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On Wednesday, August 14, the world of the Dungeons & Dragons invaded the Columbus Museum of Art for our special event, The Sundering: Re-imagining the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons.  Wizards of the Coast has brought together six bestselling fantasy authors to independently write a book that together will complete The Sundering, a series that re-imagines The Forgotten Realms. Three of the authors, R.A. Salvatore, Erin Evans, and Ed Greenwood, joined us for a panel discussion on this special evening to discuss the collaboration process as well as their past and future writing careers.

R.A. Salvatore kicked off the series with his recent release of The Companions. Erin Evans, one of the youngest authors on this project, will release the third book in the series on December 3, 2013. In contrast, Ed Greenwood the most seasoned writer and the creator of the Forgotten Realms setting has the task of ending the series.

The collaboration process was the hot topic of the evening. Having six authors write within the same world and using some of the same characters seems like it would be complicated, right? Not according to the authors themselves. If anything, they find it a fascinating process and an adventure to have to alter their original story a little because someone else had an amazing idea. Sitting in the audience and listening to them discuss their processes of storytelling was an inspiring experience. While all three authors had different processes, they all shared on commonality: they like to let their characters write the stories. R.A. Salvatore explained that when he sits down to write, he typically has an outline in the form of a fairly straight line. However, as he moves forward looking through the characters’ eyes, the line quickly develops branches and continues to grow until he has something that resembles a large tree. Both he and Erin Evans admitted that while they’re writing they get so caught up in the story that sometimes at the end, they realize one of their characters has actually been acting out of character. Rather than go back and fix it, they just think “what’s wrong with them?!” Salvatore told the audience that it took him a few novels once to figure out exactly what was wrong with one of his most beloved characters.

The evenings’ moderater and Creative Manager of Dungeons & Dragons, James Wyatt, kept conversation moving and allowed the audience to feel as if they were part of one of a group brainstorming session. It was extremely apparent that this amazing group of authors has a strong and loyal following of fans, as most fans couldn’t have been happier to wait over 2 hours to meet their favorite authors.

Thanks to everyone who attended this very special event! We hope to see you again!

For more information about future events at Thurber House, click here.

The great fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore fielded questions in a popular “I am a” interview on Reddit, answering the question facing many popular novelists: “What is your position on fan fiction?” The novelist replied:

I am supposed to tell you that it’s evil and wretched and destroys anything and everything I’ve ever tried to accomplish. Truth is, this is supposed to be fun and entertaining, and when I hear about fan fiction using my characters, or when I see variations of my characters running around in an MMO, I think it’s the coolest thing ever. Truly flattering. Now, I can’t read the fan fiction, for obvious reasons, nor can I consider it “canon,” but I’m still flattered.

Salvatore is the author of The Crystal Shard, The Dark Elf Trilogy, The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy and many other sprawling fantasy novels. His work has spawned countless stories written by fans and an entire Lavender Eyes site dedicated to his fan fiction.

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Twelve years old and already guarding a secret that could jeopardize his young life, Maimun is marked for death. With a demon called Asbeel tracking his every move through Baldur's Gate, the orphaned boy flees out to sea, stowing away on the pirate hunting ship, Sea Sprite, where he comes across a most unlikely ally: the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden. As the ship careens through the sea of Swords, fighting pirates and agents of Asbeel, Maimun must com to terms with the secret he carries and find out what his family really means. To read more, click here.