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The Author Roundtable is off this week and next for the holidays, but I thought I'd do a little something about our hard-working authors and say a little something about each one personally, thanking them for and celebrating the work they do. Also, I'm dispensing them gifts, as they've all been nice this year. So without further ado . . .   Santa Erik's Christmas List   Elaine Cunningham (co-author of The City of Splendors): Elaine has got to be one of the most patient people I know. As for her work, I first read Elfshadow when I was in 8th grade, and it hooked me not...

This book rocks and here's why . . .   How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday you can expect an update to the author roundtable, featuring many of our best Forgotten Realms authors’ answers to the world’s most important questions, right here on this blog. Submissions for new questions welcome through private message.    READER: “What’s the nicest (or least nice!) thing a reader/reviewer has ever said about your work?”   Elaine Cunningham (co-author of The City of Splendors): The emails that begin, “I never liked...

Ever written a scene that sticks in your head, years after writing it?   How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday you can expect an update to the author roundtable, featuring many of our best Forgotten Realms authors’ answers to the world’s most important questions, right here on this blog. Submissions for new questions welcome through private message.    READER: “What’s the most memorable scene (for you) that you ever wrote?”    Elaine Cunningham (co-author of The City of Splendors): Probably because I’m the...

Foreword: A household name in the genre, R.A. Salvatore is the author of dozens of novels, both within the Realms and without, and has contributed his insights and editing to the crafting of dozens more. He’s inspired a cultural revolution in fantasy with his drow ranger, Drizzt Do’Urden, and his creations have been the basis for many fantasy writers getting into the business in the first place (yours truly, for one). Fresh back from his book tour promoting his new novel, Gauntlgrym, first book in the Neverwinter trilogy, the always-in-demand R.A. Salvatore sat down with...

READER: “What’s your favorite genre outside of fantasy?”    How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday you can expect an update to the author roundtable, featuring many of our best Forgotten Realms authors’ answers to the world’s most important questions, right here on this blog. Submissions for new questions welcome through private message.    Elaine Cunningham (co-author of The City of Splendors): I read widely. History, historical fiction, literary fiction, mainstream, mysteries, young adult, folklore and mythology,...

Hey you! You in the red shirt! How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday you can expect an update to the author roundtable, featuring many of our best Forgotten Realms authors’ answers to the world’s most important questions, right here on this blog. Submissions for new questions welcome through private message.    READER: “Who’s your favorite minor character from your work?”    Elaine Cunningham (co-author of The City of Splendors): That’s a difficult question to answer, since I’m quite fond of many of my...

Hero Archetype: The SaviorThis post is taken from my shiny new website at SeriousPixie.com. When you need help picking out new shoes, or with your left hook in kickboxing, or with figuring out what your opinion about the new health bill should be, the whole world wants to help. But when you need help the most–when you’re being attacked, robbed, or victim to another agented crime–no one wants to help. In the world’s eyes, the problem is that you have a problem–you are disrupting the field of white picket fences–and you will be held to blame. Like with...

FR Authors Speak: Reverse Q&A   How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday you can expect an update to the author roundtable, featuring many of our best Forgotten Realms authors’ answers to the world’s most important questions, right here on this blog. Submissions for new questions welcome through private message.    READER: “What question have you always wanted to be asked, but never have?”   Elaine Cunningham (co-author of The City of Splendors): “Can you play Danilo Thann’s tune ‘The Grey-Mist Maiden’ on this baroque alto blockflute that I happen to have handy?” Oddly...

What’s your least favorite chore? Don Bassingthwaite (author of The Doom of Kings): I'm going to go with doing taxes—and don't say it isn't a chore, because even if you only do it once a year, it's still something you have to do whether you want to or not, which sounds like a chore to me. It's the worst because it combines all kinds of ugly procedures: cleaning up to find receipts, sorting through paperwork, data entry, and, worst of all, at the end of it all you have to pay. And there's the risk that someone will come back, review it all, and tell you that you have to pay...

Foreword: Richard Lee Byers is the author of countless novels and several major events in the Forgotten Realms world, particularly a world-rending dragonrage in the Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy and a civil war that was anything but civil in The Haunted Lands. He also has the distinction of being one of the few writers to show part of the actual Spellplague in his novel, Unholy. Richard took a few moments from his busy writing schedule to tell us about his new book, Whisper of Venom, book 2 in the Brotherhood of the Griffon trilogy. Q: Tell us a little about yourself. How did you...