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What is the creepiest scene you’ve ever read/seen?

How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 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. 

Ed Greenwood (author of The Sword Never Sleeps): In my early days as a student journalist, after a flood that inundated a farm, wading through a swamp full of decomposing bodies (horses, cows, and—it was suspected and later confirmed, though I didn’t actually see any—humans). Things kept bobbing up to the surface, or staring up from just underneath it. And we kept hearing little wet splashy noises in the distance . . .

Erin Evans (author of The God Catcher): Pan’s Labyrinth. The thing with the bottle . . . I don’t want to talk about it anymore. (Friend Erin)

Christopher Rowe (author of a story in Realms of the Dead): Rev 6:1-17, KJV 1611 (Friend Christopher)

Mark Sehestedt (author of The Fall of Highwatch): Probably the naked wrestling scene in Borat. Or Nimoy’s “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”

Richard Lee Byers (author of Unholy): The scene in Hannibal where Hannibal’s feeding the guy his own brain.

Philip Athans (author of A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt): “Creepy” is hard. The most disturbing is the Japanese soldier being skinned alive in Haruki Murakami’s Wind-up Bird Chronicle. Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the movie Alien actually scared me all over again. Then there’s every single word of Harlan Ellison’s short story “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream,” including the title. (Friend Phil)

Erik Scott de Bie (author of Downshadow): It might be the prologue of Ghostwalker, actually. It turned out far more disturbing than I had thought I could write. (Friend Erik)

Jaleigh Johnson (author of Mistshore): Creepiest scene I’ve ever read was the first chapter of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. I’ve never read anything before or since that disturbed me so deeply, and I mean that as a compliment to the author. Creepiest scene in a movie was hands-down the first time I saw Pet Sematary as a kid. I’ve always been an animal lover and that movie disturbed me on several levels. (Friend Jaleigh)

Richard Baker (author of Avenger): Maybe it’s because I’m a writer so this holds a special terror for me, but . . . the hobbling scene in Misery. Or the catch-the-razor-boomerang scene from Road Warrior, where the guy tries to laugh off the fact that he just lost four fingers because he knows that he dies the minute he ceases to amuse the barbarians around him. (Friend Richard)

Rosemary Jones (author of City of the Dead): There’s a moment in The Others when the door swings open and there’s . . . nothing there. Sometimes an empty room can be far more frightening than blood and gore. (Friend Rosemary)

Bruce R. Cordell (author of City of Torment): In Spirited Away, when the girl Chihiro and her parents linger too long in the spirit world and sees the spirits begin to move into the village as night falls. Plus other related scenes in Spirited Away. (Friend Bruce)

James P. Davis (author of Circle of Skulls): One scene? Hmmm . . . Well, in movies, the recurring dream sequence in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness comes to mind with its quiet, static-filled realism. Also there are several creepy bits in Lamberto Bava’s Demons. In books it would be a tie between the polar bear attack in Clive Barker’s Sanctuary and the stretching stairway scene in Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves.

There’s another book, I don’t recall the title, but it contains lots of pictures, mostly of large crowds doing various everyday things. But in each picture, if you look long enough, you realize there’s this guy (glasses, red and white striped shirt, striped hat) staring at you in every picture . . . *shivers* . . . Now every time I see a crowd I’m thinking, “Where is that guy?” (Friend James)

Lisa Smedman (author of Ascendancy of the Last): One of my favorite movies is “Miracle Mile.” The nukes are about to fall (or are they?) and our hero, plus everyone else in the movie, is rushing to save the ones they love most. I grew up in the 1960s, and was a paranoid (and rightly so) kid who dug crude “bomb shelters” in my backyard. This movie plays right into my biggest childhood fear, and always makes me cry in the end, no matter how many times I watch it. It’s also funny as hell.

Jak Koke (author of The Edge of Chaos): Tunnel scene in Stephen King’s The Stand. If you’ve read it you know what I mean. This is the master at the height of his craft. I read that over 20 years ago and it still haunts me to this day. (Friend Jak)

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What’s your favorite D&D monster?

How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 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): Do elves qualify? They ARE in the Monster Manual. (Friend Elaine)

Ed Greenwood (author of The Sword Never Sleeps): The human. Always the nastiest foe. After that, beholders, but only by a tentacle-tip ahead of a tie between dragons and mind flayers.

