About the Author

Saul Rip Hansen was born in Spokane, Washington on July 18, 1985. After he was born, his family spent the next four years in the Fort Worth, Texas area, before moving to Banida, Idaho for two years, and then on to Winnemucca, Nevada, where Saul Rip met Lewis Clark, and the story behind the Underworld Series began. Saul lived in Winnemucca with his family for six years before moving back to the family ranch north of Spokane, to a small town named Elk, Washington. Raised in an athletic family, Saul switched from soccer to long distance running in cross country and track. He excelled in the sport, contributing to win the team state championship title in 2001 for cross country as a sophomore. He later set the mile record for his high school with a time of 4:19:32. During his high school career, Saul was also a state champion science presenter. During this time he also thrived in art, and was commissioned for several art pieces and murals for his high school. He graduated with honors in the spring of 2004, also having earned his Eagle Scout award. During his last two years of high school, Saul used his time in independent art classes to work on the manuscript for the first book in the Underworld Series. The majority of the sample text for The Rise of Shendoa was written during that time period. After graduating high school, Saul took to writing full time--putting in a minimum of eight pages a day for seven straight months, pushing to sixteen pages a day for the last two months. He finished the first trilogy during that time frame, and shortly after, he left for Houston, Texas for a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon returning from his mission, Saul enrolled at Brigham Young University Idaho, to pursue an associates degree in Architecture, and a bachelors degree in Integrated Studio Art, with an emphasis in illustration. Saul hopes to contribute to his home community of Spokane, Washington as a writer and an architect.