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Interview with R.A. Salvatore - Page 3

© Debbie Ledesma

DL: How is The Highwayman different from your other books?

RAS: First of all, it's a stand-alone novel. You don't have to read anything before it or after it. It's a book, not a piece of a larger series, and that seems unusual in fantasy these days. This has been my plan since I started DemonWars: I wrote seven books to define the boundaries - magical, social, geographical and political - of the world and now I can go there and just tell stories.

Second, I made The Highwayman>/u> more human-centered than anything I've ever done. There are non-human monsters, but every named character is human, and some, like Bransen, are very, very human. I wanted the book to be accessible to people who don't read fantasy; the book a Drizzt reader can give to his girlfriend who keeps asking him what he's reading.

DL: What authors do you enjoy reading?

RAS: I'm all over the place with my reading. Generally these days I stay out of the fantasy genre altogether. I do enjoy David Gemmell and Terry Brooks.

Currently I'm devouring political books. We've got an important election coming up and I want to be as informed as possible. Right now I'm slogging through the Tom Clancy/Anthony Zinni collaboration. It's slow going.

DL: What do you think are the reasons for the popularity of Fantasy?

RAS: Because the world is dangerous and times are tough and the News makes a point of being depressing ("blood leads") and scary. Because work, for most people, is mundane and boring and overwhelming. Fantasy is the ultimate escapist fiction, and "escapism" isn't such a bad word to so many people.

Also, between Harry Potter and the Jackson "Lord of the Rings" movies, fantasy has been thrust into the imaginations of many, many more people.

DL: Could you give some advice to aspiring writers?

RAS: Sure: if you can quit then quit. I mean that with all my heart and soul. If you can walk away from this ugly business, then don't walk, run!

If you can quit, then quit, and if you can't quit, you're a writer. You don't write to get published or to get rich and famous (because few writers get published and a tiny speck of a percentage become rich and an even tinier speck of a percentage become famous). You write because you have stories clawing at the inside of your skin, desperately trying to tear free.

Once that question is settled, my advice would be to study the business of