, negotiated with predators, and used intelligence, loyalty, and dark humor to hold on to some measure of control. As the danger escalated, they became caught in blackmail, betrayal, violence, and crimes that would haunt Kenny for decades.

Lost Valley – Lost Innocence is Ken Tipton’s firsthand account of stolen childhoods, institutional failure, buried secrets, and the lifelong consequences of survival.

But at its heart is something the men who exploited them could not take away: the friendship between two boys who protected one another when the adults around them would not.

Decades later, Ken finally breaks the silence.

Told with brutal honesty and unexpected humor, this is a survivor memoir about friendship, resilience, guilt, and the courage required to confront the past.

Some stories are difficult to believe because they are too horrifying to imagine.

This one happened.

Lost Valley – Lost Innocence is available at Amazon.

╰┈➤Book Details 

🏕 Title: Lost Valley –  Lost Innocence
🏕 Author: Ken Tipton
🏕 Genre: Memoir
🏕 Sub-genre: Sexual Assault/True Crime
🏕 Language:English
🏕 Pages: 365
🏕 Paperback ISBN: 979-8234067685
🏕 Publisher: TBRIS Media, Inc.
🏕 Publication Date: June 22, 2026
🏕 Price: Hardcover $27.99, Paperback $18.99, Kindle $7.99, FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Excerpt:

 

In 2020, more than fifty years after I left the Lost Valley Boy Scout camp, I returned to the woods west of St. Louis, near St. Charles, Missouri, in search of a small yellow suitcase called the "Banana," which I hoped would prove my story. 

That sentence may seem straightforward: an old man returns to a childhood camp to search for something his best friend buried when they were boys. It sounds almost sweet and nostalgic—like the kind of harmless story people share at reunions, once the pain has faded with time and memories have mellowed.

But memory doesn’t behave the same way for me. It lurks, it hides, and it resurfaces when I least expect it.

Lost Valley was never merely a camp to me; it was both my prison and my sanctuary.

– Excerpted from Lost Valley - Lost Innocence by Ken Tipton, TBRIS Media Inc., 2026. Reprinted with permission.

Author Interview

 Tell me about yourself. Where are you from?

KT: I was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up in Missouri, including Columbia and St. Charles, outside St. Louis. Today, I live in Southern California with my wife, Darlene. I’m a U.S. Air Force veteran, entrepreneur, writer, producer, and director. My life has included building businesses, making movies, starting over after some very difficult setbacks, and finally publishing a story I kept hidden for decades.

At 74, I still have more ideas than time to pursue them. Movies, storytelling, and poker are among my interests. I’m also the author of Lost Valley — Lost Innocence, a memoir about my childhood friendship with Greg Connor, the abuse we experienced, and the long journey toward telling the truth about it.

What genres do you read? Who are your top five authors?

KT: Actually, I don't read books. I have a learning disorder called aphantasia where I don't see pictures in my brain. I listen to audiobooks from Steven King, Dan Brown, Mark Twain, Robert Silverberg, and Sarah Paretsky. 

What book are you reading right now, and what do you like about it?

KT: I'm re-listening to Agatha Christie's "The ABC Murders."

Favorite sports?

KT: Poker is my game of choice. I enjoy the strategy, patience, and challenge of making decisions when you don’t have all the information. There is also a wonderful cast of characters around almost any poker table, which appeals to the writer in me.

And, fortunately, it’s one competition where I don’t have to outrun anybody.

What is your favorite thing about the state or country where you live?

KT: For me, one of the best things about California is its connection to filmmaking and creative people. Movies fascinated me as a child, so having the opportunity to work in that world has meant a great deal.

California has also been a place where I could start over. I came here with stories to tell and no guarantee that anyone would help me tell them. There were plenty of obstacles, but there were opportunities, too. I appreciate being somewhere that has allowed me to keep pursuing ideas rather than deciding it was too late.

How long have you been writing?

KT: I have been writing for decades. The first version of Lost Valley — Lost Innocence dates back to 1988, although the memoir was not published until 2026. That is approximately 38 years between first putting the story on paper and sharing it publicly—not 38 years of continuous writing, but a long journey of writing, retreating, starting again, and finding the courage to publish.

