While on holiday in Tahiti in 1993,[7] Brown read Sidney Sheldon's novel The Doo msday Conspiracy, and was

inspired to become a writer of thrillers.[7][13][14] H e started work on Digital Fortress, setting much of it in Seville, where he had studied in 1985. He also co-wrote a humor book with his wife, 187 Men to Avoid: A Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, under the pseudonym "Danielle Bro wn." The book's author profile reads, "Danielle Brown currently lives in New Eng land: teaching school, writing books, and avoiding men." The copyright is attrib uted to Dan Brown. In 1996 Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. Digital Fortress was p ublished in 1998. His wife, Blythe, did much of the book's promotion, writing pr ess releases, booking Brown on talk shows, and setting up press interviews. A fe w months later, Brown and his wife released The Bald Book, another humor book. I t was officially credited to his wife, though a representative of the publisher said that it was primarily written by Brown. Brown subsequently wrote Angels & D emons and Deception Point, released in 2000 and 2001 respectively, the former of which was the first to feature the lead character, Harvard symbology expert Rob ert Langdon. Brown's first three novels had little success, with fewer than 10,000 copies in each of their first printings. His fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became a bes tseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list during its firs t week of release in 2003. It is now credited with being one of the most popular books of all time, with 81 million copies sold worldwide as of 2009.[15][16] It s success has helped push sales of Brown's earlier books. In 2004 all four of hi s novels were on the New York Times list in the same week,[17] and in 2005 he ma de Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the year. Forbes m agazine placed Brown at No. 12 on their 2005 "Celebrity 100" list, and estimated his annual income at US$76.5 million. The Times estimated his income from Da Vi nci Code sales as $250 million. Brown's third novel featuring Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol, was released on S eptember 15, 2009.[18] According to the publisher, on its first day the book sol d over one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U.S., the U.K. and Ca nada, prompting the printing of 600,000 hardcover copies in addition to the five million first printing.[19] The story takes place in Washington D.C. over a per iod of 12 hours, and features the Freemasons. Brown's promotional website states that puzzles hidden in the book jacket of The Da Vinci Code, including two refe rences to the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, give h ints about the sequel. This repeats a theme from some of Brown's earlier work.[c itation needed] Brown's fourth novel featuring Robert Langdon, Inferno is a mystery thriller nov el released on May 14, 2013, by Doubleday.[20] It immediately became a bestselle r.[21] In a 2006 interview, Brown has stated that he had ideas for about 12 future book s featuring Robert Langdon.[22] Characters in Brown's books are often named after real people in his life. Rober t Langdon is named after John Langdon, the artist who created the ambigrams used for the Angels & Demons CD and novel. Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca is named after "On A Claire Day" cartoonist friend Carla Ventresca. In the Vatican Archives, L angdon recalls a wedding of two people named Dick and Connie, which are the name s of his parents. Robert Langdon's editor Jonas Faukman is named after Brown's r eal life editor Jason Kaufman. Brown also said that characters were based on a N ew Hampshire librarian, and a French teacher at Exeter, Andre Vernet. Cardinal A ldo Baggia, in Angels & Demons, is named after Aldo Baggia, instructor of modern languages at Phillips Exeter Academy.[23] In interviews, Brown has said that his wife is an art historian and painter. Whe n they met, she was the Director of Artistic Development at the National Academy for Songwriters in Los Angeles. During the 2006 lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement in The Da Vinci Code, information was introduced at trial that show ed that Blythe did research for the book.[24] In one article, she was described as "chief researcher."[25] Influences and habits[edit]

