4.07.2004
Prayers
I read this in the paper today:
Dragon tale takes wing
Eragon' puts young author in spotlight
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Christopher Paolini was not feeling well. He'd tried orange juice and green tea, hoping to soothe a queasy stomach after several nights on a 10-city book tour, but it did not appear to be working.
Nevertheless, the 20-year-old was eager to explain how, at the age of 15, he produced "Eragon," a blockbuster novel about a boy and his blue dragon, Saphira.
The rest was history—and a 497-page book that has been among the top three books on the New York Times children's best-seller list since it debuted in August.
Mr. Paplini now begins sentences with phrases like, "When I was on [David] Letterman," not to mention "Larry King Live" and the "Today" show, and casually mentions that a movie, optioned to Fox 2000, is due out in December 2005.
That is the same time period that another fantasy epic, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," is also due put. The $170 million film by Walden Media will be filmed in New Zealand, as was the acclaimed "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Fantasy is big money these days. With almost 1 million copies sold, "Eragon," a Cinderella Like tale about a lad whose life is transformed after he happens on a magic dragon's egg, is outselling the Harry Potter books.
Minus the scar and tousled hair, Mr. Paolini even looks Potteresque. Instead of creating spells, he creates books in Paradise Valley, Mont., a small town five miles north of Yellowstone NationalPark.
The isolation of rural Montana gave Mr. Paolini, who was home-schooled, time to write books at a young age, helped by parents who owned a small publishing company. They doubled as publicists, did some re-editing and self-published their son's book.
"A lot of people say to me, This has been handed to you,' " the young author says, "but a lot of work went into it. We spent a year on the road with it."
The Paolinis hawked the book full time in schools, grocery stores and libraries all over Montana. It might have remained a self-published manuscript had not Miami Herald reporter turned novelist Carl Hiassen been fly-fishing in the area with his wife and stepson Ryan.
Ryan so liked the book that he passed it to Mr. Hiassen, who brought the book to the attention of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.
Knopf editor Michelle Frey took on the Paolini book as a personal project, streamlined the text by 20,000 words and came up with an offer for the family. Then Scholastic Books, which distributes the Harry Potter series, made a competing offer and the Paolinis went shopping for an agent. They found one in a day: the Simon Lipskar Writing House in New York. Mr. Paolini soon had a six-figure advance for three books.
His second book, "Eldest," about a red dragon, is halfway done and Mr. Paolini estimates he will be close to 25 when he completes his third book, about a green dragon, to complete his "Inheritance trilogy."
"No one thought 'Eragon' would do anything," he says. "My age is a good marketing ploy, but that will pass soon enough."
His publishers "see me as an investment," he said. "I have 20 to 30 books completely plotted out."
Christopher Paolini, the home-schooling wunderkind who wrote a best-sailing novel, "Eragon," when he was 15, did a book reading at A Likely Story.
"Eragon," about a ruling class of dragon riders, features a hero by the same name. Like many other popular fantasies on the market, it features an orphaned boy in his teens, whose tests serve as a rite of passage, whose mentor dies midway through the narrative, and who possesses supernatural powers.
What's unusual is the sophistication of the narrative, considering the youth of the aumor—for whom college seems unnecessary at this point. He turned down a scholarship at Reed College in Portland, Ore.
"I'm being paid to do what I love," he said. "My editor said, 'If you ever enroll in a college writing course, we'll stage an intervention.'"
For now, he listens to college courses on tape.
He eschews the Internet: "E-mail makes me too accessible."
He concedes to borrowing some of his best ideas: Dwarf and elfish languages originated with J.R.R. Tolkien; maps of fantastical countries from C.S. Lewis and Tolkien; men on dragons from fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey's "The Dragonriders of Pern." Books by novelists Madeleine L'Engle and Ursula LeGuin also gave inspiration.
Unlike Tolkien, Lewis or L'Engle, "Eragon" does not have an underlying religious or spiritual message. The one religious edifice in the book, a cold and bare cathedral, is a hiding place for demonic creatures. Mr. Paolini says religion has hardly been a solace to him, owing to the unhappy experiences of his parents, who once belonged to a Montana survivalist group, the Church Triumphant, founded by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.
Young people like "Eragon," he says, because modern life is grim, America is at war, and children need somewhere to escape.
"I mean, we're living in science fiction these days," he says. "This era is what people wrote about," he said, referring to science fiction writers he grew up reading: Mervyn Peake, E.R. Eddison and Octavia Butler.
Washington-area book signings at Border's Books and Music in Kensington and A Likely Story in Alexandria drew 300 children to each event.
"Kids are hungry for adventure outside themselves," said Sheilah Egan, manager of A Likely Story. "We've had a lot of reality in recent years, so the thought that a blue stone can turn into a dragon — what a cool idea."
I think, that as a group of writers, we should pray for Mr. Paolini (even if his book needs a good editing (and, hey, if he was christian, maybe he'd write better ;) )). If we don't pray, who's gonna? Not his parents, probably not many kids he knows, who knows? This would be a good goal to set: Everyone pray for him. I'm sure something would/will come out of it.
