For many years the only chance a fan had of speaking to Terry was to meet him at tour events or conventions.
With the establishment of this website in 2000, Terry began accepting two questions from each fan per month. On the last day of the month, five questions are randomly drawn. Terry answers these five questions and they are posted monthly for your enjoyment.
Below are the questions selected from October 2018 and Terry’s answers! Enjoy!
Note: This section may contain spoilers!
OCTOBER 2018 ASK TERRY Q&A
Hi All,
G’Day one and all. Back to do another Ask Terry session, always with the hope that when you ask something I know something. Not a sure thing. So let’s test it out right now:
Marc West writes: Will there be a third book written for Legends of Shannara?
Terry Brooks replies: Sorry, Marc. There is no third book in the Legends of Shannara series. But there may well be a continuation of the larger story once I get finished with other things and go back to Shannara to fill in the gaps.
Sloan Snyder writes: I love the Word and the Void series and how you linked them with Shannara through Genesis of Shannara. When I later found out that spiders were proto-gnomes and lizards were proto-trolls, I got really excited. My question though is who were the proto-dwarves? Did we see them in Genesis of Shannara? Thanks.
Terry Brooks replies: You did not see the Dwarves or their proto-types in Genesis. Their story will be told in later books (see question one above) once I get around to writing it. There is still a lot of ground to cover to get to the First Council of Druids and Galaphile, and I plan to get there.
Elizabeth writes: What is your favorite book/poem by William Faulkner?
Terry Brooks replies: Without question, it is the short (semi-long?) story, The Bear. Although, I loved all of Faulkner, especially the Snopes trilogy.
Catherine Pellegrino writes: Where did your inspiration for your novel Running with the Demon come from?
Terry Brooks replies: I wanted to write a dark contemporary fantasy about growing up believing in magic in the world of my childhood. I used my hometown as the setting and my memories of early years as the bones of the story. Then I set out to chronicle a family’s fate where magic was an integral part of its past and present and they explore how belief and disbelief can come together with the future of an entire world at stake. So that would be Nest Freemark and her remarkable family, and how she was found and saved by a Knight of the Word and nearly destroyed by a demon of the Void. Throw in a bunch of fairy creatures and a climax that takes place on the Fourth of July and you have your story.
Davis Wodek writes: Whatever happened to Two Bears? We last heard from him in Genesis of Shannara, and then nothing in Legends. Why is this?
Terry Brooks replies: Patience, Grasshopper. A new novella titled Warrior, which is set in the Word & Void world, will publish as part of a Brooks short fiction collection in the Fall of 2020, some time in October. Two Bears will be a featured character, along with some other old favorites.
Okay, back to writing. Have a great weekend. Read a good book.
With magic,
Ask Terry
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