[Home Page | Kingdoms | Dragons | Interviews | BLOG | Wiki | Close-up]

Close-up With Robert Stanek & RA Salvatore

In Fall 2003, I created this tribute page to support RA Salvatore's work. RA Salvatore was a favorite author of my son and it was thrilling for him to get to meet Bob. This feature, along with extensive discusion in the Robert Stanek forums, introduced tens of thousands of Ruin Mist fans to Bob's work and to Drizzt Do'Urden for the first time. A fact I am proud of, as I am proud to have supported dozens and dozens of authors through the FOUR decades I've been a writer.

When I met RA Salvatore during his book tour, I was an international bestselling author with over 75 books to my credit, having sold many millions of books. Not only was I also a columnist for both PC Magazine and Dr. Dobbs at the time, my work was being featured all over the world on Microsoft websites, Microsoft training courses and elsewhere where it was familiar to tens of millions at that time (and now hundreds of millions).

Thus, it is extremely disconcerting and perplexing to me, that one or several online trolls have latched onto this tribute page to Bob and twisted its meaning into something supposedly nefarious.

Fall 2003

RA Salvatore's Fall 2003 book tour took him across the West, through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and Washington. The tour was talked about in the Robert Stanek forums as RS and RAS fans discussed their favorite stories and characters. RA Salvatore is a favorite author in the Other Authors section of the boards.

   As Salvatore's tour was winding down the two Roberts, Robert Stanek and RA Salvatore, met at a book event where RAS spoke at length about how he started writing and how his many books and characters were developed. RAS also talked about playing Baldur's Gate and coming upon his own character, Drizzt Do'Urden. Apparently, when RAS tried to get Drizzt Do'Urden's scimitars, Drizzt attacked and killed his entire party. Later a friend told him how to defeat Drizzt (using wands of monster summoning and filling the screen with monsters to use as decoys while you fill poor old Drizzt with arrows. With Drizzt dead, you can take his scimitars and armor and whoop butt. Watch out if you kill Drizzt and try to import a character with his gear into Baldur's Gate 2, Drizzt will hunt your party down and kill you.

     But if you really want to play as Drizzt you need Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for PS2 or XBOX. Beat the Labyrinth at the end of the game, while playing in extreme mode and you can play as Drizzt Do'Urden, dual scimitars and all.

     Salvatore's latest book is The Lone Drow, Book 2 in the Hunter's Blades Trilogy. In The Lone Drow, featured on the right, Drizzt Do'Urden has become an orc's worst nightmare: a lone drow with nothing to lose and nowhere to run. As the North spirals into chaos and war, one dark elf has decided to take it personally, and it will take an army to stop him.

Drizzt Do'Urden has drawn his swords, drawn blood, and drawn a line in the snow. (Get The Lone Drow at Amazon.)

The final book in Hunters Blades Trilogy is Two Swords, which will be published in October 2004. For those who haven't read the series yet, start with The Thousand Orcs, featured on the left. (Get The Thousand Orcs at Amazon.)

Write or send an email. Hope to hear from you!