Patrick Carman (born February 27, 1966) is an American author of the The Land of Elyon series, Atherton series, Elliot's Park series, Skeleton Creek Saga, and the fifth 39 Clues book.
Born in Salem, Oregon, Carman is a graduate of Willamette University with a degree in economics, and he became an author after a career as an entrepreneur. Carman's books are well known by parents for having strong moral content packaged in an engaging story, delivered on a unique platform. Together they provide reluctant young readers the perfect excuse to turn off their televisions and visit the local library. Even the President of the United States Barack Obama approved of Carman's books for his two young daughters, Sasha and Malia.
His first book, The Dark Hill's Divide of The Land of Elyon series, was published in 2003. He then proceeded to write the remaining two books of the trilogy before creating the Atherton series from an idea he got while touring around America. With high demand for the now best-selling series of books accompanied by videos that are viewed online, Skeleton Creek is the first of its kind. Carman, stating that he wanted to attempt to bridge the gap between technology and books, created the saga around the haunted dredges in a Skeleton Creek. Amber Larsen (playing Sarah Fincher), Tom Rowley and Jim Michelson appear in the videos, produced by Scholastic Books and PC Studio and directed by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Jeffrey Townsend. The book is Ryan's part of the story, who loves to write and after an accident at the dredges leaves him bedridden and banned from contact with Sarah, he secretly feeds Sarah information, who films her developments in discovering the truth about the haunted dredges- hence the videos, which are all made be Sarah and accessible via passwords given in the book at sarahfincher.com. His newest vBook is a tech thriller named Trackers. It is about a group of tech-savvy kids using technology to solve mysterious puzzles put online by a mysterious girl involved in a dangerous online scheme. As if the experience wasn't already involved enough, the Trackers readers can also enjoy the Trackers Missions; games that test your resourcefulness and train you to become a fellow Tracker, all while remaining tech-educational.
Carman's favorite authors are John Steinbeck, David James Duncan, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, Norman Maclean and Edgar Allan Poe. He lives in the small city of Walla Walla, Washington, with his wife Karen and two daughters, Reese and Sierra. He has two dogs, Taffy and Otto.
He was asked to be a part of The 39 Clues series, which will be written by seven different authors (Carman included). The others are Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Linda Sue Park, and Jude Watson Carman's The Black Circle is the series' book 5, released on August 11, 2009.
Carman makes frequent web casts on mogulus.com, www.enterpcstudio.com, and on his website, www.patrickcarman.com. According to his FAQ page, the movie rights for The Land of Elyon have been purchased and the series is currently in pre-production as a CGI film.
Being on the forefront of technological trends, Patrick Carman was the first to marry videos and books into a single platform that has proven to be extremely successful. With over 5 million videos viewed by readers of the Skeleton Creek series, this kind of use of multimedia in literature will undoubtedly soon become the next big trend in children’s literature.
Carman was also one of the first authors to realize the universal asset that webcams provide when it comes to visiting classrooms. Through “ Virtual Tours”, Carman visits hundreds of classrooms across the country each year, free of charge. Using a webcam and Skype he can converse with his fans as well as educators without the expensive costs of travel and lodging. This way he can reduce his carbon footprint, schools districts don’t have to find room in their budget for travel costs and honorarium fees, and most importantly he can actually visit with more of the young readers who provide feedback, look forward to the virtual visit, and appreciate getting the chance to chat with a famous, bestselling author.
