April 4, 2006
News for PortConMaine 2006:
PortConMaine announces R.A. Salvatore
Noted novelist to make first appearance at New England's longest running anime conventionSOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE -- April 4, 2006 -- PortConMaine, New England's longest running anime convention, has proudly announced that noted novelist R.A. Salvatore will be appearing at the convention as a guest of honor.
Bob Salvatore was born in Massachusetts in 1959. His love affair with fantasy, and with literature in general, began during his sophomore year of college when he was given a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He promptly changed his major from computer science to journalism. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Fitchburg State College in 1981, then returned for the degree he always cherished, the Bachelor of Arts in English. He began writing seriously in 1982, penning the manuscript that would become Echoes of the Fourth Magic.
His first published novel was The Crystal Shard from TSR in 1988. Since that time, Bob has published numerous novels, including the New York Times bestselling The Halfling's Gem, Sojourn, and The Legacy, the first hardcover for Bob and for TSR. Bob held many jobs during those first years as a writer, finally settling in (much to our delight) to write full time in 1990. R.A. Salvatore is best known as the creator of the dark elf Drizzt, one of the fantasy genre's most beloved characters. Over three million R.A. Salvatore novels have been sold with many translated into different languages and audio versions.
His previously published TSR novels include The Icewind Dale Trilogy, The Dark Elf Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet, as well as The Legacy, Starless Night, Siege of Darkness, and Passage to Dawn. The Dark Elf Trilogy is now available in a hardcover collector's edition. The Silent Blade is his sixteenth original novel for TSR. In the fall of 1997, Bob's letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers were donated to the R.A. Salvatore Library at his alma mater, Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
When he isn't writing, Bob chases after his three Japanese Chins, takes long walks, hits the gym, and coaches/plays on a fun-league softball team that includes most of his family. His gaming group still meets on Sundays to play, and even set up its own company: Seven Swords. Together they wrote The Accursed Tower, a Forgotten Realms game module set in Icewind Dale. His hobbies include softball, hockey, and music, particularly a good blast of Mozart while tooling down the highway. He makes his home in Massachusetts, with his wife Diane, and their three children, Bryan, Geno, and Caitlin, their dog, Puddles, and a calico cat named Guenhwyvar.
About PortConMaine:
Started in 2002, PortConMaine is New England's longest running anime convention. Over 1000 people attended the convention in 2005 and the convention will grow again in 2006 with an estimated attendance of over 1500 people. PortConMaine 2006 will be held at the Sheraton South Portland Hotel in South Portland, Maine from June 30th through July 2nd, 2006.
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