INTERVIEW: RA Salvatore

Renowned the world over for his Dark Elf stories featuring renegade Drizzt Do'Urden, it probably comes as no surprise to discover that he fell in love with the genre when he was given a copy of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as a Christmas present.

Now with over 10 million copies sold the world over, he never ceases to amaze readers by delivering high octane action blending the fantastical to laws of physics.

With his latest releases we see a new direction, away from his most famous character to deliver a couple of knock out tales, released in the UK for the first time, that, of The Ancient and The Highwayman (Tor, June). Here he chats about life, the extraordinary and chasing his own tail (well his Japanese Chins at any rate.)...


Falcata Times: Writing is said to be something that people are afflicted with rather than gifted and that it's something you have to do rather than want. What is you opinion of this statement and how true is it to you?

RA Salvatore: Well said. The advice I always give to someone who tells me he wants to be a writer is: If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, you're a writer. It's not a choice, and if you are a writer, you'll never be happy unless you're writing.


FT: When did you realise that you wanted to be a writer?

RAS: I think I knew it when i was very young - kindergarten age, even. I read all the time, and my mind would take me away on these wonderful journeys. But school beat the reading and the writing out of me. Too many irrelevant books, or boring snippets that went nowhere to my young sensibilities. I know wha the teachers loved; it's too bad they never took the time to try to figure out what a kid or a young man might enjoy.

I fell back in love with reading, and writing, in my freshman year of college, when, trapped in my parents' house by the Great Blizzard of '78, I read my sister's Christmas gift to me: the Tolkien books. My imagination started rolling along and here I am.


FT: Its often said that if you can write a short story you can write anything. How true do you think this is and what have you written that either proves or disproves your POV?

RAS: I don't think it's true. While i think that a storyteller is a storyteller, different styles are better suited for different media. Or different length. I know some amazing short story writers, but I'm not particularly fond of their longer work. The reverse is true, as well. Personally, I struggle with the short story venue. I think I've written a few pretty good ones, but wow, it does not come easy to me.


FT: If someone were to enter a bookshop, how would you persuade them to try your novel over someone elses and how would you define it?

RAS: I wouldn't. I'm not good at glad-handing, and I don't see writing as a competitive exercise. If, during a conversation with someone, I discovered that he liked certain things about a book that were plentiful in one of mine, I might suggest that he try one...I'm just as likely to suggest someone else.


FT: How would you "sell" your book in 20 words or less?

RAS: @Dear Publisher,
You can make lots of money from publishing this book and here's how...
(I write because I love to write. Publishing, on the other hand, is a business!)


FT: Who is a must have on your bookshelf and who's latest release will find you on the bookshops doorstep waiting for it to open?

RAS: Must have: The Hobbit.
Latest release: several, and if I list any, I'm leaving out other dear friends, so as we say in the neighborhood where you had to have a vowel at the end of your name, "fuhgettaboutit."


FT: When you sit down and write do you know how the story will end or do you just let the pen take you? ie do you develop character profiles and outlines for your novels before writing them or do you let your idea's develop as you write?

RAS: I think I do, and yes, there's an outline. Outlines are required by the publisher, and by most writers, myself included, as a guideline for measuring where they are and where they need to go as they write their books. But I'm usually surprised at where my books end up.

FT: What do you do to relax and what have you read recently?

RAS: I relax by playing videogames, or watching old episodes of MASH, or watching those wonderful Saturday morning Discovery or History Channel shows about bigfoot or UFOs or anything where the "very serious" narrator uses the line, "Some people believe..."
I haven't read much lately, and it's making me crazy. But I've been too busy with my own work, between the writing and the videogame development with 38 Studios. I deasperately want to reread "The Hobbit." It's been too long.


FT: What's your guiltiest pleasure that few know about?

RAS: My car. I'm an environmentalist - have solar panels on my house, have solar heated my pool for 15 years, and all that - but I'm a car junkie. I like fast, cool cars ("American Graffiti" is one of my favorite movies) and I don't think I've ever felt freer than when I've driven on a track. Since I work at home, I don't drive very often, just a few thousand miles a year. I mitigate my guilt with that, but my car, a Mercedes CLK63, doesn't get very good mileage.


FT: Lots of writers tend to have pets (mainly cats.) What do you have and what are their key traits (and do they appear in your novel in certain character attributes?)

RAS: My five cats have whittled down to one, Jilly (Jilseponie from DemonWars), but my wife and I are also the proud parents of three Japanese Chin Spaniels, Oliver, Ivan and Artemis (I call him Artiemouse, because he's tiny). After I lost my old mutt, Puddles, I swore I'd never get another dog. After 18 years, parting with him was too painful. But my daughter talked and tricked me into getting Oliver, and once I began to understand the personality of the Japanese Chin, I was hooked. They're full of imagination, incredibly smart, completely friendly (they were bred for companionship only) and low energy, which means they play insanely for about an hour, then sleep for the rest of the day, usually on the back of a couch, like a cat.


FT: Which character within the book is the most fun to write and why?

RAS: The most fun I ever had writing a character was Oliver deBurrows from "The Crimson Shadow Trilogy." Oliver is a cross between Inego Montoya of "The Princess Bride" and the little French guy on teh wall in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It's tough to write him, but when it works, I'm giggling like an idiot as I type.


FT: How similar to your principle protagonist(s) are you?

RAS: I've often said that Drizzt is who I wished I had the courage to be. The same is true for Elbryan, and Gary Leger from the Spearwielder's Tales is very much....well, that book is autobiographical, except that Gary was kidnapped by a leprechaun, while my imagination was stolen by a hobbit.


FT: What hobbies do you have and how do they influence your work?