In addition to Sidney Sheldon, Dan Brown has been quite vocal about a number of other literary influences who have inspired his writing. He appreciates wit and humor, as shown when he talked about Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing: "I di dn't understand how funny this play Much Ado About Nothing truly was until I bec ame an English teacher and had to teach it. There is no wittier dialogue anywher e."[26] He also lists personal friend, mystery writer Harlan Coben, and Robert L udlum's Bourne series of books. On Ludlum, he states, "Ludlum's early books are complex, smart, and yet still move at a lightning pace. This series got me inter ested in the genre of big-concept, international thrillers."[27] Recurring eleme nts that Brown prefers to incorporate into his novels include a simple hero pull ed out of their familiar setting and thrust into a new one with which they are u nfamiliar, strong female characters, travel to interesting locations, and a 24-h our time frame in which the story takes place.[1] Because of the research-intensive nature of his novels, Brown can spend up to tw o years writing them. To remain focused on such projects, Brown ensures that whe n he chooses a theme for the novel (what he refers to as the "big idea"), and it s subject, that they be those that can hold his interest. In Brown's view, the i deal topic does not have an easily defined right or wrong view, but presents a m oral grey area that can lend itself to debate. Because his favorite subjects inc lude codes, puzzles, treasure hunts, secretive organizations and academic lectur es on obscure topics, he tends to incorporate those into his novels. Because Bro wn considers writing to be a discipline that requires constant practice, he has developed a routine to maintain his abilities. He wakes up at 4:00 am when there are no distractions (a practice he began with Digital Fortress when he had two daytime teaching jobs) and when he feels most productive, in order to give symbo lic importance to the first order of business each day. He keeps an antique hour glass on his desk, so that he can stop briefly every hour to do push-ups, sit-up s and stretching exercises to keep his blood flowing.[28] Brown does his writing in his loft. He has also told fans that he uses inversion therapy to help with writer's block. He uses gravity boots and says, "hanging upside down seems to he lp me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective."[29] Film adaptations[edit] In 2006 Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was released as a film by Columbia Pictu res, with director Ron Howard; the film starred Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Aud rey Tautou as Sophie Neveu and Sir Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing. It was muc h anticipated and served to launch the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, though it rece ived overall poor reviews. It currently has a 24% rating at the film review aggr egator website Rotten Tomatoes, derived from 165 negative reviews of the 214 cou nted.[30] It was later listed as one of the worst films of 2006 on Ebert & Roepe r,[31] but also the second highest grossing film of the year, pulling in $750 mi llion USD worldwide.[32] Brown was listed as one of the executive producers of t he film The Da Vinci Code, and also created additional codes for the film. One o f his songs, "Phiano," which Brown wrote and performed, was listed as part of th e film's soundtrack. In the film, Brown and his wife can be seen in the backgrou nd of one of the early book signing scenes. The next film, Angels & Demons, was released on May 15, 2009, with Howard and Ha nks returning. It, too, garnered mostly negative reviews, though critics were ki nder to it than to its predecessor. As of September 2009, it has a 36% meta-rati ng at Rotten Tomatoes.[33] Filmmakers expressed interest in adapting The Lost Symbol into a film as well.[3 4][35] The screenplay is being written by Danny Strong, with pre-production expe cted to begin in 2013.[36] Copyright infringement cases[edit] In August 2005 author Lewis Perdue unsuccessfully sued Brown for plagiarism, on the basis of claimed similarity between The Da Vinci Code and his novels, The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). Judge George Daniels said, in p art: "A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Cod e is substantially similar to Daughter of God."[37] In April 2006 Brown won a copyright infringement case brought by authors Michael

Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed that Brown stole ideas from their 1982 b ook Holy Blood Holy Grail for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. It was in the bo ok Holy Blood Holy Grail that Baigent, Leigh, and co-author Henry Lincoln had ad vanced the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. Brown even alluded to the two authors' nam es in his book. Leigh Teabing, a lead character in both the novel and the film, uses Leigh's name as the first name, and anagrammatically derives his last name from Baigent's. Mr Justice Peter Smith found in Brown's favor in the case, and a s a private amusement, embedded his own Smithy code in the written judgment.[38] On March 28, 2007, Brown's publisher, Random House, won an appeal copyright infr ingement case. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales rejected the efforts fro m Baigent and Leigh, who became liable for paying legal expenses of nearly US$6 million.[39] A contributing factor for the outcome of the case is that these aut hors presented their work as non-fiction, whereas fiction writers often draw upo n non-fiction resources for content research.