Patrick was born in west Michigan in 1976. His accomplishments over the next eighteen years included waiting for Nintendo to be invented and then playing lots of Nintendo. In his twenties he sold two screenplays to movie studios in Los Angeles, but neither was produced. Patrick blames Hollywood's prejudice against rugged, Brad Pitt-aged protagonists. On the other hand, even Patrick's limited success in the movie business was a great way to avoid doing any actual work for the entirety of his twenties.

In his early thirties (which he's still in) he started writing novels, and managed to sign with the coolest agent in the business: Janet Reid at FinePrint, who promptly sold the first two books of the Travis Chase series to HarperCollins. Patrick's relatives expressed relief that he probably wouldn't end up sleeping on their couches