Patrick Carman » General

“Cover Revealed! Skeleton Creek: The Crossbones”

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:50:41 +0000

Benjamin Apel here, the PC Studio Director of Marketing. Patrick is currently on lockdown right now, writing his newest trilogy, so he asked me to deliver the update. The biggest news as of late is the recently released cover to the third Skeleton Creek book. It turned out even creepier than we expected, in a good way of course! If you are looking for more hints about what is going on with Ryan and Sarah, check out Ryan’s Facebook page called Skeleton Creek Investigations, www.facebook.com/skeletoncreek.

Get ready for the Trackers Missions, set to launch on Monday, June 28th. You’ll train with the best in order to fine-tune your digital tracking skills so you too can become a genuine TRACKER. To join the fun, check out the TRACKERS site by visiting www.trackersbook.com.

If you haven’t already, make sure to enter the Justine Magazine essay contest for your chance to win a trip to Comic Con to meet Patrick Carman himself! All you have to do is write about what you would do if you were indestructible. What else are you going to do with all your free time anyways? It’s summer vacation! So get to writing, and maybe you could be the one to win a trip to San Diego! Find out more info here.

New Atherton Paperbacks

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:41:58 +0000

Trackers Review at A YEAR OF READING

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:00:22 +0000

I am a huge fan of Skeleton Creek and so are many of the 5th graders at our school. It isn’t so much the genre or story. I liked those though. But I am a fan because Patrick Carman has tried something new and powerful with books for kids. In Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine, he embedded video in the book so that the text told part of the story and the video clips online told the other part. This was done in a way that worked–the two parts of the book worked so well together and I could see how motivating this could be for kids. So, I was happy to see TRACKERS, another series by Patrick Carman, that did the same thing. (I am imagining books like this on things such as the iPad where the video can just play at a certain point in the book. I am starting to understand the whole concept of this type of reading so much better thanks to Carman.)

Trackers is a thriller/adventure/science fiction story about 4 kids who are trackers. They are pretty much spies with very cool gadgets that they’ve created and perfected. This may sounds Spy-Kid like and it is but it is intended for a more sophisticated audience than Spy Kids. My thinking is 5th grade and above. There is a lot of technical “stuff” that kids need to semi-understand in order to understand this book.

Adam, the main character in the book, has created a space for himself that he calls “The Vault”. His father owns and operated a computer repair shop and since he was little, Adam played around with gadgets, etc. When he turned 9, his father gave him a little room in the back of the shop for him to fiddle around in. The room is an amazing concept and one that hooked me into the book immediately. A kid who has a place to play and create and figure things out on his own. He is quite the little prodigy.

I won’t give too much away about the book but Adam is discovered by some people who threaten him unless he solves a very important computer code for them.
The entire story is told by Adam who is relaying it in a “classified location” letting the readers assume that Adam has been “caught” and is in trouble. The entire story unfolds as Adam tells the story and then “shows” videoclips throughout. As we get to each clip, we, as readers, are given a site and password so that we can watch the videos. As with Skeleton Creek, Carman has done a great job of embedding the video throughout. The two forms of media work together to tell the complete story.

The one difference in this book, which I think I like, is that you CAN read the book without watching the videos. Each video is transcribed in the Appendix of the book. So, instead of watching the clip on a computer, the reader can instead read the transcript at the back of the book. I tried a bit o both. I liked watching the videos–it breaks up the story for kids a bit and gave me scenes, etc. visually.But the appendix pieces did a great job too. I know that I had kids who could not read Skeleton Creek because they did not have Internet access at home. This will allow kids who do not have access to the Internet to experience the entire book. There were also times when I was reading at night,when I really did not want to get up and watch the clip. Having the option of the transcribed video was a nice option to have:-)

The only thing I didn’t like is that the book ended in quite the cliffhanger!? Now I have to wait for the 2nd book! I should have remembered this from Skeleton Creek but I don’t think I was totally aware that Trackers is the first in a series. My thinking was that things would tie up and fall together neatly by the end of the book. I guess I’ll have to wait for the next book in the series to get some more answers.

This book will be released on May 11. I am thrilled to see Patrick Carman continue with these books for kids. I already have several 5th graders who are dying to read this one–even without knowing the basics of the story, they know that Patrick Carman writes fresh stories that grab them from the beginning. So many kids have moved on to Carman’s other books once they discovered Skeleton Creek.

Web Hosting Upgrade

admin — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:24:35 +0000

We have completed the process of upgrading our web hosting in order to support the high amount of traffic to www.sarahfincher.com and www.trackersbook.com. Some of our visitors have reported problems getting the Skeleton Creek videos to play. That should all be running smoothly since we have made the transition to better web servers.

Thanks for being such great fans of Patrick’s books and watching so many videos.

- Josh
PC Studio Webmaster

TRACKERS To Release in MAY, 2010

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:43:14 +0000

When I wrote the book and the screenplay for Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine I was completely unsure about whether or not the format would work. The idea of a book and a movie at the same time made a lot of sense to me as an alternative reading experience for a wired generation, but I had no idea if anyone would agree with me. I hoped the idea would find support and a new way of telling stories could be not only born, but grown into an exciting new genre. Well, young readers have spoken, and they’ve spoken loudly. Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine certainly don’t replace traditional books – not by a long shot – but they do have a place in the hearts and minds of a technologically driven culture.

