Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Advice given to an author

My husband and I went to a signing for his favorite author, R.A. Salvatore, last night. He was quite well-spoken (despite being a Red Sox Fan ), and kept us laughing. At one point, he mentioned some advice he was given when he started writing.

(paraphrased) It's all about the characters. If you write a great story with mediocre characters, you'll have a mediocre story. If you right great characters and a mediocre story, you'll have them sitting on the edge of their seats.

I thought this was a great piece of advice, which is quite true. It's the characters that bring us back to the stories, time and time again.

And if anyone's an RA Salvatore fan, I now know how to pronounce Pikel.

Very cool!

I'm going to a convention in Fargo this weekend. Terry Brooks and Ben Bova will be two of the guests. I really hope that at least one of them will have a panel on writing.

Is the convention in Fargo for RPG's? Any word about Wendy and Richard Pini being there?

TEEEEEEJ

Thanks for sharing that, Karen. I've sometimes wondered about the appeal of fanfic and why I love reading it - bottom line; it's so simple - it's Lois Lane and Clark Kent.

cc m

There was some gaming there. Valleycon has a larpers group, which does Vampire: the Masquerade. There were also table top games. I was going to do some gaming, but it interfered with too many panels I wanted to attend.

The guests included Dean Haglund (the blond Lone Gunman from the X-Files), authors Terry Brooks and Ben Bova, as well as Wayne Pygram and Lani Tupu from Farscape. Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell were supposed to be there, but they cancelled at the last minute. There was also a musical group, Tri Destiny, who played New-Age like music. They were pretty good.

Valleycon is annual. It will be sometime next October. Their website is http://www.valleycon.com but it hasn't been updated yet.

Thanks for the info!

TEEEEEJ