Dear Readers,

I have announced at various times during the past few months that I hoped to talk a little bit about the first book in my new series when I thought it was time. Many of you already know that the title is Armageddon's Children, and that the book is scheduled for release in late August of this year. It is the first of three books that comprise the beginning of this new series, and I expect that before it is done, it will run somewhere between six and nine books. As with the Shannara series, the books will be organized by groups and will be set at different times during a span of hundreds of years. I don't know that I will write them all at once, but I will write each set without interruption so that you won't be forced to wait more than a year between books.

So what is this series all about? It came to be partly in response to ongoing requests from Shannara readers for something on the Great Wars, the wars of power that destroyed the Old World of science and opened the way for the return of magic as the primary catalyst for change in the New World of the Four Lands. I had been saying for years that I didn't want to write about those early years, that I was focused on moving ahead, not looking back.

So Armageddon's Children is not a Shannara story, although the alert reader will find references to that series throughout this novel. Nor is it a direct sequel to the Word & Void series, which began with Running with the Demon—although again, pieces of Armageddon's Children can be found in those previous volumes. Instead this new series draws from both to create an entirely new reading experience. I wanted to explore the after-effects of a catastrophe that would require the world and its races to rebuild a new civilization from the ashes of the old.

What I think you will like most about this first book (and hopefully the entire series) is its focus. It doesn't spend time on the overwhelming aspects of a world-wide destruction. Instead, it concentrates on the impact of that destruction on several small groups and a few solitary individuals as they struggle to survive in the face of terrible odds. It examines how they cope, how they find different ways to make a difference in a swiftly changing world, and how they eventually come together in a common cause gave me the foundation for my story.

The challenge of writing a new series of this size is not to be underestimated, and I hope I am up to it.

I am sure you will tell me. You always do. I look forward to hearing from you next fall.

Best Wishes, Terry.