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Patrick Carman, who lives in the Northwest, was in his mid-thirties before conceiving The Land of Elyon series, and writing his first book, THE DARK HILLS DIVIDE. An entrepreneur like his father, Carman can't remember a time when he wasn't searching for a way to creatively express himself, an urge that led him to start an advertising agency, then create board games, and finally develop and sell a dotcom before finding the thing he was obviously meant to do: write youth fiction.
One could say it was serendipity how he finally got up the courage to take that path. The father of two young daughters, Carman began trading places once a week with his wife, so she could have a night out, and he took over reading to their young daughters.
As the months passed, Carman began spinning a tale for his four- and six-year-olds about a girl trapped behind the walls the town elders had built around her village and her exploits in trying to find a way to explore the forest that lay beyond. In the year that followed, he "journaled" his thoughts and sketched out impressions about the characters and place, which became The Land of Elyon series.
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