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Okay, off and running….it's good to see the enthusiasm and so many new faces (and some long-lost old I-net friends, too). For those of you new here, please get out your sarcasm meter; I'm the youngest of seven with five older sisters and I can't help it. Sorry.

There are no rules here. You can ask me whatever you want, you can criticize as you want. I may not answer some questions, but we'll see. Also, please feel free to cut and paste quote me on other boards if you want - the only thing I ask when you do so is, if you're unsure of the intent behind what I've said, please get clarification from me.

Okay, here we go….

Aria: I haven't seen the Dragonlance Movie. I was supposed to go to the opening, but it got all mixed up. I'll check it out when I can. As for the Spellplague, I'm glad this was asked right up front, because I want to be unambiguous about this.

First of all, I know less about it than you do. This is by design. I know ONLY the fragments of Realms' changes that I need to know as I write each book. I can't overwhelm myself with what will be, when I'm working right now on what is.

Second, when they decided to make these changes to the Realms, WotC had a meeting with me, Ed Greenwood, Thomas Reid, Steve Schend and a couple of the main guys behind the changes (I think what they're doing now is quite different from that discussion, but I haven't kept up with it). They asked what we thought, and I, never a shy guy about opinions, fool that I am, jumped in with both feet. I won't divulge those discussions because to do so wouldn't be very professional and would lead to more confusion and unfair conclusions, but here's the end result of it: I am not really involved in the decision-making process regarding the Realms, NOR SHOULD I BE. I don't work at WotC and live 3,000 miles away. I don't know the needs of the game department; I don't know the pressures designers and editors are feeling in their jobs.

It's their world, not mine, and I'm perfectly okay with that. Honestly and seriously. They will do as they think is best for continuing/expanding the Realms, they will show me the new sandbox, and I will have the choice to either play in that sandbox or not. No hard feelings either way. When I did play in the sandbox, the Prologue and Epilogue of the last book, everything I did was with the direction and approval of those in the loop. You will, however, notice that I set few stakes in the ground regarding my own characters. There is no mention of the fates of any of the companions in any solid way. That was not an accident. I simply do not yet know how this will all play out for the characters in my books.

Beezer: The short answers are no and no. I've moved DemonWars back to me, exclusively (although I might let Bryan and Geno write new DemonWars' comics at some point). I've sorted out my end-game now for this wonderful and wonderfully fortunate career I've had. Drizzt is my little piece of someone else's world, but DemonWars is now exclusively mine, to play with as I will. The world for 38 Studios is a shared IP, and giving me credit for it would be a great injustice to the content team that has added so much detail to my macro outline.

Darius: I like Beast's explanation and always try to be vague about dates and years and things like that, and also often use the unreliable narrator. That's all well and good, but honestly, in this instance, at this glance it seems like an oversight on my part. Happens! One of the curses of writing so many books is the fact that there is no breathing room and sometimes little things slip through. Ah well, better this from my perspective, than writing at a Martin pace (come on, George, get that next book done!). I agree with your assessment that TTL is better served with a younger Entreri - maybe 9 instead of 12 - so if we go back and "correct" the record, it will be in that direction. And thanks for helping with that!

As for Selune, it just seemed to fit. In truth, in all of my writing, the name of the god is almost irrelevant (I know, this is at odds with the way the Realms works, but they let me get away with it). The conflict-inducing failing in that book, as in all of mine, is with men (or elves or dwarves), not gods.

Number 37: I can absolutely 100% guarantee there is more Jarlaxle to come. Nice catch on the second question - I like the insight. What I did with Innovindil and Drizzt in Hunter's Blades was really open the opportunity to eliminate the longer perspective from Drizzt's adventures and focus on them more as a piece of a smaller lifetime within the longer journey. "Human" has always been the operative word behind Drizzt; he is not some alien life form.

No, you aren't over-analyzing the Jarlaxle/Entreri situation and relationship at all. Jarlaxle has become his mentor - Drizzt even said as much. And there are dimensions of Entreri that were necessary if I wanted to spotlight him more fully, as I did. I could have just had him go out or go away in a blaze of sword-fighting, but I wanted to get to know him. Entreri hated the world in no small part because Entreri hated himself.

As I said above, I have no say in what's going on in the wider Realms. Not above, not below.

Yeah, I lost a convention friend when Gary passed. I lost an e-mail buddy when David Gemmell passed, and a new friend when James (Robert Jordan) passed. I lost a dear friend when Keith Parkinson passed. And with Arthur, well, we all lost a giant among us.

Rotor: Can't really answer number 1 yet, and not sure how much of my work will be set there. I still have stories to tell in the current, and past, Realms. If they ever make a movie, yes I will have input. WotC will demand it, as well. We have every intention of trying to protect the IP. At least, that's our hope!

