Interview: R. A. Salvatore

MB: Do you ever use music to help write a scene with a certain feel to it—a feel that some piece of music evokes?

RS: Yes and no. I use a lot of different things. When I was going to write the Cleric Quintet, for example, I went back to college and took a course in Chaucer because I wanted that flavor for Cadderly and his friends. When I’m writing, typically now I use Jonn Serre—it’s kind of instrumental New Age type stuff. George Winston. I use a lot of instrumental. It’s hard to write when I’m putting on Led Zeppelin because I’m too busy air guitaring to hit the keys.

But music [does serve a big role]. I have a book tour coming up. I’m terrified of flying, but I put the headphones on, I start typing, and I forget I’m on an airplane. So it really does help me get away into the world I’m creating.

MB: When you travel, do you incorporate the surroundings you encounter into your works?

R.S.: Absolutely. I went to Hawaii to visit Terry Brooks, who had a house there at the time. We drove around the island to the volcano and saw the red lava—it was amazing. That volcano is the volcano in The Demon Awakens.

Another time, after a really great week of book touring in England—I met Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and Michael Moorcock—I stayed over another week with my family. My kids were like 6, 5, and 3 at the time, so it’s a while ago. We went out to the northern tip of the Isle of Skye, to this place called Duntulm, and it was full of ghosts. It was amazing because you would climb this very narrow pat—with a cliff on your right and a pasture full of sheep on the left—and as you crested the hill, you were suddenly hit by this 15 mph wind off the North Atlantic. And then there are the ruins of this old castle before you, and you’re looking out into this horseshoe-shaped bay with these gigantic triangular rocks sticking out of them. It was like 10 o’clock at night, but the sun wasn’t down yet because it’s so far north. That feeling stayed with me. I came home, and I couldn’t stop writing. That was one of the Spearwielder’s Tales—I wrote one of those books in like six weeks because I just couldn’t stop writing. I was in Sedona a few years ago, and I got to find a way to get those red rocks in a book somewhere because it’s a pretty magical place.

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