She also had an idea she wanted to run with: 'What could make the Napoleonic wars more exciting? Dragons!' And one dragon in particular: Temeraire. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. But something started happening to her stories - they were getting longer and more complex.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title His Majesty's Dragon Author Naomi Novik She completed her master's degree in computer science, but continued to write fan fiction on the side.Īlmost a decade after she first went online, she says she was working as a programmer for a computer game 'and something about that whole process of building the structure of that game turned into a real kind of light-bulb moment for me as a writer.' At the time, her fan fiction at was inspired by swashbuckling adventure novels set in the Napoleonic era. Engaging with fan communities online got her interested in two things: coding and fan fiction. It was the early days of the Internet, and Novik found her way to a discussion list for Trekkers. 'I ended up rooming in a dorm that was basically a solid wall of female scientists, and every Wednesday we would all watch Star Trek: The Next Generation.' Novik's career as a writer and programmer started in the same place - her sophomore college dorm. 'I'm an engineer and a writer,' she says, 'and I find that those two things are not uncomplimentary.' She writes books about dragons, witches and dark woods - and she's also designed computer games. Naomi Novik says Uprooted was inspired by her family's history on Poland.Īuthor Naomi Novik is a world builder.

Author naomi novik