My very limited computer science background (we're talking Fortran and batch cards here!) only helps in that when tech explains to me why this feature or that feature will take "x" months and a cost of "x" dollars, I understand their processes enough to recognize their points. Other than that, these guys are so far over my head with this stuff, it isn't funny.

BEAST: Go to Amazon and read the BooksforaBuck review of The Orc King. They actually got it. Trust me, it's been hard for me to hold back my killing pen where Obould is concerned. Kind of crazy to admit I HATE a character in a book, but I do. But…I had a bigger point to make.

Okay, next soapbox. I'm a little surprised at the response of some people with their insistence that I've changed the orcs of the Realms with this book. I've done no such thing, nor was it ever my intent. And yet, orcs HAVE changed, not just in the Realms, but in the fantasy paradigm itself. Part of this is because people play them in the games, part because the audience has grown up and the old black-white distinctions don't hold up as well for a more mature audience that wants to explore the gray areas. Part of it, of course, comes from World of Warcraft, easily the most dominant fantasy product on the market today, with 10,000,000 players. If you play HORDE in WoW, you don't get a sense of irredeemable evil among the various races. The tauren are very much akin to Native Americans, with a shamanistic, earth-friendly society. (Side note, my tauren cow character, Geronimoo, suffered his first death when I was finishing a quest for a fire totem in Durotar and fell off a cliff. How appropriate, eh?)

Even in the Realms, the idea of not-typical orc goes back to the earliest days, before I ever arrived on the scene. I direct you to the Bloodstone Lands and the city of half-orcs, Palishchuk. Now, unless we're going to say that all of their forebears were human moms raped by an orc (how's that for cliché), then we have to admit that there must be atypical orcs, yes? And that's all I meant with Obould: atypical. I'm not trying in any way to change the paradigm of orcs in the Realms, just among the orcs of that one kingdom in the Silver Marches, another Palishchuk, so to speak. I have no idea if WotC plans to go this path with orcs in 4^th edition, but it sure seems to me that fantasy itself is moving away from the Tolkien orc model toward the current WoW model, which, since millions of people are playing them by the same rules as their "alliance" counterparts, are no more evil than the other side.

Ps. BEAST, nice explanation of Entreri's "discrepancy."

BurrowWarden: Hello to you, too! Oh my God, that old series? I wrote the first book in 1982, fresh out of college. Take that, Chris Paolini! I really have to go back and read those sometime soon. Glad you're enjoying them!

BEAST: It occurs to me that a demon goddess would want to make it hurt, thus the sacrifice part. It's the third-living son once, by the way, which means you don't have to keep killing everyone after the second, though some of the more fanatic Matrons might do so just for the kicks. There's also the practical matter of it, where the drow females can use this "culling" to ensure their own dominance. So yes, you're quite right, it's a tradition and favor-gaining measure.

Dallas: Hi TJ. Can't complain about the Pats - give all the credit to the Giants for a game wonderfully played. I once was a huge Celtics' fan, but to be honest, I've kind of put sports in a lesser perspective now. I enjoy and watch, but since we've been so thick with championships up here, the desperation has (mercifully) dissipated. I am enjoying the Celtics this year, however.

2. Ah Wulfgar. Damned if I do and damned if I don't, with that character. So I guess I'll choose to "do." His story is not fully told.

3. The Pirate King is in the copyedit stage, ready to roll. I'm very happy with it.

Laethyn: 38 is a pretty amazing place right now. Here's hoping we actually put out a product! Working with Bryan? Well, he's in the mechanics group, not the content group, so I really don't "work" much with him, but it gives me great satisfaction to say that he's being trusted with some of the most important system in the game. He's working for one of the top mechanics' designers in the industry, who is absolutely blown away by Bryan's work. I'm a proud Dad, to be sure. Bryan is more than pulling his weight. No special treatment, none needed.

Working with Geno has been an equal pleasure. I always knew he had tremendous talent, and he's far more trained in the use of language than I. My work with him is mostly in pulling him out of his comfort zone and making him take chances with his writing. I get great satisfaction in the appreciation he has developed for the process of writing. It's not an easy gig, emotionally.

Tithas: Slim to none. I love working with WotC and have no intention of letting go of Drizzt and company anytime soon. Also, there is a simple truth here that I cannot express loudly enough: The Ancient is doing very well. It's on the New York Times' list (moved up three places for week 2) and is poised to sell about 50% more than any non-FR, non-Star Wars novel I've ever written. But to get there, Tor had to pull out all the stops, with huge promotions and marketing and ship quantities (which means fairly large returns, likely). And, even if we hit our target, it will mean that roughly 1-in-3 Drizzt readers will buy the book. It's not just the economics of that which give me pause, but the fact that I'd rather reach the much larger audience.

