Touring with Terry – Portland, OR

Terry had a bit of a break after the midwest events in his tour for Wards of Faerie, resulting in some needed downtime. He finished his proofing of Bloodfire Quest, finished his edits on Witch Fire, and then spent his time letting the next Shannara story percolate long enough so he can start writing it this week.

No rest for the weary, I’ll tell you that!

But Terry had one more event, one in Portland this last Saturday. Judine could not go because she was preparing for a block party on Sunday. Party animal, that one. Terry invited me to go in her stead, a navigator as well as a conversation friend.

We drove from Seattle to Portland fairly early. I brought my iPad to continue continuity editing Bloodfire Quest but instead Terry and I talked the entire three hours on the way down. That’s pretty normal with us. Get two geeks in a conversation and that conversation can go for hours and hours. We talked about his work, my work, the fantasy anthology Unfettered, movies, his movies, the Mariners, the Seahawks, and the US election.

A fly on the car’s wall would have learned some interesting things…

When we arrived at Powell’s in Cedar Hills Crossing, it was early. We stopped by the Mac store to buy new keyboards and mice and then walked around the bookstore on the hunt for books we needed. I bought The Hobbit because with the movie coming out it is time for a re-read. Terry found nothing he was looking for because everything he wanted was publishing this week.

My mother showed up too, which made the entire trip worth it for me. She was looking for a number of new books, so Terry escorted her around and found her three. She got a real kick out of it: that a New York Times writer would take the time to help her.

A big crowd came out, the largest Terry has had there according to Peter, the resident science fiction/fantasy guru at Powell’s. Terry was hilarious as usual. He read from the new Garet Jax short story, The Weapons Master’s Choice, answered questions and brought the house down when he said his next project is Fifty Shades of Shannara. Might have taken video of that… A funny day overall.

As usual, his fans were the best. Super nice. Great questions. Several came up and asked if I was Shawn the Web Druid. That was nice. One even asked for an autograph on her copy of Wards of Faerie—although not because my name is in the book. Go figure.

Forum moderator Cadder (Jason) also made an appearance and I gave him his ARC of Bloodfire Quest for his year of outstanding service. It was nice meeting him and talking fantasy with a number of fans that I’ve now befriended online.

Terry had a great time during his signing. He signed everything which is usual for him and when the last fan left he signed stock for the bookstore.

Then it was back on the road to Seattle! Got home around 11 pm. Exhausted but a fun day.

Now the tour is finished. He will be writing a blog post about that tomorrow so stay tuned!