BOTB2

12/1 - So it's been two weeks. My bad. Last week was mostly thanksgiving, and the week before that was...well...I have no real excuse. (After my confession in the last post, you may have thought I actually called it quits!)

I actually didn't write much during the past two weeks, but today I finished a particularly difficult chapter, so this blog post is as much a celebration as it is an update.

It was something of a transition chapter, and the challenge was making it interesting without useless filler. I think I did alright, but I'm sure there's still polishing to be done. Writing complex emotions that are convincing is hard.

And now for the big reveal. I was in middle school, on vacation with the family in St. Michael's, Maryland. Bored and needing space, I wandered off and found a book shop that may have been a lot more, but all I remember was the rack of fantasy novels and their cool covers, and the glass case of pewter figurines right beside it.

Little metallic dragons and wizards and knights, encrusted with plastic gems that looked real enough to a thirteen-year-old. They were so cool, but I digress.

The cover art on the fantasy books rivaled my own imagination, and in some ways surpassed it, because here were these epic scenes of battle and exploring right in front of my eyes. I already enjoyed reading, but up to that point I'd only been exposed to things like the Hardy Boys and Choose Your Own Adventure. This was Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. I was in the big leagues now, baby.

My parents found me and insisted we leave, perhaps because we were on their timetable and not mine. Crazy, right? I mean, I'm the star of this little flashback, after all.

Anyway, I convinced them to let me buy a book - what parent denies their child the opportunity to read? - but I could only have one. This was tough, because I had two in my hand: one was a Dragonlance novel I can no longer remember, but the other was Streams of Silver by R.A. Salvatore. The synopsis on the back sounded fascinating, but it was the cover art by Clyde Caldwell that sold me.

Yes, I totally judged a book by its cover. Moving on.

To make a long blog shorter, I fell in love with Bob's characters and the adventure they were on. I finished the book on the ride home from vacation, and I was hooked on The Legend of Drizzt ever since. I've read everything up to the end of the Neverwinter Saga, but over the years I've made time for other amazing fantasy works (and some sci-fi), which I will share about in future posts.

In the next post, I'll share why I think the Legend of Drizzt is the bomb. Short answer: because it is.