When Kim Walleston St. Lawrence ’09 sits down to write science fiction, she isn’t escaping reality — she’s translating it. 

Her debut young adult novel, Thirsty Ground, published by Union Square & Co./Hachette, imagines a distant future shaped by scarcity, survival and sacrifice.

At its core, however, the story is deeply personal. The novel was inspired by the lived experience of her husband, Ryan St. Lawrence ’07, an adaptive athlete who sustained a spinal cord injury in a biking accident in 2016. The book was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection for 2025, which places it among the most distinguished titles for young readers nationwide. 

The seeds of Thirsty Ground were planted through Kim's professional background in media and communications, and through years of navigating uncertainty, grief and resilience alongside Ryan.

“Our life effectively skidded to a halt,” she said, recalling the early days following his injury. “Hospital rooms and rehab and old dreams on hold. Ryan and I would always describe the experience as like being dropped on a foreign planet with no understanding of the rules or the risks or how to get home.” 

That metaphor — of disorientation, adaptation and survival — became the conceptual foundation of Thirsty Ground. 

Rooted in survival and identity 

Set more than a millennium in the future, Thirsty Ground follows 17-year-old Conway, an elite MotoRover rider preparing to join the Hydroseeker League — an order tasked with finding water to sustain humanity aboard a space ark known as Tsimmaon. When a mission goes disastrously wrong, Conway is left for dead on the Arid Planet after he sustains a life-altering injury that threatens his body and sense of purpose. 

Taken in by the hidden community of Mayanah, Conway discovers that survival comes with its own set of rules — particularly when it comes to water, power and trust. As his relationship with Mayanah's sovereign, Selah, deepens, Conway is forced to confront the values of his own society and question whether returning “home” means betraying everything he has learned. 

While the novel unfolds as a cinematic, post-apocalyptic adventure, Kim was intentional about grounding the emotional arc in authenticity. “I really wanted the main character’s assimilation to this new planet to parallel his assimilation to life in a wheelchair,” she said. “There are these very literal threats he’s facing throughout the story, but there’s also an internal struggle as he recalibrates his expectations of himself and his life.” 

Identity — particularly athletic identity — plays a central role in the narrative. Like Ryan, Conway has anchored his sense of self in physical excellence and sport. The loss of that assumed future forces him to redefine worth, agency and belonging. “It wasn’t even a question in Ryan’s mind whether he would bike again,” Kim said.  

Writing across worlds  

Kim is keenly aware of the responsibility that comes with writing beyond one’s lived experience. Although a spinal cord injury shapes her daily life, she emphasized that representation in Thirsty Ground required humility, research and collaboration. 

“I understand spinal cord injuries from a medical and contextual perspective, but I can’t know what it’s like to be in that body,” she said. To ensure authenticity, the manuscript underwent extensive research and consultation, including collaboration with a sensitivity reader who is also a wheelchair user.  

“Her job was to ensure the work felt representative and respectful,” Kim noted. “This doesn’t mean ableism doesn’t exist in the story — it does — but that there’s no ableist filter over the narrative.” 

The result is a story in which disability is neither erased nor romanticized. Instead, adventure, love, destiny and injury coexist.

“I didn’t want this to be a story about disability,” she said.

“I wanted it to be a story about adventure. Those things don’t happen in spite of the injury; they happen alongside it.” 

From Colby-Sawyer to the page 

Kim credited Colby-Sawyer with shaping her creative voice and professional versatility.

The communications/media studies major with a writing minor described her education as imaginative and practical. “Colby-Sawyer’s academic culture is equal parts inspirational and foundational,” she said.  

Creative writing and poetry courses expanded her literary imagination, while scriptwriting, media criticism and communications coursework grounded her in craft and clarity. “Those skills translated everywhere — from television production to marketing to writing a novel.” 

Long before Thirsty Ground, storytelling was a through line in her work. For her senior Capstone project, Kim wrote a children's book about befriending planet Earth — a hint at the environmental and allegorical themes that resurfaced in Thirsty Ground. 

Her post-college career has been equally multifaceted. A former television producer and host, Kim won a New England Emmy Award for styleboston and explored regional ski culture with The Mountain Report on NBC Sports Boston. She transitioned into marketing and is the chief marketing officer for a business training company. Kim is also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the creator of the viral digital short Time to Come In, Bear, which circulated widely during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Long road to publication 

Even with her media background, publishing a novel required patience and perseverance. “The only process that takes longer than writing a book is publishing it,” Kim said. 

The initial draft of Thirsty Ground took approximately a year, as she wrote it in addition to her full-time career. Revisions and beta reading followed, before she entered the traditional publishing route — querying agents, securing representation and, ultimately, selling the manuscript to a publisher. From there, another year of developmental edits, line edits, proofreading and production followed. 

“One of the biggest challenges was ignoring fears about external validation,” she said. “You can’t write with everyone else’s expectations in mind. You have to honor your characters and your story.” 

The realities of modern publishing — including increased expectations around self-promotion and social media — were also surprises. “I don’t particularly enjoy those things,” she said, “but it’s difficult to stand out in a very crowded marketplace if you don’t put yourself out there.” 

 

Power of story 

The response from readers — particularly those with lived experiences similar to Conway’s — has been deeply meaningful. “I wasn’t prepared for how much it would mean to hear from people who felt seen,” Kim said. “There’s so little representation of spinal cord injury in fiction, especially for young readers.” 

The novel’s closing line — "This is just the beginning, but at least it is not the end” — captures the book’s central message. “If you have air in your lungs, there is hope you can make something beautiful of your life,” she said. “That doesn’t erase struggle or loss, but it allows room for meaning.” 

Why not you? 

For Colby-Sawyer students and alumni seeking to publish, Kim offers simple, powerful advice: Why not you? 

“Imposter syndrome will give you a hundred reasons not to try,” she said. “But every day, someone is writing a book, reaching a goal, making a difference. Someone has to be that one — so why not you?” 

As Thirsty Ground makes its way to young readers, Kim Walleston St. Lawrence’s story — like her novel — is a testament to perseverance, creativity and the enduring power of hope to guide us through unfamiliar worlds. 

This story appears in the 2026 winter/spring Colby-Sawyer Magazine.