Along the way, I also wrote screenplays, including Heart of the Beholder, the independent feature I wrote and directed about my family’s experience fighting censorship.

What inspired you to become a writer?

KT: My fascination with storytelling began with movies. When I was a little boy living in student housing near the University of Missouri, my mother and I watched films projected onto a white billboard. Those evenings made a tremendous impression on me. I wanted to understand how something on a screen could make you laugh, frighten you, or take you somewhere completely different. 

As I grew older, storytelling became more than entertainment. There were things in my own life that I wanted people to understand. Writing gave me a way to explore those experiences rather than letting someone else’s version of them be the only one people heard.

With this memoir, the motivation became very personal: I wanted other survivors to know they were not alone.

What is your writing process like? Are you more of a plotter or a pantser?

KT: With memoir, I would describe myself as a planner when it comes to structure and more instinctive when it comes to finding the voice.

The events already happened. My job is not to invent a more convenient story, but to decide how to tell the one I lived. Chronology matters, but so does the difference between what I understood as a child and what I understand now.

I also want readers to experience people, not simply receive information about them. With Greg, that means making room for his humor, our friendship, and the everyday moments alongside the painful ones. A manuscript that contained only the abuse would not tell the whole story of who we were.

How do you celebrate finishing a book?

KT: With this book, the most meaningful celebration has been seeing readers connect with it. One reader’s response moved me to tears because they understood the importance of my friendship with Greg. They saw the boys we were, not simply the terrible things that happened to us.

After keeping a story private for so long, having someone receive it with care means an enormous amount. Knowing that the book reached someone on that level is better than any party I could throw.

What would you tell a writer who is just starting? What advice would you give someone working on their first book? What writing software do you use?

KT: Start by getting the story onto the page. Don’t demand that your first draft do the work of a finished book. You can improve an imperfect page; you cannot revise a page you never allowed yourself to write.

Then be willing to revise honestly. A passage may mean a great deal to you and still need work before it means something to a reader. Seek feedback from people who will tell you where they were confused, where their attention wandered, and where they genuinely connected.

For memoir writers, I would add that writing something privately and deciding to publish it are separate choices. You don’t have to make both decisions on the same day.

Final Draft is my choice for screenplay work and MS Word for books. Whatever the software, the important work is still choosing the right details, finding your voice, and finishing.

How do you organize everything and find the time to sit down and write?

KT: With several projects in motion, I need to think in manageable steps. “Write a book” is an enormous assignment. “Work on this chapter” or “figure out what this scene needs” gives me something I can actually tackle.

There is always another email, another promotional task, or another idea competing for attention. The challenge is not confusing activity around writing with the writing itself.

I try to keep the next step clear. It does not have to be a spectacular day’s work, but it should move the project forward. Waiting for a completely clear schedule would be a good way to never finish anything.

As an author, what would you choose as your spirit animal?

KT: A phoenix—assuming mythical animals are allowed.

I have had to rebuild my life more than once. I have lost things I worked very hard for, faced setbacks I did not know how to get through, and still found reasons to begin again.

That does not mean I emerged from every experience stronger or wiser overnight. Sometimes getting back up is awkward, exhausting, and not especially inspirational to watch. But I have kept doing it. A phoenix seems appropriate for someone who refuses to believe that the worst chapter has to be the last one.

Who has been the biggest supporter of your writing?

KT: My wife, Darlene.

She supported me through the difficult process of rewriting Lost Valley — Lost Innocence. There were months of crying, getting angry, stopping, and starting again. She was there through that, not simply when there was a finished manuscript to celebrate. Darlene edits my written work, and she has been a voracious reader, averaging 5 books per week for decades. Reading has served her well, which led to her becoming a 5-time Jeopardy Champion.

Our creative partnership also goes back to before we were married in 2005. She was my producer on my movie Heart of the Beholder. She believed in that story and helped bring it to the screen. Having someone who understands both the work and the person trying to do it has meant a great deal to me. 