RAS: Softball, fit camp (three days a week of the most intense workout I've ever done), political message boards and video games are the big four. Softball puts me back to those early days of writing - when I'm on the field, it's like an emotional time warp, and I draw energy from that. Fit camp, health in general, is critical, because writing wears me down. I'm fifty now, and the pressures of this job will kill me if I don't keep in shape. The message boards allow me to vent (anonymously) and also help keep me in tune with the sensibilities of those around me, and video games keep me in touch with where the genre is going.
Or maybe, those four are just things that round out my life and have little to do with writing.


FT: Where do you get your idea's from?

RAS: My dogs. They whisper in my ear while I'm sleeping. I know because I wake up with spit dripping off my lobes.


FT: Do you ever encounter writers block and if so how do you overcome it?

RAS: Writers' block is lack of confidence and professional writers have no time for that. Sit down, shut up and type. Once you begin hitting keys, the "block" goes away.


FT: Certain authors are renowned for writing at what many would call uncivilised times? When do you do write and how do the others in your household feel about it?

RAS: I've gotten more civilised as I've grown older, but sure, there have been middle-of-the-night inspirations, where I've jumped out of bed and run downstairs to jot something down. My wife put her foot down a few years ago: no more writing on Christmas! Probably the worst thing for me is that I've often driven somewhere, arrived, nad had no idea of how I got there. My daughter wouldn't get in the car with me for years.


FT: Sometimes pieces of music seem to madly influence certain scenes within novels, do you have a soundtrack for your tale or is it a case of writing in silence with perhaps the odd musical break in-between scenes?

RAS: Oh, I have my music and use it all the time. John Serrie's "And The Stars Go With You," and George Winston's "December" are my two favourites, and truly, Fleetwood Mac, particularly the wonderful Stevie Nicks, has written the songtrack to accompany my life. I just finished a very emotionally tough book and would begin every writing session by bringing up three videos of the Mac and Ms. Nicks.


FT: What misconceptions, if any, did you have about the writing and publishing field when you were first getting started?

RAS: I don't know that I had any because I never intended to be a published author. That just kind of happened. I knew nothing about the business; I was just a guy who had written a manuscript that a lot of people around me were enjoying. So I went out and learned as much as I could, and got lucky.

FT: If music be the food of love, what do you think writing is and explain your answer?

RAS: Writing is the roadmap of thought. I'm very concerned right now because my country has become a debate through soundbites. A novel teaches a logical arc, the beginning, the middle and the reasonable conclusion. If the last eight years in America have taught me anything, it's that every problem is a PR problem, an illusion, and that we have collective amnesia, month to month. It's very disconcerting to have to keep correcting the record to people who lived through those same experiences. Instead of thinking, "If we do X and it carries us through Y, it will logically bring us to Z," we've lost patience and perspective and act far too often on raw emotion. I believe that part of the problem is that we're teaching kids to pass a test, instead of how to formulate and execute a plan to reach a goal. A novel is exactly that.


FT: What can you tell us about the next novel?

RAS: My son Bryan, who's one of my closest advisors as I go through these various series, told me that he was worried about the book I'm about to start, the last of the Saga of the First King. He loved "The Highwayman" because it was a personal story, and loved the adventure and wider scope of "The Ancient." One thing that worried him about "The Ancient," however, was that the world was expanding, as was the cast of characters. He feared that I would lose the focus of the story, that being Bransen. When he read the upcoming book, "The Dame," he was thrilled by the balance I struck between that wider conflict in the land of Honce and the laser focus on the protagonist. So now I'm writing the last book, and Bryan reminded me, yet again: keep it personal!


FT: What are the last five internet sites that you've visited?

RAS: My own, 38 Studios, and three political sites I won't mention because I'd blow my cover, and I need that cover. Well, usually, I do - I have done a couple of posts on DailyKos under my real name.


FT: Did you ever take any writing classes or specific instruction to learn the craft of writing a novel?

RAS: I have two college degrees, one in Communication/Technical Writing and another in English. To be a writer, you have to know the rules of a language, of course, but I would argue that what you really have to do is come to the point where you view those pieces of language - punctuation, sentence structure, sentence fragments, paragraph size, all of it - as tools, not rules. The most important courses for any would-be writer are literature courses. You learn to write by reading. You learn to love the written word by reading great books (and only you can determine what is a great book to you!).


FT: How did you get past the initial barriers of criticism and rejection?

RAS: Who said I did? You never "get past" those things. You can get 99 five-star reviews, and it's the one-star assault that stays with you. Remember in the 2nd Grade when you wrote something you thought was the best thing ever, and the teacher returned it all covered in red marks? Welcome to my life.

Truthfully, though, the trick is to not take yourself too seriously. Be proud of your work, but you know what, you're not going to change the world. Writers don't change the world. But you will change little parts of the world. You write your books for people who like them, not for the people who don't.


FT: What are the best and worst aspects of writing for a living, in your opinion?

RAS: The best part of being a writer is being invited into the personal corners of other peoples' lives. What a blessing! What a privilege! Through your work, you get to touch people. They draw inspiration and strength from words you have typed. I can't tell you how many Eagle Scout celebrations I've been invited to join, by writing a letter to the candidate. I've met people with life-threatening illnesses who have drawn strength from Drizzt. I met a Dad who broke down in tears because his son has an illness quite similar to the affliction faced by the Highwayman, and he reads these books to his boy to help them both believe. I've heard from dozens and dozens of soldiers in far-off lands, who use my books to break up the tedium, to forget the fear, to bond with their companions. It's overwhelming and it's humbling, and it's a privilege to be invited into the personal space of so many people.

I don't now that there is a “worst part." However, it's emotionally draining. It's stressful - I'm always on deadline. And you have to be honest to the work, wherever that takes you, which means that I have to give a little bit of myself away with every word I type.