Lawrence is the best-selling author of nine books.

A founding technical consultant to University of New Mexico's Institute of Traditional Martial Arts, he also has written numerous articles on martial arts, self-defense, and related topics for prestigious publications such as the International Ryukyu Karate-jutsu Research Society Journal, Jissen, Fighting Arts, and Traditional Karate magazine.

Since 1970, Lawrence has studied and taught traditional Asian martial arts, medieval European combat, and modern close-quarter weapon techniques. During the 26 years he worked stadium security part-time he was involved in hundreds of violent altercations, but got paid to watch football. He is currently a senior strategist at an aerospace company where he gets to play with billions of dollars of other people's money and make really important decisions. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his son Joey and wife Julie.