I’ve been saying from the very start that the book is always the destination with these kinds of stories. Everything else about multimedia books is designed to get young readers turning more pages, and that is certainly the case with my new project, which Scholastic is announcing today.

Here’s the first round of information about TRACKERS, the follow up to Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine. Think of TRACKERS as Skeleton Creek 2.0, a super-spy novel with more characters, more gadgets, and more cameras.

Today we’re releasing 3 items:

The cover for the book right here in this post

An op-ed piece I wrote for Publishers Weekly

And a new video about the project

Thank you for following along!
Patrick

Touring, both real and virtual

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:48:21 +0000

This week I’m on the road visiting five schools in Florida and a reading festival in Ohio, and I thought it would be a good time to highlight the virtual touring program I offer for schools. I hope to complete 100 virtual touring events from my office in Walla Walla, Washington in 2010. If you’re a teacher or a librarian, you can sign up for one of these free events at the virtual touring page. There you’ll find a video about how the program works, a calendar with available days and times, and a downloadable PDF file for your classroom. The virtual touring events are free and last about 20 minutes. Perfect for groups of 30-150.

Other touring resources:

Real world calendar (changes often)

Follow me on Twitter for up-to-the-minute pictures from the road (both events and food!).

And finally a quick shout out to my friend Rick Riordan – congratulations on the Percy Jackson movie! Here’s hoping the 39 Clues movie is next in line.

Blog Rewind: 39 Clues Video Tour

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:36:33 +0000

39 Clues Video Tour, originally posted August 18, 2009

Patrick’s 39 Clues tour was a blast and you can come along with him. While promoting “The Black Circle”, author Patrick Carman brought along a camera and filmed some fun videos of him on the road and at the book signings.

Watch the video series and enjoy the photo gallery at The 39 Clues Video Tour.

Now back to editing more haunted videos!

Blog Rewind: International Skeleton Creek

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:01:32 +0000

Check out this old blog post about international Skeleton Creek, originally posted Jul 28, 2009

I just received Finnish versions of the original Skeleton Creek videos. It’s cool to see Skeleton Creek branching out into other countries. It seems to me that thet videos will be just as scary, no matter what language they’re in.

Here’s 3 of the Finnish passwords for you to use and view the videos.

usherintalo

korppi

trijekylljamrhyde

www.sarahfincher.com

Back Lot Updates:

There’s some new things to see in the back lot. We have a gallery of a very cool set. It’s in an old power station here in Walla Walla. It’s super huge and super old. Also, there’s a good vLog by the cast. It’s from another set (a super secret half-pipe).

You Tube, Facebook, and other points of connection

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:45:26 +0000

At the dawn of a new decade there are a lot of ways to stay connected. When I was a kid, we picked up the phone or rode our bikes down the block, but that’s so 1975. I can do better!

Here are just a few of the ways you can stay in touch with me. I admit it seems like more ways than anyone would want to stay in touch with me, but just in case the need arises….

Youtube

All the video blog entries get posted in my youtube channel, plus other random stuff. In the latest episode, which I just posted, I’m having pizza. I also show a better view of the Thirteen Days to Midnight cover, sign some bookplates, and talk with my friend Jeremy.

Facebook

There are several people working over here (note to self: do a blog entry on the team). Jeremy is one of them and he maintains the Facebook fan site for me. There’s new stuff up there every day, so its a good place to connect. Plus a lot of people who read my books hang out there. We like these people. They are friendly.

Twitter

I try to tweet at least twice a day, mostly about upcoming events, movies, books, video games, gadgets, and other stuff I’m into. When I’m on the road touring, I often post photos of the food I’m about to eat. I do this because I’m a foodie and I love to eat out. I live under the questionable assumption that people like to see plated food from cool restaurants. I also put touring photos on Twitter from the road, so it’s not always pictures of food. But it’s mostly pictures of food.

Contact

The other thing you can do is email me at fanmail@patrickcarman.com and I’ll respond. This is starting to feel so 2008, but I’m still totally into it. Actually, answering email is a lot easier than answering snail mail.

Looking forward to staying in touch in 2010!

7 years is a long time

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:03:09 +0000

Launching a new website for my books and studio projects turned out to be a lot more work than I expected it to be. Hats off to Josh, my super amazing fantastic webmaster! The old sites had, like, a thousand parts and pieces in the form of videos, audio files, news stories, book pages, photos, and blog entries. And let me tell you, pulling the curtain back revealed an Armon the Giant size mess. Getting it all organized and ready for a new decade of readers was a monster challenge, and Josh slogged through two months of work getting here.

I’ll be focusing in on different areas of the site in future entries, but the main thing to say right up front is that the new site is designed to be more interactive (please comment and discuss!), more engaging (please look around!) and ever expanding (daily Tweets, weekly blog entries, lots of new videos, and the latest updates).

A few pages you might enjoy taking a peek at:

The cover for my first YA novel can be seen here, along with a note from my editor about the project

Enter the world of Elyon at an all new Elyon mini-site

Check out the virtual touring program if you’d like to have me visit your school

Thank you for reading, watching, and participating in the world of stories. With any luck at all, we won’t be designing a new site until 2017!