Dear Readers,
It is time for an update on what lies ahead for yours truly as a writer. Much has been brewing on this subject for some time, and most of it came out while I was on book tour with The Measure of the Magic or immediately after. So for those of you who didn’t get the word or missed being at the events – likely most of you – here is a succinct update on what you can expect for 2012 and 2013.
Some time back, I got ahead on my writing schedule. This doesn’t happen often, which is why you get one book a year from me and that’s pretty much it. But I actually got through the book for 2012 last year. Knowing that next year marks the 35th anniversary of the publication of Sword of Shannara, I thought it might be nice to give something back to all those readers who have been asking me from day one – “Why can’t you do more than one book a year?”
Well, it now looks like I can. In fact, I can do 3 books in a year. This one time, anyway. I have a 3 book series coming up next in the future of Shannara, subtitled Legacy of Shannara, which takes place some 120 years after the conclusion of the events in High Druid, and Del Rey will be publishing this trilogy more or less as follows:
- Book 1 in August 2012.
- Book 2 in March 2013.
- Book 3 in August 2013.
So for the first and likely the last time ever, you will be the recipients of a three book set, all published within a 12 to 13 month time period.
Wait, there’s more. Because this is a gift back to readers who have supported my work for so long, I asked Del Rey if they would consider doing a few things to honor that first book. They were more than willing. So they will be doing some interior artwork for the new series, including a 2 page color centerfold, line drawings of Paranor, a 2 page expanded map of the Four Lands, and probably more. Once we have it all in place, you will be the first to know.
In addition, Del Rey is publishing a new edition of Sword of Shannara, which I think collectors, in particular, will be anxious to get their hands on.
So all this is a big deal and a deviation from what I have been doing regularly for many years, all because we think you deserve it. We hope you will agree when you see the finished books. If you have any thoughts, ideas or comments you would care to share with us, please feel free to send them into the website.
By the way, the first two books for the series are written. Just in case you were worried I was blowing smoke. The first has been edited and the second will be headed that way shortly. I will write the third between now and next June, safely ahead of schedule.
After those are finished, I am planning to write something new, a book not in any way attached to anything I have written before. It is time to go a new way, to test the artistic waters, to push the envelop – call it what you will. Writers should take a chance every so often and not get mired in writing the same things over and over. That’s what I hope to do here. I think you are going to love this new book because basically its a Brooks Book, and you know what to expect from those. There are familiar elements to the storytelling, but some new twists, too. Like all my books, it will be directed to a broad audience.
This does not mean I am giving up writing in the Shannara world. I will be doing more books there, as well. I also have at least one book left in me for Magic Kingdom.
Finally, I have some sad news. My very capable and faithful editor, Betsy Mitchell, has decided to leave Del Rey. As you know, I have only had 3 editors in my professional life, and every time I lose one of them I want to jump off a cliff. But Betsy will see me through the completion of the forthcoming trilogy and thereafter will be doing freelance editing from her home for the lucky few who persuade her they are worth the effort. Get in line early, if you are in the market.
My new editor, starting in January, will be Anne Groell. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, I can tell you that she is experienced and delightful. On a side note, she edits a somewhat lesser light in the fantasy writing landscape named George something or other.
See you all again soon. Terry.
45 responses to “BrooksBlog: Notes On My Writing Future”
Terry, this is excellent…excellent news!! New books with maps and interior artwork….and a new version of Sword!!! I hope to get my hands on that one for sure!! Keep up the fine work Terry and yes, you are the best!!
Wow! Awesome news. I am interested to hear more of the new book Terry will be writing. I have read all his work and have LOVED all of it.
I really enjoyed Measure of Magic. Very satsifying story and ending was perfect in my opinion.
I am looking forward to returning to the post-Grianne storyline. Gotta get my hands on the new Sword too!
Gosh, there’s just so much to look forward to from Mr. Brooks over the next couple years! Keep it up Terry!
Really looking forward to all the new stuff heading our way and can’t wait to get my hands on the new edition of Sword of Shannara.
It will be interesting to see which direction Terry goes with his new project. Will it even be fantasy?
Justin in Dayton
thank you Terry for being so forthcoming with your plans to us. this is something that we know you don’t have to do, but is really appreciated by your loyal fans. as alway be well and i look forward to seeing you next year for the reading a the UW book store.
Wow how did you manage to pick up Anne Groell as an editor. Her work on A Song Of Ice and Fire is second to none. I am very much looking forward to your adventures in a new world.
Very excited for next year!
Will the special editions apply only to the hardcover copies, or will they also be part of the paperback editions? Also, would the British editions have the same special “additions”, or only Del Rey? Thanks!
Thank you for update Terry! I’m excited for the new Shannara series as well as your new challenge thereafter.
Here in MN we’ll dealing with a college football coach who checks himself out of the hospital because he can’t stay away from his team or his work. I say this because your health and well being is more important than getting my greedy hands on your new work. Please take care of yourself!
