James Patterson The Author

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You’ve read about some of the books and learned a bit about the book series, stand alone’s, movies, and even some games. Now I want to tell you about James Patterson, the author. The fantastic prolific author.

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James Brendan Patterson

 James Patterson the Author

Selling more than 325 million books, American Author and Philanthropist James Patterson works out of his home office in Palm Beach, Florida. He was born in Newburgh, New York on March 22, 1947. (He’s an Aries). The son of Isabelle (Morris) a teacher and Charles Patterson, an insurance salesman. James also has three sisters.

He was valedictorian of his high school class. Surprisingly, James was not much into reading until after high school. He did start writing casually at the age of 19.

 


Early Professional History

James worked his way through college at a mental hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, where he began scribbling stories.

He studied English at Manhattan College with a Bachelor of Arts in English as well as a Master of Arts from Vanderbilt University. Instead of completing a doctorate, James found employment as a junior copywriter (1971).

While working at the advertising agency (J. Walter Thompson Co.) in New York. He created the notorious slogan “I’m a Toy’s ‘R’ Us kid” and quickly worked his way up to Chairman of the company’s North America division in 1990. At this time James was actively pursuing a literary career.

At the age of 26, he wrote his first book. The Thomas Berryman Number, it was turned down by 31 publishers, but eventually won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel from the Mystery Writers of America. Many novels followed, however, they failed to attract much attention.

 


James Patterson the Author-Hawaii Coffee Company

Changes

James Patterson and Jane Blanchard were together for six years before she passed away from cancer. The couple was in a New York Post Office when she collapsed. It was a brain tumor. For the next two and a half years she was dying. Jane’s death devastated James. He threw himself into his work at the agency and eventually, he started writing again.

Patterson had modified his approach to writing by the early 1990s. He adopted a style of minuscule chapters, fast-paced and smooth running plots. In 1993 he wrote, created, and financed the promoting of his first breakout book  Along Came A Spider.

The novel introduced detective Alex Cross and gave rise to a series of 26 sequels and three movies, (Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls and Alex Cross).

In 1996 Patterson left his advertising job to concentrate on writing. He began to expand genre’s such as romance and historical fiction

He also began writing with coauthors. The first, Miracle on the 17th Green (1996) with Peter de Jonge. When Patterson writes with coauthors, he writes a detailed outline, sends it to the coauthor and they do a first draft, Patterson then handles the revisions before a book is published. There have been numerous bestsellers with and without coauthors.


More Series

We were introduced to the Women’s Murder Club in 2001 with 1st to Die as well as the Michael Bennet series, the first being Stepped on a Crack (2007) and then the NYPD series (2012).

Patterson just can’t disappoint. More series, stand alone’s and even some non- fiction. This guy can put out more than ten bestselling books a year and still surprise us. Again, this is one of the reasons why I love James Patterson.


Inspiration

After a few years, Patterson started dating Sue Solie (an art director at the agency). They were married in 1997 and the next year, had their son Jack. Like father like son, Jack was not much of a reader. Patterson began writing young adult fiction because of this.

In 2005 James Patterson created the Maximum Ride series (science fiction). The film was released in 2016, that success led him to write the Daniel X and Witch & Wizard series (children’s fantasy). Then came series such as Middle School, Confessions, Treasure Hunters, and House of Robots.

In 2011 Patterson founded the website readkiddoread.com to promote childhood reading. (I love that!) The website guides parents in selecting books for their children.

Patterson teamed up with Little Brown and Company in 2015 and founded JIMMY Patterson, an imprint for entertaining children’s books by talented authors and illustrators.

James has become an advocate for child literacy and has donated more than half-a-million books to students! The National Book Foundation gave him the award for the Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American Literary Community.

 


James Patterson with Bill Clinton

The President is Missing (2018), is a political thriller written by former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, and James Patterson. This is Clinton’s first novel. A Showtime movie is in the works. An American President uncovers a secret, world-threatening crisis.

If you are an avid James Patterson fan or even want the rare opportunity to own an authentic Presidential autograph, you can get the book autographed by both on the actual book (not a bookplate). Check it out!

 James Patterson the Author-The President is Missing

 


The Witty James Patterson

I read a bold review one day, it was on the Middle School series Public School Superhero, and it just made my day, made me love James Patterson more than I already had (if that’s possible).

The reviewer says ” The book is about an African American sixth-grade chess devotee named Kenny Wright who lives in an inner-city….. and you’re not. How did you capture this witty kid and his voice?”

Patterson responds, ” I’m also not a teenage girl with wings, but I managed to do OK while writing Maximum Ride. Part of my job as a writer is to explore characters and worlds that are different from my own. I’d visited many schools where African American students would ask me when I was going to write about them, so I felt it was important for me to explore the Kenny Wright world.” ( Patterson donated 100,000 of these books to under-resourced libraries).


