R. A. Salvatore

WotC keeps one, and it's a good thing! Too many books! Too many years!

I remember I was thrilled when I started writing "Servant of the Shard" because Jarlaxle could finally be front and center. Then I was terrified because I was on a tight deadline and realized that I had no idea of what this guy had for equipment, given all of his cameos in the previous books. So I went to a message board anonymously and started a thread "Let's inventory Jarlaxle's cool items!" A few days later, I downloaded and printed the 10-page thread - these folks had put in page numbers from the books and everything in their discussion of Jarlaxle...hehehe.

Drizzt came off the top of my head, when an editor was pressuring me for a "sidekick" for Wulfgar, the hero of my first book. I just spouted off, "Drizzt Do'Urden of D'aermon N'achezbaernon, the Ninth House of Menzoberranzan." I have no idea where that came from, or what a Menzoberranzan might be. True story.

I was in a conference call with DelRey and Lucasfilm when the editors expressed that they loved the outline. (paraphrasing here) "This is exactly what we want, but didn't anyone tell you? You have to kill Chewey."

I won't type the next two words that came out of my mouth. After a couple of days of arguments and, well, terror, they had convinced me that they were doing it for the right reasons, and well, George was down with it, and it's his galaxy far, far away, so I did it.

The responses have been mixed, with some people loving the new direction, other people devastated. I think it might be the only thing I've ever regretted; I don't think I'd go back and do that one again.