FROM CHRISTOPHER:

Kvetha Fricäya! Greetings Friends!

Ah, at last I have time to write another newsletter. These past months have been more hectic than anything I have experienced before. Not only was I occupied with the final stages of editing Eldest, interviews, and a few trips, but also some family business that devoured every minute I had away from the manuscript. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, only explaining why it’s been so long since you’ve heard from me.

Eldest is finally done. I still have trouble wrapping my brain around that. I have lived with this book nearly every day since November of 2002. Now that it’s finished . . . I almost don’t know what to do with myself. (Start Book III, of course!) Writing Eldest was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, as was writing Eragon, although in different ways. I pushed myself with Eldest, both in terms of the characters, the story, and what I attempted with my technique. All I can say for sure right now—being so close to my own work—is that the completion of my second novel marks the end and beginning of an era for me.

Some very cool promotional products have been trickling in from publishers in other countries. For example, I got a huge silk-screened poster of the cover of the Swedish Eragon—the only publisher so far to use different cover art. Very neat. From the Finnish publisher of Eragon I received a black T-shirt with Saphira’s eye printed on the chest. I wish they had sent me more; I would wear them at booksignings! And also from Finland, they sent a small box decorated with the painting of Saphira and filled with jellybeans on the inside. . . . Ah, if my book were like that, I probably would have sold twice as many.

Right now I’m preparing for BookExpo America (BEA). I’m flying out to New York tomorrow, and I expect to meet many new and interesting people in the publishing business during this event. One high note is that I get to have lunch with Mike Macauley (who runs the wonderful fan site, Shurtugal.com).

While in New York, I’ll have an opportunity to watch part of the recording of the audio book of Eldest, which I’m looking forward to; it’s always exciting to hear your words come to life by a professional actor—in this case, Gerard Doyle.

Once I return from the BEA, I’ll finish the painting that’s the prize for the Eragon poetry contest, take a month or so off, and then gird myself for the upcoming book tour. And when my travels have ended, then I shall sit at my desk again, take pen in hand, and at last begin the last book of this trilogy that has become my life.

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass,

Christopher Paolini