Michael Sullivan started his writing career at the tender age of ten. After reading Lord of the Rings, he decided to craft a similar tale and wrote it on a manual typewriter found when cleaning out his sister's closet. Over a span of fifteen years he wrote thirteen novels, but never made any serious attempts at publishing. He decided to break into the writing world with a literary piece finely crafted after the likes of John Steinbeck and John Updike. When he failed to get this novel published, he quit writing for nearly ten years. Michael's writing spark was re-ignited when he started reading Harry Potter with his dyslexic middle daughter. He fell in love with the story and decided to write something "just for fun". The result was his six-book series the Riyria Revelations.