Walla Walla author Patrick Carman launches Northwest book tour

Washington – Kids who loved Eragon, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter will likely be mesmerized by Patrick Carman’s The Dark Hills Divide, the riveting first volume in his new Land of Elyon trilogy for young readers.

The Walla Walla author will visit schools and bookstores throughout the Northwestfrom January 15, 2004 to April 15th 2004. Mr. Carman will visit Richland,Kennewick, Pasco, Seattle, Spokane, Wenatchee,Yakima, The Dalles, Hood River,Portland, and Salem.

Carman is a successful entrepreneur who conceived the Land of Elyon series after trading places with his wife one night a week while she got out of the house andhe took over reading to their two young daughters. As the months passed, Carman began spinning a tale for them about the escapades of a young girl who became the inspiration for the novel’s heroine.

In the year that followed, Carman “journaled” his thoughts and sketched out impressions about the characters and place that would become The Land of Elyon. Then, in his spare time between running a national media production company and his ongoing commitment as a volunteer counselor to teens, Carman began to write.

The Land of Elyon Book I: The Dark Hills Divide is set in a fantasy world in which animals can talk and enchanted stones can predict the future. The heroine, a12-year-old girl named Alexa, has spent her life living behind the four-story walls that surround her village and the three others that make up Bridewell Common. Even the roads between the towns are walled in to keep its citizens safe from the unknown. But Alexa’s curiosity for what lies in the hills and forests on the other side sends her ona daring adventure into a secret world in which nothing is as it seems to be.

Ideal for readers 9-12, the lush story is filled with mystery, unforgettable characters, intriguing plot twists, and moral issues that are relevant to their own lives.