Last night I watched Christopher Paolini entrance a rapt audience of 500+ fantasy fans at our local Barnes & Noble. I arrived on time (silly me) and had to push my way through a small town of true believers to catch a glimpse of their laird.
I read Eragon years ago, when my niece and nephew discovered him and his precocious creator. I was writing songs at 15; this guy was writing a novel. Now that I’ve written one too, I went to his reading to see how it’s done. It was a master class in shared secrets. He joked, spoke in elf and dwarf, revealed character details like it was celebrity gossip, and teased his readers with stories to come. Above all, he was generous. He wrote a world where dreamers and misfits could escape their disappointment and bewilderment, then gently wrapped them in an evening that made it all seem real and safe and cool.
chapworks 