I just realized Christopher Paolini was only 15 years old when he wrote the book, Eragon. He even graduated from highschool at that age. Now 19 years, he's already working on his next book.
Dang!!
[TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width=380 border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD class=text vAlign=top align=left width=380]Christopher Paolini was home-schooled and graduated high school at 15 years old.
He says
"I wouldn't have changed it. Something a lot of people don't realize is that in order to write a book, you have to have time. When I graduated from high school, I had time to just write. I think I had a wonderful childhood—my parents put a lot of work into my sister and me, and it's all turned out for the best so far." He began work on his debut novel
Eragon, the first in a planned trilogy, when he was 15. When it was finished the family had the book printed by Lightening Source, an on-demand printing company.
Eragon slowly started to gain a cult following and, as a result, came to the attention of a major publishing house, Knopf, (part of Random House) who published it in hardcover in August 2003. The first editions are now collector's items - copies of the Lightening Source version are available through dealers for around $1,000 and the copies of the first edition from Knopf are offered at around $300.
Eragon debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list, which was followed by an appearance on the Today show. At the time of writing (Jan 2004) Eragon is #1 on the children's bestseller lists nationally, with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at #2.
In 2003 the 19 year old Paolini did a 16-city tour for Knopf, in early 2004 he toured Britain for the UK release of the book, then back to the USA for more tours.
Paolini says
"I'm still trying to get used to it—but I'm not sure if I really want to get used to it, because there's no guarantee it will last. It's been an extraordinary experience. Readers have fallen in love with the book, thousands of people are reading it—I really can't ask for more as an author." When asked if the Harry Potter books influenced him he says
"I actually didn't read the Potter books until the fourth one came out, and by then I had already written Eragon," he recalls. "Of course, once I started, I devoured them. What Rowling has done is really wonderful." He says that the top three authors who influenced him were Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. LeGuin and Raymond Feist (with Feist's novel
Magician making a particularly strong impact on him.
Now 19, he lives with his family in Paradise Valley, Montana, where he is at work on
Eldest, the next volume in the Inheritance trilogy, which is due to be released in August 2005. A movie based on
Eragon is scheduled for release in late 2005.
[SMALL]Copyright BookBrowse LLC 2005. All rights reserved.[/SMALL] [/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD class=new vAlign=top align=left width=380]This biography was last updated on 02/01/2005. Unless otherwise stated, it was provided by the author's publisher or publicist.[/TD] [TR] [TR] [TD class=text vAlign=top align=left width=380][A href="http://www.alagaesia.com/" target=_blank]Link to Author's Website[/A][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE]