Faithfully,
Dave
I am excited to hear about the new Shannara books! Do you think there will ever be audio books on the first three books in the word/void series?
That’s great!! Not only are you a great author, you are a wonderful person! Thank you for being who you are!
Thanks Terry!
Been a fan since Elfstones was published. Just finished The Measure of Magic last week, and am hungry for more. The Shannara world is definitely part of my imagination inspirtation, whether i am writing, game designing, or just walking in the world. Thank you so much!
speaking of game design, any chances of seeing Shannara in the RPG/MMO realms?
all the best,
Daniel
If a game company wants to make it, Terry is open to it. Takes the company though to make it happen. 🙂
Working for a major studio, I totally agree that the Shannara world has the richness and depth to make a stellar game.
I don’t think it should start with MMO, though. The sheer amount of muscle required to push out an MMO (successfully) means that only a larger studio could reasonably take the project. However, larger studios are usually in the market for establishing original IP. It is usually only smaller studios and startups that license properties. Startups making MMO’s of licensed properties is not unheard of – but I can’t think of any success stories.
I think the first foray of Shannara into the realm of interactive media should take the form of a point-and-click adventure game. These kind of games used to be popular on PC, but have been in decline since the advent of console gaming (point-and-click doesn’t translate well on a game controller). However, with the recent boom in mobile gaming, I think point-and-click will resurface as a heavy weight contender on touch based devices. Specifically adventure games backed by incredible stories. No genre has ever been better at storytelling than adventure games, since the story is actually the POINT of the game.
I personally would opt for episodic style delivery, since it lends nicely to free-to-play models with the potential for monetization, which is the bread and butter of the mobile gaming world.
— end of gaming epistle —
Actually, I just finished BotBS:MotM and I came on this site wanting to congratulate Terry. You did quite a few things with this story which broke the mold. I really enjoyed it. Bravo, Brooks, Bravo!
W()()()()T GUESS WHO JUST GREW A MAJOR BONER!
George something or other…sounds familiar. 😉
This sounds awesome Terry! I finished The Measure of the Magic and I’m already yearning for the next book. In regards to your artwork, I would just like to make one request. There is a map of the land during the Genesis of Shannara Trilogy, then there’s a map of the Four Lands. Is there a way we can get a map of somewhere in between. I’m trying to visualize how Arborlon gets into the Westlands when it traveled East inside the Loden into the Rockies. A map that somehow merges the 2 together would be awesome. I am from the Northwest so it adds so much more to the books trying to envision the Four Lands as areas that I travel through all the time and having something to tie the 2 timespans together would be awesome.
Terry purposefully doesn’t want you to know where Hawk’s valley is. So you’ll have to just use your imagination. 🙂
Ah but his faithful web druid has some ideas of where it might lay……… or is that lie? …..
I like to think of an area near my home state as being the area where all of this takes place.
But then again that is my imagination at work.
Thank you Shawn for all that you do.
I have to thank you Terry for getting this word out to all of us that were not lucky enough to see you on tour this year.
I look forward to the new trilogy and also the anniversary release of the Sword.
I have read every one of the books many times over during the years you have been writing them.
I also look forward to your foray into another genre other than fantasy.
Do you know if they are going to include the original artwork in the 35th anniversary release of Sword of Shannara?
Where did Terry say he was writing in another genre?
Great News,, can’t wait for those to come out. The Measure of the Magic was a really good read, Been a fan since 1980ish, thanks for the wonderful stories over the years. Keep them coming. And I think it’s better not to know the exact loctions on todays map,, leaves more to the imagination.
And besides, the Elves don’t want all us Humans stopping by,, (they don’t like us much), I think Arbalon would become a tourist trap, and they would just use the Loden and move it again. LOL. sorry Shawn had to say it.
That’s Great new’s Terry!! Best luck to you in writing the 3rd book of the Legacy of Shannara! I can’t wait for them to be released!
Thank you for staying so active. Each one of your books is a treat.
also in Italy we wait for the new books. Great Therry, what a dream you have given us in the last 35 years….
Been a huge fan ever since I picked up a ragged copy of The Sword of Shannara at a library book sale! I own everything you’ve written and look forward to each release with delight. How do you say “good luck” to a writer…break a finger? ; ) All the best!
You Sir are awesome!
Terry,
I have been reading your books for the last 25 years. I love everything you have done and look forward to seeing what is next. Had the chance to meet you when you were in Arizona about 3 years ago and thought you were great to the fans. It shows you really care.
I still would love to see the Work and Void series on the big screen. Nothing like it has ever been done before. Hope you never get tired of the storytelling because there are a lot of us who never will stop reading. Thanks.
