Meet the Author
Nathan W Landrum
<— That’s him.
What are you supposed to write in these things anyway?
When I was born, my parents were working in Wupatki National Monument in Arizona. Since then, I’ve grown up in and around National Parks, which has helped me both to love and understand these important historical and natural wonders. I’ve even managed to work in one—taking two brief summer jobs as mate aboard two boats which traveled out to the Dry Tortugas.
I learned to pronounce dinosaur names when I was two and progressed with that knowledge into a geology degree. I accidentally turned that into a profession teaching high school science internationally. First in Ha Sefako, Lesotho and then in Nanjing, China.
It’s safer to say that I’ve bumbled around the world, than that I’ve traveled it, but so far I’ve managed to make it to 6 continents and more than a dozen countries. I’ve worked in some of them and visited many more. (Still looking for that trip to Antarctica.)
Along the way I’ve never stopped writing stories. Some are crazy tales I made up sitting in Starbucks while drinking too much coffee. Some are crunchy sci-fi stories which I’ve put far too much thought into. But the tales which were always closest to me were the stories I wrote in various national parks.
Staying long summers in national parks with my dad, I was often the only one my age, so I would populate the parks with people: friends and rivals, knights and pirates, aliens and dinosaurs. When I wasn’t reading, I was filling already wonderful places with even more adventure.
When I finally had the opportunity to develop some of my ideas, put them on paper and find a way to share them with others, I knew where to start. The Junior Rangers Investigative Club is fictional, the characters a product of my imagination. But they come from a lifetime of experience and wonder about the Mystery of our National Parks.