Jak Koke (author of The Edge of Chaos): Dragons. Of all the great monsters, dragons are the smartest and most cunning. We cannot understand them. They can be alternately plodding and capricious, whimsical and wise. We can love them even while they are terrifyingly alien at their core. (Friend Jak)

Erin Evans (author of The God Catcher): I like the 4E erinyes. Not only is their name essentially “Erin, yes!”, they are lady-monsters who want to carve your skin off and beat you to a bloody pulp, rather than seduce you and wait for you to corrupt and then come torture you.  I’m always a fan of improved efficiency. (Friend Erin)

Christopher Rowe (author of a story in Realms of the Dead): I just know everybody’s gonna say owlbear, and I really lean that way myself. But, at the end of the day, for me it's all about the otyugh. (Friend Christopher)

Mark Sehestedt (author of The Fall of Highwatch): Dire bear. I want one.

Richard Lee Byers (author of Unholy): Mind flayer.

Philip Athans (author of A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt): Oh, that’s a hard one. Bob Salvatore has reawakened my love of the 1^st Edition Fiend Folio, which was always my favorite of the old AD&D monster books. Dire corbies. Yeah. (Friend Phil)

Erik Scott de Bie (author of Downshadow): Fey’ri, of course. (Friend Erik)

Jaleigh Johnson (author of Mistshore): My favorite monsters were the undead, in all forms. Our DM in our old campaigns would bring them out in the creepiest, most unexpected ways, and it was always a challenge to destroy them. (Friend Jaleigh)

Richard Baker (author of Avenger): I really dig the fomorians in 4^th Edition. The idea of the fey-underdark, the nod to the Irish myths, there’s a lot to like with these guys. They were always my favorite giants before, but now fomorians are double-super-awesome. (Friend Richard)

Rosemary Jones (author of City of the Dead): Kobolds. Nothing like a gang of kobolds to liven up an evening. Although I was much taken with the arboreal kracken that recently descended upon my group. (Friend Rosemary)

Bruce R. Cordell (author of City of Torment): Gelatinous cube. Mainly because I have a gelatinous cube miniature, and as a D&D Dungeon Master, there’s no greater joy than putting the minis of the players inside the transparent plastic square that makes up the gelatinous cube mini. (This of course signifies that the players have been swallowed by the cube and are being digested by its acidic gelatinous body.) (Friend Bruce)

James P. Davis (author of Circle of Skulls): Well, I told my Monster Manual that someday this question might arrive and that I would have to choose a favorite. So, I guess if I narrow down all of my favorite factors for a good monster (intelligent, creepy, magic-using, morally flexible, self-serving, etc.) I end up in the Fey category. Bunches of beasties to love in the Feywild, a place where so much can be so familiar on the surface, yet utterly alien. And when you boil down the Feywild to great creepy villains, you find the hags (Meg Mucklebones of Legend fame, for instance). To be more specific, the Night Hag. Giver her some class-levels and a motivation and you’ve got a villainous monster that will go the distance. (Friend James)

Lisa Smedman (author of Ascendancy of the Last): Rakshasa. Cool cat people with magic. ‘Nuff said.

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What do you know far too much about?

How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 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): Codpieces. I wrote an article entitled “The Rise of the Codpiece: A Short History” for Renaissance Magazine.

Ed Greenwood (author of The Sword Never Sleeps): How to survive on the sort of money writers and librarians make. Feel free to browse my ever-growing collection of cat food recipes . . .

Mark Sehestedt (author of The Fall of Highwatch): Mr. T.

Richard Lee Byers (author of Unholy): The DC and Marvel Universes, especially the Silver Age versions.

Philip Athans (author of A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt): Most of all I wish I could erase from my memory all of the bad reality TV I’ve seen. Why can I tell you the first names of all of the Real Housewives of Orange County? I can, and for God’s sake I don’t want to! I only forget stuff that I actually need to remember.

Jenna Helland (author of The Fanged Crown): The history of ancient navigation. There’s just nothing like a sextant.

