The author of the Land of Elyon series crafts a creepy fantasy-mystery for older readers. Grieving over the sudden death of his well-liked foster parent (and harboring a guilty secret about that), Jacob discovers that his inheritance includes the power of invulnerability. Bemused, he shares his imperviousness to pain or physical damage with his impulsive best friend, Milo, and a beautiful, intense new classmate named Ophelia—and discovers that he can temporarily pass the ability on to them. He quickly comes to regret the sharing, as Ophelia engages in an increasingly dangerous round of tests, stunts, and life-saving rescues. Ominously, the power also begins to feel darker and wilder as it fends off death after death. Carman cranks the suspense up smoothly on the way to a horrifying revelation, a (literally) shocking climax, and a not entirely happy, but at least not tragic, ending. A provocative take on the theme that every superpower comes with a price.

VERO BEACH — With two teenage daughters, children’s novelist Patrick Carman has been spending lots of time at high school sports events. He also has been reflecting on his own high school experiences.

“It’s as if our two worlds collided,” said the New York Times best-selling author. “As my daughters got older, I was reminded of my teenage years. It felt like a good time to write something for an older audience.”

The result is “Thirteen Days to Midnight,” a superhero story geared to emergent young-adult readers. Carman will speak about it and sign copies at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the teen loft of the Vero Beach Book Center’s Children’s Store.

The book revolves around a gift bestowed on Jacob Fielding by his foster father with his final words, “You are indestructible.” With his best friends Milo and Ophelia, Jacob tests the boundaries of his new power. He can withstand a beating from the high school bully without a scratch, walk through a burning building without so much as a singed eyebrow and even transfer the power to another person.

When Ophelia suggests that they begin experimenting to save people who are at risk of death, they discover that the power is linked to a curse that even the world’s greatest escape artist could not outrun.

“It’s the first novel in which I’ve drawn on people and places I know well,” Carman said. “The characters are composites of students I knew, and the setting is my old high school, which was taken over by the neighboring community college the year I graduated. One of the challenges was to decide how much I wanted it to be real and based on my experiences and how much should be fiction.

“The greater challenge was to come up with a strong mythology. I wrote about 50 pages, but threw them away when I decided to follow a Houdini-type path.”

Carman, author of the best-selling “The Land of Elyon” and other series, said “Thirteen Days” is a complete and finished story.

“I would like to do another. Jacob’s story could go on,” he said.

I’m already out touring, so this will be short! Here’s the quick rundown:

Thank you for going out and getting the book and spreading the word! You can find it online at www.bn.com or www.amazon.com, or at your local bookstore – if they don’t have it, please ask for it – and early reviews on BN.com or Amazon are always helpful if you have the time!

Watch a video all about the book and why I wrote it. It’s a great overview of the project.

Watch the Book Overview Video

Check out the tour kick off video, shot last week in Washington state! And some early pics from the road….

Watch the Tour Kick Off Video

It’s easy to spread the word on Facebook by sending friends to the Facebook Fan Page or directly to this page. You can also send people to the Thirteen Days ARG at www.13dtm.com

Come out and see me on the road! Find my schedule in printable form by clicking here (PDF) – or click here to see the online version. I’d love to see as many readers as possible and I’m in a lot of places with fun freebies to give away at every stop.

Follow My Twitter Feed for pictures and updates from the road during the entire April / May tour.