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Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini, the author of the Inheritance trilogy, has a
story almost as interesting as those found in his books. Born November 17, 1983,
to Kenneth and Talita Paolini in Southern California. However, he soon moved to
the idyllic Paradise Valley, Montana, where he continues to live today. (As a
side note, the scenery in Paradise Valley helped inspire the fantastic locations
found in Alagaësia.) He and his sister, Angela, were both home schooled their
entire lives. Christopher graduated from high school at age 15.
As his parents did not want to send a fifteen year old off to college,
Christopher suddenly found himself with a lot of free time on his hands. To
alleviate this, he decided to write a story- not just any story, but a story he
himself would enjoy reading. So he began writing Eragon.
Eragon initially began as a movie script, but Christopher decided to
change it to a novel. For a month he carved out the plot of the entire
Inheritance trilogy, and then he began writing. For a year Christopher
worked on the first draft of Eragon. He handwrote the first sixty pages,
and then wrote the rest of Eragon on his computer. When he finished it,
he printed it out and read it… and he was very displeased with it. The story was
there, he said, but the writing needed revision. So for another year he rewrote
the draft of Eragon from the beginning, and this time he was more
satisfied with it.
Christopher showed the novel to his parents, and they were amazed by
Christopher’s talent and voice. They decided to self-publish Eragon under
their publishing company, Paolini International, LLC. So they worked on
preparing Eragon for publication- a process involving revision (yet
again), typesetting, and cover design. Christopher drew an illustration of
Saphira’s eye and the map of Alagaësia, and Angela photoshopped the image onto
the cover. His father and mother both helped Christopher edit the novel. By the
time they sent the book to press, another year had gone by, and it was early
2002.
From there, the Paolini family promoted Eragon by themselves,
initially starting with talks at the local high school and library and then
moving on to a wide range of places throughout the western United States. All
presentations were scheduled by Christopher and his mother- who had Christopher
wear a medieval style costume of a red shirt, black pantaloons, lace up boots,
and a “jaunty” black hat. It eventually reached the point where Christopher did
over 130 presentations, being on the road almost continuously.
Fate- or luck- struck when author Carl Hiaasen his stepson were on a fishing
vacation in Montana. Hiaasen’s stepson bought and enthusiastically read a copy
of Eragon, and he showed it to Hiaasen. Hiaasen was impressed by the
book, and showed it to his publishers, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random
House. Knopf decided to pick up the book, and they approached the Paolinis.
Christopher’s father called literary agent Simon Lipskar who helped hammer
out the details of the publication for Christopher, and the publishing rights
were sold. Editor Michelle Frey helped Christopher edit the novel once again and
they ended up trimming about 20,000 words from Eragon. John Jude Palencar
did the cover illustration of Saphira, and in August of 2003, the second edition
of Eragon was published. Eragon was met with success on the market
and rose to become a #1 New York Times Bestseller.
After Eragon was published, Christopher went on a book tour around the
United States, and then on a tour of Europe. As soon as his tour was over,
Christopher sat down and began work on the second book in the Inheritance
trilogy, Eldest. On August 23, 2005, Eldest was published and
found the same success Eragon found, also becoming a New York Times
bestselling book.
As of right now, Christopher is hard at work on Book III in the Inheritance
trilogy. He occasionally takes breaks from writing to attend things like
Comic-Con International or writers’ conferences, but he is still steadfastly
writing away on Book III. When he finishes with Book III, Christopher plans to
take a vacation from writing and decide which story he wants to write next.
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