Erin Evans (author of The God Catcher): Everything. In college, once trounced my now-husband and his then-roommate at Trivial Pursuit, while so drunk I could hardly sit upright and I was calling it “Privial Trisuit.” Sadly, one cannot major in Useless Trivia. At least, not without sacrificing job prospects.

Christopher Rowe (author of a story in Realms of the Dead): Professional bicycle racing. What logically follows, by the way, is that I’m no fan of a certain famous American cyclist.

Erik Scott de Bie (author of Downshadow): Aheh. No one’s going to hold it against me if I say D&D, right?

Jaleigh Johnson (author of Mistshore): I can quote large chunks of dialogue from most John Hughes movies. Verbatim. Chalk it up to coming of age in the heart of the Betamax/VCR era. I was able to watch my favorite movies over and over and over . . . Bueller . . . Bueller.

Richard Baker (author of Avenger): I know a lot about a number of really useless topics, but if I had to pick one, I’d say politics and current affairs. I’m a news junkie, and it drives my wife nuts. Most issues I follow on that front don’t make me happy; I’d be better off if I didn’t pay as much attention as I do.

Rosemary Jones (author of City of the Dead): Hmm, can you know too much? Probably pop culture, especially science fiction/fantasy TV series and B movies.

Bruce R. Cordell (author of City of Torment): Currently active robotic space missions. Want to know about Cassini as it spirals around Saturn? Messenger near Mercury? Dawn as it heads to Vesta and Ceres? I’m your guy.

Jak Koke (author of The Edge of Chaos): Biological science—I worked as a research scientist in molecular biology labs for many years. I can extract and clone DNA so watch out!

James P. Davis (author of Circle of Skulls): Horror movies. Lots of horror movies in my house and in my brain. Quite a few I could quote verbatim from opening credits all the way to the end. Bits of horror and just plain dark trivia are floating around in my skull as well. I’m just drawn to it . . . or maybe it’s drawn to me? Hmmm . . .

Lisa Smedman (author of Ascendancy of the Last): The sounds an old car makes just before a vital engine part is about to break -- or has broken. Timing belt, starter, alternator belt, etc.I love “classic” cars (known to most as “beaters”), but they’re a pain in the pocketbook. 

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What would you be surprised if people didn’t know about you?

How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 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): Nothing comes to mind. I really don’t expect people to know stuff about me.

Ed Greenwood (author of The Sword Never Sleeps): That I like worldbuilding, and gaming, and fantasy. If they’ve heard of me at all, it’s probably in one of those contexts. I like to keep my career as an exotic dancer secr—oops.

Mark Sehestedt (author of The Fall of Highwatch): I don’t know. What don’t you know about me?

Richard Lee Byers (author of Unholy): That I write, I suppose.

Philip Athans (author of A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt): That I started playing D&D the summer of 1978 and have been playing ever since. I came into the Book Department at TSR in September 1995 as the department’s “resident gamer,” if you can believe that.

Jak Koke (author of The Edge of Chaos): That I wrote a series of Shadowrun novels in the 90s . . . That for many years I was the managing editor for Per Aspera Press (where a certain soon-to-be famous fellow Forgotten Realms author and Eberron line editor got her start in editing.) That I go to Norwescon every year . . .

Jenna Helland (author of The Fanged Crown): I love books with pictures: kids’ books, graphic novels, illustrated encyclopedias (the more specific the better), how-to books in Gaelic. . . as long as there are illustrations, I’m happy.

Erin Evans (author of The God Catcher): I don’t write the way I talk. A long time ago I gave up worrying about how I sound in casual conversation—I like slang too much! I reflexively pepper my speech with “totally” and “like.” And when I get going (and I get going fast), there is no stopping the string of invented adjectives and adverbs. Sometimes the only difference between a one-dimensional teen stereotype’s dialogue and mine is that I can use “fewer” and “less” correctly. The only things that my speech has in common with my writing are that it flows very quickly, and I am insanely fond of metaphorical language in both.

Christopher Rowe (author of a story in Realms of the Dead): I’d be surprised if people didn’t know I’m from the South. Wait, I mean that I’d be surprised if people who’d met me in person didn’t know I’m from the South.

Erik Scott de Bie (author of Downshadow): It surprises me when people don’t know that I’m really tall, but it doesn’t surprise me at all when people don’t really have a sense of that height until they actually meet me. Then the eyes widen.