You Tube

Watch the YouTube video promoting Public School Superhero, it’s fantastic! I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about James Patterson, the Author. Leave your comment or review below. See you around! Happy Reading!


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12 Comments
  1. JEANETTE

    I AM A JAMES PATTERSON FAN TOO. I CAN’T NEVER WAIT UNTIL HIS NEXT BOOK COMES OUT.MY FAVORITES ARE ALEX CROSS SERIES,THE MURDER MYSTERY CLUB STORIES. I ALSO ENJOY HIS SHORT CHAPTERS AS I LOVE TO READ SOME BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP. HE IS MY VERY FAVORITE AUTHOR.

  • Tracy

    Hi Jeanette, That’s great! I love the Alex Cross series too. : ) The short chapters are fantastic, I love to read before bed too, however, that’s sometimes a problem because then I don’t want to stop. lol Thanks for visiting and for the great comment. Have a nice evening and Happy Reading!

  • Christopher L Paine

    Content well researched, great bio. I couldn’t stop reading about the author. Seem to have many struggles in his life but didn’t stop him from making sure that the young audience could get their hands on the right books to read.

    Nice job Tracy!

    • Tracy

      Hey Christopher! Along with doing my research, I strive to make my posts enjoyable and easy to read, so thank you for those kind words. Probably my favorite thing about James Patterson is that he, like myself, has been through many struggles and that he cares so much about children’s literacy. Have you read any of his books? I highly recommend that you do. Thanks again, Have a wonderful day!

  • Ibrahim

    I love James Patterson! Have you ever read Jack and Jill by him? I couldn’t believe how engaging it was. I hated that I had to go to sleep and go to work because I couldn’t wait to finish reading that crazy book. If you haven’t already, go find Jack and Jill, you will not regret it!

    • Tracy

      Thank you so much for visiting!! I am so happy that you are a fan! Yes I have read Jack and Jill, I know I loved it! Once you start reading these books, I tell you, it is very hard not to read more. Have a great day and come back often!

  • Archon

    Hello!

    I have read only a single James Patterson Novel: Black Market. I have found his style intriguing and very well researched. I look forward to reading Along came a spider and Kiss the girls, I enjoyed the movies greatly and I know the books will be even better. The fact that he started writing children’s fantasy just to get his kid to read is awesome and taking it further and creating a website to get more kids reading is simply awe-inspiring. Another very awe-inspiring item from the article that floored me was the James Patterson actually went and did research on the characters, not just read something, but actually went to the location where his characters would come from. That is not only bold but makes me want to read more of his books. That means the one-armed veteran in Black Market, is based on someone or a combination of people that are real-life people and James Patterson combined them or utilized their experience for the character. Thank you for the article I now want to go out and see what other characters that James Patterson has created from real-life people.

    • Tracy

      I can’t wait for you to read Along Came A Spider and Kiss The Girls! Please come back and tell me what you think. You are correct the movies were really good, but to me the books are usually better and in this case it’s for sure. Did you know that Black Market (1986) is now called Black Friday (2000)? James did a few revisions and renamed it.
      I totally agree with you, James Patterson is very inspiring. Thank you so much for visiting, I think soon you might be as big of a fan as I am. I look forward to hearing from you again, Happy Reading!

  • Stefano Chiarelli

    Tracy,
    This is a great bio! Never heard of James before, he has experienced a lot of things, like the death of her wife, wow! Do you know where I can find his books?

    Stefano.

    • Tracy

      Stefano, thank you very much! I’m happy to introduce James Patterson to people like you, that have never heard of him. Yes he has definitely been through a lot. I know from experience that it makes you a stronger person and you can see that he came back from it all very strong and very successful. I’m glad that I sparked an interest! You can get James Patterson’s books almost anywhere from libraries, book stores, convenient stores and grocery stores to online bookstores, retailers and wholesalers. I will suggest some good places on Alex Cross Addict soon, so check back often. Thank you again for visiting, Have a great day!

  • Frank

    Hi Tracy, I really enjoyed your post about James Patterson. I too love reading his books especially the crime novels. The Alex Cross books are my personal favourites.

    What I like about his books as you mentioned is the short chapters. Nothing puts me of a book more than wondering when is this chapter going to end. You take a look and there is another 10 pages to go. I like to read a few chapters before I go to sleep so the books with the long chapters are left unread.

    I did not know he did the childrens books and I liked the read kiddo read website he has created. It is always nice to see your children and grandchildren reading instead of playing computer games.

    Thanks for this interesting post on James,
    Frank

    • Tracy

      Thank you Frank. I’m very happy that you enjoyed the post! Any James Patterson fan is a friend of mine ;). The short chapters are truly what makes reading his books a pleasure. I’m with you on the children and grandchildren on computers/games. I miss the good ole’ days. Have a wonderful day and come back to check in sometime!

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