Skip to main contentYou really should read: Legacy of the Drow series
An extraordinarily prolific writer, Massachusetts-based Robert Anthony Salvatore has penned 51 novels in 21 years, ranging from several series set in the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms universe (most of them featuring the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden) to the novelization of Attack of the Clones, along with several comic books and one video game. Want to know how to make a living as a writer? Ask Salvatore. 5 pm Saturday, Oct. 10, with Philip Athans. Powell's Books Stage.
What's your personal writing ritual?
I wrote my first book longhand, by candlelight to Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album. How I wish I still had a routine like that! Now it's a laptop in an airport, on airplane, in a hotel, or just bouncing around the house. On those rare occasions when I do find structure, I go up into my office and put on Jonn Serrie or George Winston and just type to the rhythm. I'll work for a half hour, play a video game for a half hour, work for a half hour....
What are your favorite themes to write about (or that you're most guilty of rehashing)?
My favorite types of fantasy literature are those where the characters are rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad behavior (think Boromir in Lord of the Rings). So there's always that message of community, of fighting for something worth fighting for. Beyond that, though, one of the themes that won't let me go is death. I have one essay in the Legend of Drizzt series where Drizzt insists that he is free because he knows that he's going to die; because he can constantly remind himself of that inevitability, he can muster the courage to take emotional chances. He can flippantly ask himself, "What's the worst that could happen?" You hear about cancer patients all the time who say their disease was the greatest blessing ever given to them—it's because they came to realize that time is precious, that every day matters. So go ask that pretty girl out on a date. So try out for the football team.
The most beautiful word in the English language is: _________
Two words: "The End." Like so many writers, I hate to write and love to have written!
What authors made you want to pick up a pen in the first place, and why?
Easy question for me. J.R.R. Tolkien found me as a math major in college. I had lost my love of reading and writing because of some incredibly irrelevant works I was given to read through junior high and high school. During the Great Blizzard of '78, trapped in my parents' house, The Hobbit offered me an escape. I'll never forget that adventure; I fell in love with fantasy immediately, as I remembered all those joys I had known as a child—with my nose buried in books. I devoured every fantasy book I could find, and when I ran out of books to read, I wrote one. Simple as that.
Fight Club time: If you could fight one author (or critic), who would it be and why?
I probably could have answered this a few years ago. Now? Meh, who cares? The only person who can determine the relationship between a reader and a book is the reader. Because of that truth, the only "critics" I care about are the readers of my work. There are "professional critics" who will never understand what I do and will never bother reading one of my books with anything resembling an open mind. Bully for them. I don't write my books for people who don't like them. I write them for the people who do. So fire away. I'm wearing as armor a letter from the guy in Baghdad who wrote to thank me for giving him an escape from the realities of his situation. I'm wearing as armor the email from the high school student who feels like an outcast and finds companionship with Drizzt. I'm wearing as armor the letter from the kid with cancer, determined to fight, as my heroes fight. With armor like that, you think a few barbs will get through, particularly when it's typically from someone who's never gotten such letters?
Name a book you think is highly overrated. Be honest.
So now you're asking me to play the role of the people I mock above? No thanks. The only person who can determine the relationship between a reader and a book is the reader of the book. Suppose I say...Homeland by that hack R.A. Salvatore, and someone who absolutely loved that book reads my "review." I didn't merely insult the book and the author, I insulted everyone and anyone who loved that work, or thought it profound, or had placed it in a special corner of his or her heart. I remember watching Bill Maher one night many years ago when he said, "So what? Fleetwood Mac is popular. That doesn't mean it's good music." That gave me pause. I dedicated my new book to Fleetwood Mac, and it's not the first time I've done that. I feel like that band has written the soundtrack to my life. So guess what, Bill (and I love the guy)—to me, that's very good music.
Dream project:
Writing a Drizzt or Demon Wars movie with Ron Howard directing.
Most recent nightmare:
It's funny, but I generally don't remember my dreams. I daydream way too often, but I have no idea what ridiculous notions dance about my thoughts when I'm sleeping. Go figure.
Your cure for writer's block:
I tape a copy of my daughter's college tuition to the side of the computer. Just kidding, but I don't believe in writer's block. Writer's block is a lack of confidence, and I'm a professional writer so I've got no time for that nonsense. Remember, I'm going to die someday, so why should I be afraid to tap keys?
Pessimistic question: Will you keep writing even after people stop reading?
Of course, and probably more than I write now. Writing and publishing are two different things. I write because I have to, because I won't be happy unless I'm putting these stories down on paper. I publish to pay the bills.
Cautiously optimistic question: Obama? Discuss.
Love the guy. Donated to his campaign and will work for him in 2012. He got handed a catastrophe all the way around and he's actually treating us, the public, as if we're adults as we try to muddle our way through it. I have this fear that the country is becoming ungovernable, with so many rabble rousers nitpicking every move and so much corporate money being poured into the dirty soup. I see President Obama as trying to turn the ship before we hit the iceberg, but he's a smart guy and knows that turning something as huge as the USS U.S. is done by small degrees.
Share one thing you've had to change in your everyday life thanks to our current recession.
Not a thing. Hasn't affected me at all. I'm one of the lucky folks. I have a talent that pays. I get to do what I love and people throw money at me for doing it. The recession doesn't hurt the top few percent in any substantive way. Smaller numbers in a bank account? Big deal. The worst thing about the recession for me is watching my middle-class friends struggling, or younger family members trying to figure out how they'll pay for college or for insurance.
Please paste a short paragraph from a story you're currently working on:
"And now I know the truth, and my folly, and the reality that the nature of Man is not divine, but selfish, and as water seeks its level, so too will the unscrupulous, those unbounded by morality or empathy, by their very lack of personal shackles, rise to dominate their more community-minded brethren. Worse, I live with the certainty now that any gain is merely a temporary illusion. Even in Vanguard, where Gwydre rules well, she will be replaced. Perhaps the line of honor and decency will hold through another generation, perhaps two, but in the end, evil will prevail, for the first time the line of good Gwydre is succeeded by a man of evil intent, or even a man without empathy and sympathy, that last flicker of the light of decency will be snuffed to darkness. And once the darkness takes hold, it does not let go. Delaval begets Yeslnik, Laird Pryd begets Laird Prydae begets Laird Bannagran. The descent is evident in the first instance, and in the subsequent incarnations the moral line is level at best, and inevitably to slide.
It is the sad nature of things. Unshackled and unbounded, evil men will surely rise."
—From The Bear (my hero is not in a good place)
WWeek 2015