June Ask Terry Posted

Matthew Macomber writes: You have often told your readers that you write to address modern day issues in some of your work. In some sixty years of life, you have surely seen more than a few world issues that have concerned you. What issue today (from your point of view) is most distressing to you? Have you woven this issue into your writing in order to critic it yet?

Terry Brooks replies: Oh, boy. Don’t get me started! I guess what distresses me most these days is the very hard-line view people take on so many issues and a general refusal to compromise or even to try to see the other guy’s point of view. We see so much of that in politics, so much polarization and deep entrenchment. I don’t get it. I was brought up to exercise tolerance and to make a real effort to find middle ground on issues where there was disagreement. I don’t see much of that these days and haven’t for at least the last 5 years.

So have I written about it? Not really. I haven’t found a story that would allow me to tackle that particular issue in a way that would be either dramatic or enlightening. Sometimes that happens. You can feel strongly about things without necessarily finding a way to write about them. Instead, I have fallen back on my old reliables – exercising responsibility, making hard choices and finding a code of conduct you can live by – along with discussions of environmental destruction and its consequences (Heritage), redemption and forgiveness (Voyage & High Druid) and sacrifice and commitment to a cause (Word & Void). Maybe one day I will get around to pigheadedness, but I’m not quite there yet.

Simon Goodwin writes: In The Gypsy Morph, it was mentioned that Hawk and Tessa had a child, which was conceived whilst Hawk was still the Gypsy Morph and before he gave up his powers to protect them all. Will we learn more of this child, because surely it will have some of its father’s fairy power in some form or another… Will we learn in the second book coming in August or is this a question to be answered in a later series?

Terry Brooks replies: This is another of those loose threads you find now and then in my work. It’s part of what I learned about how to start and end a story – there is always a part of the story that takes place before and after what’s written on the page. So just as we never learned what happened to Menion Leah and Shirl Ravenlock after the close of The Sword of Shannara, we haven’t learned yet about Hawk & Tessa’s child. I’ve left it to your imagination, and I might just leave it there. On the other hand, one day I might wake up with a story about it that I think I need to write. We’ll just have to wait and see.

George Pitcher writes: Do you autograph bookplates for fans? I’d be absolutely thrilled to be able to add the autograph of my favorite author to my favorite volumes of his work. And if so – how do I go about acquiring one?

Terry Brooks replies: I do autograph bookplates – in reasonable numbers, of course. You can send them to my drop box – T. Brooks, 2850 SW Yancy, POB 229, Seattle, WA 98126 along with a return envelope and correct postage. Please pay attention to the latter, since I am forever getting stuff shipped to me lacking in postage. Many thanks for checking in advance.

Sandra Delawder writes: I would like to say that i love all your books, especially the Landover books! I just finished A Princess of Landover and loved it! You left it open for another book… When will you write another Landover book?

Terry Brooks replies: What I have said in the past is that when they make a movie of Magic Kingdom, then I will write the sequel to Princess. For a long time, that seemed like a pipe dream at best. But once again it is starting to take on the trappings of possibility. More on that when I know more. But I suppose that movie or not, at some point in time I will write that sequel.

Jason Barker writes: In the Running With the Demon series, it was stated that a staff used by a Knight of the Word could not be given back to the Lady and it would only be retrieved when the Knight died. How is it that in the Armageddon’s Children series, a fallen Knight is able to kill other Knights and “steal” their staffs of magic?

Terry Brooks replies: Well, this didnt work out so well for that particular rogue Knight, as I recall. But to answer your question more directly, this is what I had in mind. At the time of John Ross, the Lady was still a strong presence in the world and the balance in the war between the Word & the Void hadn’t yet tipped in favor of the Void. But with the coming of the Great Wars, everything began to shift. Before, the idea of a rogue Knight of the Word would have been unthinkable. But at the end of things, when most of the Knights were dead and gone and Logan Tom and Angel Perez might well have been the last, all sorts of terrible things were happening. As a result, a rogue Knight was not only a possibility but a reality, and he was able to kill other Knights and take their staffs without intervention or retribution from either the Lady or O’olish Amaneh. The latter, you may remember, told Logan in the very beginning that his time had passed and he was leaving. So all bets on how things worked in the old days were gone.