For those of you who love DemonWars and want more (even after this series), I can only say, word of mouth is an author's best friend. Get the books for a friend. Tell other people. Personally, I love DemonWars and hope to produce many more.

Laethyn: It's quite possible.

Robillard: The Pirate King is the next book….so, yes indeed.

Grimlock: Hey Grim! Yes and no on the world. I'm thrilled with it, to be sure, but it's hard for me to see so many other hands pulling it in different directions, even if those are good directions! A strange feeling, believe me. I do think our game is going to offer some pretty fantastic advances in MMOs, both technical and philosophical. That said, we have to be careful, because the more radically you deviate from the model, the more difficult it is to be successful, and we're talking about a huge expense up front to produce these monster games. I would say that the biggest advance WoW offered was an intuitive understanding of why the player would be interacting with something or someone in the game. WoW took the extra clicks, the tedium, out of EQ, and any game that comes out and doesn't follow that example, and build on that example, is doomed. My wife, no gamer, plays WoW. I got her to try EQII and she lasted about 2 hours. Too many counter-intuitive keys to click.

We stand on the shoulders of giants - the trick is knowing which giant lifts you higher.

Sargai: Hey there. Nice catch, except I'd argue that the Mouser books have more to do with Wulfar and Drizzt than with Wulfgar and Morik. Read The Crystal Shard, particularly the chapter entitled Biggrin's Lair. If you don't see Lieber there, I failed. Simply put, I would name Lieber as my biggest influence, not only in those more obvious ways, but in the way he would speckle his novellas with avenues to deeper conversations without ever actually going there. Lieber can give you a two-tiered story like no one else (well, maybe the brilliant Zelazny), where you can just go along for a great ride, or you can search a little deeper and maybe find some hints that the author was, as well.

Lady Fellshot: I think there are plans, yes. At least, the were plans not long ago. And you're exactly right, in that any new stories I did would go to side characters, and for a very good reason. I was writing Entreri stories when I did Drizzt books, and vice-versa, and my original understanding was that we'd put these stories in the next book featuring that particular protagonist. Well, WotC didn't go that route, figuring, I guess, that doing so might hurt the anthology backlist sales, and that left me with a dilemma. I think that around 1-in-6 of the people who read the Drizzt books also read the anthology, so if I move forward the stories of the main characters, I run the risk of confusing the other 5 people who didn't read the anthology. That happened quite a bit with the Sellswords books.

Another admission here is that I really am not comfortable writing short stories. I don't feel I do them very well and don't particularly enjoy writing them. I did like the one for Realms of War, where I wrapped a small Pwent adventure around one of Drizzt's essays from an earlier book, but generally speaking, it's not my strong suit.

Lostonbase: I haven't read Terry's newest, and it's killing me, as I hear from reviewers and readers alike that it's some of the best work he's ever done. That makes me quite happy, as he's such a decent guy. As for the Bedwyr-Corona tie, I still simply don't know.

TedGloss: Oh wow, I'll second that on the newest compendiums. What covers! To answer your question, yes, I expect that WotC will keep them coming. They're doing quite well, as are the boxed sets - in fact, I'm amazed at how well the boxed sets are doing. The next hurdle for me is to get them all on audio; I'm fighting for it!

Kammioderin: I think DemonWars has more mature themes generally, and the world lends itself to more shades of gray. That's not a value judgment, however. See above: if you want more DemonWars, please keep spreading the word!

Vegetable…interesting. Here's a story. Around Christmas last year, I began to recognize that I was in trouble. I had gained a lot of weight, was always tired and just generally felt like age was catching up to me. My wife put me in a "fit camp" with her three times a week. The toughest hour of working out I've ever had! Well, after two months, I had only lost a pound, but had dropped 4% body fat. My old muscles seemed to wake up. The long sleeves on my shirts now reach about mid-forearm! At the beginning of this month, I went on a diet to detoxify my body. No soy, no glutens, no preservatives, only limited dairy. It's mostly fresh fruit and vegetables and only free-range, no hormone meat. I've dropped thirteen more pounds in less than three weeks and my energy levels are through the sky. I will be in better shape next January when I hit 50 than I was when I was 45, or even 40. Of that, I am now almost certain.

By the way, my favorite veggie is probably corn or spinach.

Jarlaxle 56: Withholding judgment, as I did with the first three. I loved Fellowship, liked Two Towers a lot and was lukewarm on the last one. That said, The Hobbit is my favorite of the Tolkien books by a mile. It's my favorite book, period. I'm sure I'll be holding my breath when I enter the theatre!

Okay, whew. A bit longwinded. Blame it on the diet!

Peace,

Bob