Jaleigh Johnson (author of Mistshore): Most people who know me should know that I’m terrified of spiders and large insects, especially grasshoppers. Salvador Dali had the right idea—you can’t trust those twitchy little buggers.

Richard Baker (author of Avenger): I’d be surprised if people didn’t know I was a Phillies fan. I’ve mentioned it in my author bios for like twelve years now. When I started doing it the Phillies were really pretty wretched. Now they’ve been one of the best teams in baseball for four or five years, and I’m a little worried that new readers might regard me as a fair-weather phan. Trust me, I paid my dues.

Rosemary Jones (author of City of the Dead): That I’m a passionate reader. After all I’ve written multiple books about collecting books.

Bruce R. Cordell (author of City of Torment): I’d be surprised if people didn’t know much my writing has been inspired by Lovecraft’s Mythos stories.

James P. Davis (author of Circle of Skulls): Why do you ask? Do you know something about me? Something surprising? Was that you I saw nosing around that old shed in my backyard? Well, just to be safe, I suppose now I’ll have to kill you too . . .

Lisa Smedman (author of Ascendancy of the Last): That I have tattoos. If they don’t know this, they’ve likely only seen me in winter, all bundled up.

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Hero or Villain?

How well do you know your FR Authors? Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 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): A hero who knows that heroics and villainy are often a matter of perspective and degree.

Ed Greenwood (author of The Sword Never Sleeps): You mean, which do I prefer to be? The hero. Villains get the spoils and the good lines and to sleep with racy-looking companions, but they also tend to end up sleeping with the fishes . . . and in the meantime, I have to sleep with myself.

Erin Evans (author of The God Catcher): That always depends on the story.  I like characters who know what they want/need and take active steps to get that, and all too often that’s the villains, while the heroes are reacting and trying to clean things up. But I like the characters better if they’re considerate, too.

Mark Sehestedt (author of The Fall of Highwatch): Me or you?

Richard Lee Byers (author of Unholy): This is a tough one, but I’ll go with villain. Because they’re always fun to write, and most of the time, they drive the story.

Philip Athans (author of A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt): Like a well-conceived villain, I’m a villain who thinks he’s a hero. No one wakes up in the morning with the intent to be villainous. I don’t, but by the time I go to bed at night I’ve offended, hurt, torpedoed, chastised, or belittled most of the people I’ve met that day, all for personal gain. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Erik Scott de Bie (author of Downshadow): Both.

Jaleigh Johnson (author of Mistshore): (Mischievous) Hero

Richard Baker (author of Avenger): Hero. I guess I’m secretly insecure and want to be liked and admired.

Jenna Helland (author of The Fanged Crown): A villain. I discovered my black heart at a young age and decided to fight my true nature. My resolve to play by the rules is entirely voluntary. And not entirely successful.

Rosemary Jones (author of City of the Dead): I’d like to be the hero of my own life: solve my problems and not rely on other people to solve them for me. But I’d love to be a cool dresser like many villains: have you noticed that they always get the best accessories?

Bruce R. Cordell (author of City of Torment): I’ll be a hero if I come up with a vaccine that stops the Zeta-prion in its tracks... But I have a sneaking hunch my vaccine is what is going to touch off the zombie apocalypse, which means . . . Villain. Damn it!

Jak Koke (author of The Edge of Chaos): Both in the same character. Shades of gray are what make interesting and ‘realistic’ heroes and villains.

James P. Davis (author of Circle of Skulls): Depends on the day I’m having, I suppose…In writing and reading however, I prefer villains and I like it even more when the hero and villain roles blur. Bad people can do good things for the wrong reasons and good people can do bad things for the right reasons. Getting into the heads of such characters is quite fun. You hate them one minute and love them the next. I particularly like the dark, borderline villainous, hero as opposed to the Lawful Good types. Villain and hero all in one package, so I can have my bloody, violent, brooding cake and hack it to bits too.

Lisa Smedman (author of Ascendancy of the Last): Hero. I’ve rescued many, many animals, as has my spouse. Our vetinary bills are atrocious, but it’s worth it.

Christopher Rowe (author of a story in Realms of the Dead): Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name/With any just reproach?

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