Christopher Herron was born in Arizona, 1983. The night the doctor slapped his bottom the sky wept and flooded the entire state, for it knew a true hero had been born.
Unfortunately, that hero was born two doors down.
Christopher was a happy child. His life was good. He discovered early on an uncanny knack for crying when hungry and an advanced talent for blowing snot bubbles. Then, at the grizzled age of two, his parents gave him a baby sister to torment, and life was even better.
But Arizona is no place for children. Grass is not meant to cut into your feet as you run across it. Cactus is meant as ornamentation in a cubicle, not a backyard obstacle course. And so they moved to Colorado. Home of soft grass, gentle shrubs, and an army of evil snowmen.
Quick to learn, Christopher discovered a love for books. In preschool, he was off on adventures with ‘The Boxcar Children. And by second grade he discovered full-length novels by Piers Anthony.
That’s when the addiction took hold. In the coming years, he would convince his parents to let him mow lawns and deliver newspapers to support his bad habit. He would spend hundreds of dollars and countless hours scouring used bookstores for rare copies to complete his sets. More than once his mother had to enlist the help of the entire library staff to track him down, holed up surrounded by piles of books in a corner. His family watched in horror as he spiraled out of control.
Worried for his sanity, Christopher’s parents encouraged him to diversify. He took up Orchestra, playing the Classical Bass. Boy scouts forced him out into that green place he had only ever read about. He studied Kung Fu, Capoeira, Kenpo, and the ancient art of Cheap Shot sparring. But no matter if he was performing Beethoven, fighting a ninja or scaling a mountain, he always had a book within arms reach.
But as with all teenagers, something eventually caught his attention and distracted him long enough put down the paperbacks and sit up a little straighter. That’s right, PlayStation.
Soon Christopher was barely going through a book a week. Between Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Dead or Alive, and a girlfriend, who had time to read?
Despite this he blazed through high school, graduating at the age of 17. He cultivated a love for Digital Artwork and earned a scholarship, landing him an Associates of Arts degree a year later. He promptly married his high school sweetheart and lived happily ever after.
Or so he thought. . .
In early 2015 his world flipped upside down. Earlier in life, Christopher had contracted type one diabetes at the age of seven, and 25 years of being a diabetic had taken its toll.
A blood vessel had burst in his left eye, filling his vision with blood to the point of legal blindness. He then lost most of the vision in his remaining eye during surgery. Through a sheer force of willpower, he turned his life around, gained full control over his diet literally overnight and lost 30 pounds in two weeks.
To the doctor’s amazement, they are now highly optimistic. With a continued regimen of diet and monthly eye injections, Christopher should retain his eyesight for many years to come. But it took him the better part of nine months before he could read again.
This is when he discovered a love for Audiobooks. Because not even blindness could keep him away from the written word.
Now, even with his vision restored, he sets out to be a Narrator. To read stories to those who don’t have the time or ability. To become the characters he has for so long been a silent passenger too. To bring the worlds of ink to life with the power of his voice.
This is how he will make the world a little brighter.