How do you name your characters?

KT: For this memoir, I was writing about people from my life rather than inventing characters and choosing names to fit them. Greg Connor was my best friend, not someone created to serve a plot.

The larger challenge was making sure readers encountered a person rather than just a name on the page. I wanted them to understand why Greg mattered to me—his humor, his personality, and the bond between us. Naming someone is easy compared with doing justice to the person you remember.

Can you describe a typical day in your writing life?

KT: At the moment, my writing life includes promoting the memoir, answering interview questions, working on the audiobook, and developing the material for a possible limited streaming series. There is not one project neatly occupying every hour of the day.

Some of the work involves writing new material, and some involves returning to something I have already written and asking whether it communicates what I intended.

The challenge is keeping the creative work from being swallowed by everything surrounding it. Publicity matters, but there still has to be time to work on the stories themselves. That is the part that made me want to do all of this in the first place.

Tell us about your current release.

KT: Lost Valley — Lost Innocence is my firsthand memoir about what happened to my best friend, Greg Connor, and me between 1964 and 1967. Our story begins around Lost Valley Boy Scout Camp outside St. Louis and follows our exploitation as child prostitutes by adults connected to Scouting across more than twenty states.

But the heart of the book is our friendship. I wanted readers to know the boys we were: our mischief, our humor, our loyalty, and our attempts to protect each other. We were more than what those adults did to us.

The book also explores the confusion of grooming, especially when someone harming a child also presents himself as a loving mentor or protector. It is difficult subject matter, and readers should take the content warning in the front book matter seriously.

My hope is that someone carrying shame from their own childhood will recognize something in our story and understand that the responsibility belonged to the adults, not the children.

Since your book is nonfiction, tell us how you came up with the topic.

KT: I did not go looking for this topic. It was part of my life long before I could imagine sharing it publicly.

In 1988, I proposed speaking with Scouts about recognizing grooming. When the St. Louis Boy Scout Council rejected my proposal, I began writing about what Greg and I had experienced. Even then, I intended the manuscript to be released only after my death. Later, afraid of how the story might affect my family, I destroyed it. 

Watching Oprah’s two-part program featuring 200 male survivors, including Tyler Perry, in November 2010 helped me find the courage to write it again. Seeing other men speak about childhood abuse made me feel less alone. Eventually, I wanted to offer that same possibility to someone else. 

That became the reason to publish: not simply to reveal what happened, but to reach people who were still carrying it in silence. I also wanted Greg to be remembered as a person I loved, not reduced to what was done to him.

Thank you, Ken, for being here with me at Always Reading! - Melissa

About the Author

Ken Tipton is a serial entrepreneur, author, composer, screenwriter, award-winning filmmaker, and Air Force veteran whose life has taken him from building unconventional businesses and producing films to confronting a childhood history he kept largely buried for decades.

His memoir, Lost Valley – Lost Innocence, tells the true story of Tipton and his best friend, Greg Connor, who were groomed and sexually exploited as boys through a network connected to their experiences in Scouting during the 1960s. Told with candor, emotional honesty, and unexpected humor, the book examines childhood abuse, institutional betrayal, friendship, survival, and the consequences that can follow victims long after the abuse itself has ended.

Tipton has spent much of his life creating—building businesses, developing film and television projects, writing screenplays, and telling stories drawn from extraordinary experiences. In his seventies, he turned that storytelling toward the most difficult subject of all: his own past.

Through Lost Valley – Lost Innocence, Tipton hopes not only to document what happened, but also to give voice to survivors who spent years or decades believing that silence was their only option.

He lives in California with his wife, Darlene, and continues to write and develop new creative projects.

Ken’s latest book is Lost Valley - Lost Innocence: The True Story of Best Friends Trapped in an International Boy Scounts Sex Ring.  

Visit his website at https://lostvalleybook.com/.

Connect with him on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/LostValleyFilm

╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostvalleybook

╰┈➤ BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ken-tipton

╰┈➤ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lostvalleybook

╰┈➤Substack: https://lostvalleybook.substack.com/

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