Christopher Paolini (edit name/settings)

Christopher Paolini was born on November 17, 1983 in Southern California. He has lived most of his life in Paradise Valley, Montana with his parents and younger sister, Angela. The tall, jagged Beartooth Mountains rise on one side of Paradise Valley. Snowcapped most of the year, they inspired the fantastic scenery in Eragon.

Christopher was homeschooled by his parents. He did school all year round and graduated from high school at age fifteen. When he finished school he turned his attention to Eragon, he told some of his fans that he waited until he was done with school to start seriously writing because he couldn't focus on school and the story that was rapidly growing in his mind. As a child, he often wrote short stories and poems, made frequent trips to the library, and read widely. Some of his favorite books were Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, Frank Herbert's Dune, and Raymond E. Feist's Magician, as well as books by Anne McCaffrey, Jane Yolen, Brian Jacques, E.R. Eddison, David Eddings, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

The idea of Eragon began as the daydreams of a teen. Christopher's love for the magic of stories led him to craft a novel that he would enjoy reading. The project began as a hobby, a personal challenge; he never intended it to be published. All the characters in Eragon are from Christopher's imagination except Angela the herbalist, who is loosely based on his sister. His sister is full of good humor that the character based on her is a little ecsentric. The main characters Eragon and Saphira are play on words. Eragon is dragon with one letter changed and Saphira is Sapphire for her blue color.

Christopher was fifteen when he wrote the first draft of Eragon. He took a second year to revise the book and then gave it to his parents to read. The family decided to self-publish the book and spent a third year preparing the manuscript for publication: copyediting, proofreading, designing a cover, typesetting the manuscript, and creating marketing materials. During this time Christopher drew the map for Eragon, as well as the dragon eye for the book cover (that now appears inside the Knopf hardcover edition). The manuscript was sent to press and the first books arrived in November 2001. The Paolini family spent the next year promoting the book at libraries, bookstores, and schools in 2002 and early 2003.

In summer 2002, author Carl Hiaasen, whose stepson read a copy of the self-published book while on vacation in Montana, brought Eragon to the attention of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, which is part of Random House. Michelle Frey, executive editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers, contacted Christopher and his family to ask if they might be interested in having Knopf publish Eragon. The answer was yes, and after another round of editing, Knopf published Eragon in August 2003.
John Jude Palencar painted the jacket art and Christopher was excited to work with him because he had actually named Palencar Valley after him before he ever worked on the book.

After an extensive United States and United Kingdom book tour for Eragon that lasted into 2004, Christopher returned to writing his second book, Eldest, which continues the adventures of Eragon and the dragon Saphira. Eldest was published in August 2005, and was followed by Christopher's book tour throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy.

In December 2006, Fox 2000 released their movie adaptation of Eragon in theaters around the world. When asked by fans what he thought of the movie and whether he was angry at the director for ruining it, he said no. Christopher was happy the book was made into a movie even if the movie wasn't successful because it introduced new readers to his books.

Christopher finished writing Brinsger, the third book in the series, which was published on September 23, 2008. Early in 2007 he realized that the plot and characters demanded more space than could fit in one volume and that a fourth book would be necessary to give each story element the attention it deserved. What began as the Inheritance trilogy became the Inheritance cycle. Book Four will complete the story that Christopher envisioned years ago when he first outlined the adventure.

Christopher is grateful to all his readers. He is especially heartened to hear that his books have inspired young people to read and to write stories of their own.

Once the Inheritance cycle is finished, Christopher plans to take a long vacation and ponder which of his many story ideas he will write next.