Attack of the Clones (41 page)

Leominster, Massachusetts is known for four things: Johnny Appleseed, a thriving plastics industry, Robert Cormier, and
New York Times
bestselling author R.A. Salvatore. With over fifteen million books sold in the U.S. alone, more than four dozen books to his credit, and numerous game credits Salvatore has become one of the most important figures in modern epic fantasy.

A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, R.A. Salvatore, began writing shortly after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State College. He penned his first manuscript in 1982, in a spiral notebook, writing by candlelight while listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk album.

His first break came in 1987 when TSR, publisher of Dungeons & Dragons®, offered him a contract based on a proposal for the Forgotten Realms shared-world setting. Bob’s first published novel,
The Crystal Shard
, was released in February of 1988 and climbed to #2 on the Waldenbooks bestseller list. By 1990 his third book,
The Halfling’s Gem
, had made the New York Times bestseller list. With a contract for three more TSR books, and with his first novel and its sequel sold to Penguin, Bob remembers that “it seemed like a good time to quit my day job.”

Salvatore spends a good deal of time speaking to schools and library groups, encouraging people, particularly young people, to read. With the zeal of a religious convert, he talks about the virtues of reading and the ultimate appeal, “it is fun.” He remembers his return to reading when he was in college, “The blizzard of 1978 shut down my college for a week. My sister had given me a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s
The Hobbit
, which I read while house-bound. When I got back to school, I changed my major from math to communications.”

He is currently at work writing the next and final installment of The
Neverwinter
Trilogy, due out October 2012. Book two of the series,
Neverwinter
, will be out October 2011.

In addition to his novel writing Salvatore is hard at work creating a brand new world for 38Studios, Llc. which will be the setting for their first MMORPG, currently code-named Copernicus. This also serves as the setting for the new RPG
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
, an epic, open world role-playing video game, due out in 2012.

Salvatore makes his home in Massachusetts, with his wife their dogs Oliver, Artemis and Ivan and Jilseponie, a gray tiger cat. He is a trustee on the Leominster Library Board and he spends his “free time” coaching and playing softball on a team made up of family and close friends. His gaming group still meets on Sunday nights to play games, ranging from MMORG’s to Dungeons & Dragons and board games.

You can find him on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/RA-Salvatore/54142479810

By R.A. Salvatore