Aaron
Wow this is so great! I did the math a short while ago and was thinking what a great idea it would be for a 35th Anniversary edition of Sword of Shannara. Id dearly love to have a copy in hardcover. I own original editions of all the Word and Void and Shannara books save for the original trilogy. Even the stubby sized book club editions are selling for one to three hundred dollars! Call me a geek but Id rather have full sized matching hardcover editions of books I enjoy. I wont purchase a book till I can get the edition I want, so to this day I dont own a copy of Sword, Elfstones, or Wishsong. I hope the special edition has the original artwork by the Hildebrandts!
Thanks Terry!!!
Thank you again for the recent update on what is next. I am so glad that you are doing so much to bring us joy with your gift of storytelling. Being an avid Shannara fan, it is always so awesome to see something new come from the pen of the greatest writer of the ages. I am exceptionally excited in the arrival of “The Legacy of Shannara” coming out next year (and also in 2013).
The new series that you are planning to write; when can we expect some news on that as well?
This is also for Shawn. Thank you for being a great webmaster. I for one especially appreciate “The Signed Page”. An totally awesome and wonderful way to receive signed copies from many of our favorite authors. Right on! Outta Sight! Yahoooo!
Terry thank you 4 ure imagination, u got me into reading and wen you release a book I buy it straight away, my daughter reads all the time because of my love 4 reading, she’s seven and has been reading the harry Potters, I’m holding out till she’s about 10 until I let her read ure books so she can appreciate them (also so she doesn’t get dirty finger marks on them!! Can’t wait 4 the next trilogy!!!!
My mother gave me a book, which had the front cover missing. I started reading it one wintery Friday, when I was home alone for the weekend. I read until 4 a.m. and couldn’t see straight anymore. I finished it the next day. WOW! I faithfully haunted the bookstores for about a year until I, gleefully, left the store with The Elfstones in my hands. I couldn’t afford hard cover back then but now I have a shelf and a half dedicated to Terry Brooks. Now they are, mostly, hard covers and I have read them a number of times each. The world just seems to be a better place when you can escape into a world of magic and heroes, who give all that they are to conquer the world’s ills. Can’t wait for the next one. Thank you Mr. Brooks.
Great news. Although I am impatient, I will spend the time, in the cold, Canadian Rockies winter, re-reading the High Druid series, so I can be ready for the new series.
The new maps, pictures and series sound fab. I look forward to all of it. Thank you Mr. Brooks.
A book a year has been awesome, it is an annual event for me. A trilogy in one year is even better! Especially considering you are the master of writing cliffhangers!
Any chance you would say what genre the new “non Shannara” book will be?
Dear Mr Brooks,
I have a piece of artwork that you might be very interested in seeing. Please look at my website and go to Gallery. Look for the Sword of Shannara. You can call me at 247-245-0126. This piece is up for sale and was inspired by your first book.
Yours sincerely,
M. Loweth
Best news ever! I hope there will be more work with the Knights also!!!
Is there going to be a third book after ‘Measure of Magic’? I been a faithful follower since 1978. I just love the Shanara series and just can’t get enough. It saddens me when they end. If ever I was to be reborn, I would rather be an elf, LOL. Since reading the word and void books, I am pleased that Brooks added the elfs in the series. I am looking forward to the new Book coming out in august. Keep up the good work Terry. And thank you very much cause these books take me into a fantasy that I truly love to be in, especially living here in paradise which I know you do too.
There will not be a third book in the Legends of Shannara duology. Terry does have five more books to write in the pre-Shannara series though. Read the current ASK TERRY section where Terry talks about it. 🙂
Terry, I hope you write for another 35 years. I own at least one copy of every book you’ve written. Come to the east coast for your fans to get some books signed . Thanks for all the adventures
Obviously the new additions to Shannara is wonderful news, and a different series also great news. I’m very excited to hear there is more to come for Magic Kingdom because the diversity makes it one of my favorite and most reread series. I’ve often thought there are so many opertunities because from the Kingdom not only could you go to the present world but other worlds as well as hinted.
Words cannot express the way I look forward to your books to be published. A friend of mine gave me the Sword of Shannara when I expressed my love of Tolkien’s the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I was hooked, that was many years ago lol. Since then I have waited patiently year by year for the next one and I mean a year, I buy every book the day it is available and read it in one night then sit impatiently waiting for the next one. Oh yes I own everyone of them and read them over and over again. Can’t wait for the next one. Thank you for years and hours of fantastic reading.
Thank you for many years of reading pleasure. Ifirst discovered The Sword in 1975, in a much read, dog-eared state in a 2nd hand bookshop. Since then I have always hoped for both a movie & a “coffee table” book of the Sword – complete with maps & art. At least your forthcoming collectors edition will go soe way to appeasing my appetite for all things Shannara. Thank you again 🙂
oops of course a typo – it was sometime in 1977-1978…
Terry, for me has been impossible to get one of your books in Chile. The two of them that I’ve got came from Spain.
What can I do to get them?
Great fan of Landover saga.
Hey Gonzalo, you can buy them online and have them shipped internationally. Many people do this. Try abebooks.com to start.