Comments are welcome.
Dragon tale takes wing
Eragon' puts young author in spotlight
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Christopher Paolini was not feeling well. He'd tried orange juice and green tea, hoping to soothe a queasy stomach after several nights on a 10-city book tour, but it did not appear to be working.
Nevertheless, the 20-year-old was eager to explain how, at the age of 15, he produced "Eragon," a blockbuster novel about a boy and his blue dragon, Saphira.
The rest was history—and a 497-page book that has been among the top three books on the New York Times children's best-seller list since it debuted in August.
Mr. Paplini now begins sentences with phrases like, "When I was on [David] Letterman," not to mention "Larry King Live" and the "Today" show, and casually mentions that a movie, optioned to Fox 2000, is due out in December 2005.
That is the same time period that another fantasy epic, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," is also due put. The $170 million film by Walden Media will be filmed in New Zealand, as was the acclaimed "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Fantasy is big money these days. With almost 1 million copies sold, "Eragon," a Cinderella Like tale about a lad whose life is transformed after he happens on a magic dragon's egg, is outselling the Harry Potter books.
Minus the scar and tousled hair, Mr. Paolini even looks Potteresque. Instead of creating spells, he creates books in Paradise Valley, Mont., a small town five miles north of Yellowstone NationalPark.
The isolation of rural Montana gave Mr. Paolini, who was home-schooled, time to write books at a young age, helped by parents who owned a small publishing company. They doubled as publicists, did some re-editing and self-published their son's book.
"A lot of people say to me, This has been handed to you,' " the young author says, "but a lot of work went into it. We spent a year on the road with it."
The Paolinis hawked the book full time in schools, grocery stores and libraries all over Montana. It might have remained a self-published manuscript had not Miami Herald reporter turned novelist Carl Hiassen been fly-fishing in the area with his wife and stepson Ryan.
Ryan so liked the book that he passed it to Mr. Hiassen, who brought the book to the attention of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.
Knopf editor Michelle Frey took on the Paolini book as a personal project, streamlined the text by 20,000 words and came up with an offer for the family. Then Scholastic Books, which distributes the Harry Potter series, made a competing offer and the Paolinis went shopping for an agent. They found one in a day: the Simon Lipskar Writing House in New York. Mr. Paolini soon had a six-figure advance for three books.
His second book, "Eldest," about a red dragon, is halfway done and Mr. Paolini estimates he will be close to 25 when he completes his third book, about a green dragon, to complete his "Inheritance trilogy."
"No one thought 'Eragon' would do anything," he says. "My age is a good marketing ploy, but that will pass soon enough."
His publishers "see me as an investment," he said. "I have 20 to 30 books completely plotted out."
Christopher Paolini, the home-schooling wunderkind who wrote a best-sailing novel, "Eragon," when he was 15, did a book reading at A Likely Story.
"Eragon," about a ruling class of dragon riders, features a hero by the same name. Like many other popular fantasies on the market, it features an orphaned boy in his teens, whose tests serve as a rite of passage, whose mentor dies midway through the narrative, and who possesses supernatural powers.
What's unusual is the sophistication of the narrative, considering the youth of the aumor—for whom college seems unnecessary at this point. He turned down a scholarship at Reed College in Portland, Ore.
"I'm being paid to do what I love," he said. "My editor said, 'If you ever enroll in a college writing course, we'll stage an intervention.'"
For now, he listens to college courses on tape.
He eschews the Internet: "E-mail makes me too accessible."
He concedes to borrowing some of his best ideas: Dwarf and elfish languages originated with J.R.R. Tolkien; maps of fantastical countries from C.S. Lewis and Tolkien; men on dragons from fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey's "The Dragonriders of Pern." Books by novelists Madeleine L'Engle and Ursula LeGuin also gave inspiration.
Unlike Tolkien, Lewis or L'Engle, "Eragon" does not have an underlying religious or spiritual message. The one religious edifice in the book, a cold and bare cathedral, is a hiding place for demonic creatures. Mr. Paolini says religion has hardly been a solace to him, owing to the unhappy experiences of his parents, who once belonged to a Montana survivalist group, the Church Triumphant, founded by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.
Young people like "Eragon," he says, because modern life is grim, America is at war, and children need somewhere to escape.
"I mean, we're living in science fiction these days," he says. "This era is what people wrote about," he said, referring to science fiction writers he grew up reading: Mervyn Peake, E.R. Eddison and Octavia Butler.
Washington-area book signings at Border's Books and Music in Kensington and A Likely Story in Alexandria drew 300 children to each event.
"Kids are hungry for adventure outside themselves," said Sheilah Egan, manager of A Likely Story. "We've had a lot of reality in recent years, so the thought that a blue stone can turn into a dragon — what a cool idea."
I think, that as a group of writers, we should pray for Mr. Paolini (even if his book needs a good editing (and, hey, if he was christian, maybe he'd write better ;) )). If we don't pray, who's gonna? Not his parents, probably not many kids he knows, who knows? This would be a good goal to set: Everyone pray for him. I'm sure something would/will come out of it.
Comments are welcome.
1:50 PM|| 
