R.A. Salvatore book signing

Last night I attended a book signing by R.A. Salvatore.  His books list in quite extensive, but he was signing for his new book “The Two Swords".  Salvatore is a science fiction/fantasy novelist who has become famous for his stoic, battle hardened, dark elf hero Drizzt.  I would say that his works are the cornerstone of the Forgotten Realms line of books published by Wizards of the Coast.  The story starts back with the “The Icewind Dale Trilogy” and continues through many trilogies and one off novels.  He has also written two Star Wars novels (both good),  and a Tarzan book (which I haven’t read), among others.

Listening to Salvatore last night left me with the impression that he is a pretty down to earth guy.  Being from Baltimore he didn’t hesitate to bring up the Red Sox were in the World Series (and his two favorite teams appear to be the Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds).  He definitely enjoyed writing and promoted his works, and really all works of his genre, as ways to loose yourself in another place.  This is pretty much what I use fiction reading for.  I love programming and developing, and God knows there are TONS of technical books I could be reading, but I have to get away from that sometimes.  Reading fiction allows me an escape that is much needed.  Back when I was doing 200 hours of overtime in a quarter the only escape I had from .Net and code was reading for about 30 minutes before I went to sleep after just coming in from work; only to have to get up and head back in the next day. 

Salvatore entertained questions before signing his books and he answered two of mine.  It was pretty insightful to hear his explanations on where his very vivid combat sciences come from, how he got into the Star Wars books, and that he was going to be writing a non fantasy book in the future (but don’t expect his name on it anywhere).  He also talked about how the Internet is great, but not a generally safe place for authors.  How people who are out trolling for flames just cause writers to disengage from the Internet as a defense mechanism.  I can definitely understand this as these types of people have caused me to leave several good message boards or online communities.  He was very witty and quite funny.  His description of reactions of Star Wars fans to his book Vector Prime was very entertaining (you have to read the book to know why).

Overall it was a good experience.  I had never been to a book signing before and I enjoyed it.  Salvatore’s writings have been a source of many hours of entertainment for me over the years.  I enjoyed the experience of being able to thank him for them.

I had him sign my copy of “The Demon Awakens” (which is the first in the Demon War trilogy, and my favorite of his series.  Apparently, his favorite series as well).  I also had him sign a copy of his new book to give to a friend of mine who had got be reading Salvatore many years ago.