More than two years ago, Terry offered a similar auction at BiddingForGood. The proceeds from the auction go to schools and similar non-profit entities around the world. For three weeks people could bid for the opportunity to have their name used in Terry's next Landover novel—what would eventually become this year's bestseller A Princess of Landover.

There was a winning bidder. That person had an unusual email address though and Terry fell in love with it immediately. He offered the winner a much larger role in the book if he could use the email address handle—which did contain elements of the winner's real name—instead of the winner's actual name.

That is how the annoyingly mute G'Home Gnome Shoopdiesel came to be.

Terry is doing it again this year! This time for a forthcoming Shannara book!

The question is: How much is it worth to be immortal?

The Shannara series has been one of the most beloved fantasy series of all time. It is literally one of the foundational pieces of the genre. One can easily make the argument that without The Sword of Shannara the genre would not look the same, might not exist with the size it does now. After all it was Sword that defied other publishers and their belief that fantasy beyond Tolkien just couldn't sell.

If you would like to have your name used in a forthcoming Shannara book, Terry invites you to click HERE!

For me this is a huge deal. I love charity activity like this!

Bid often! Best of luck to you!

Labels: A Princess of Landover, Contest, Genesis of Shannara, Shannara

There were so many people in the Terry Brooks / Christopher Paolini chat that many good questions could not be asked.

Well, Del Rey kept the questions, sent them to Terry, and Terry answered them this morning!

Click HERE to read them!

Labels: Chat, Events

Here is the transcript for the Terry Brooks & Christopher Paolini chat held yesterday!



Terry and I decided it might be fun to do it again in December. So stay tuned for when that will be!

Labels: Chat, Interview

I've received quite a bit of mail from people who think they have discovered the title of Genesis of Shannara #4 on the Amazon.co.uk website.

The title in question is Bearers of the Black Staff.

Right now that is the tentative title. Tentative. Terry hasn't even finished his edits on Genesis #4 and I'm sure him and his editor will be talking about the title of the book soon. Many of Terry's original titles have been changed, and that might happen with this one.

In my opinion, I actually like this title. Bearers of the Black Staff relates to one plot point out of many in the new book. I won't tell you what that plot point is. We'll see what happens!

Bearers of the Black Staff will be publishing in late August / early September 2010.

Labels: Bearers of the Black Staff, Genesis of Shannara

Terry has answered the questions posed to him from September 2009!

Click HERE to read his answers and learn what it would take for him to write another Landover novel set after A Princess of Landover.

Labels: A Princess of Landover, Ask Terry

Join Terry Brooks in a live audio webinar on October 18th as the first guest speaker of the Wired Writers program!

Terry Brooks has been writing best-selling fiction for over 30 years, beginning with The Sword of Shannara in 1977 and carrying through to today with his Landover and The Word & Void series. During his presentation, Terry will share his thoughts on the craft of writing and answer questions from webinar participants. He'll be joining us at 2 PM, PST, and will be with us for at least an hour.

Prior to that, webinar host Don McQuinn will open the program at 1 PM, PST. This will also allow time for participants to become familiar with the system before we're joined by Terry. We strongly recommend joining us for the first hour so you can get comfortable with GoToWebinar. Assistants will be standing by to help and answer questions.

While participants settle into the webinar, Don will be sharing his expertise on the techniques of fiction and answering questions. Don's written nine novels, ranging from an examination of the Vietnam War and espionage to thrillers and speculative fiction. His work has won awards, made best-seller lists, and been selected for book clubs — things he hopes to see you accomplish. He's taught the techniques of fiction at the university level and numerous other venues, such as the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference, the Surrey Writers Conference in British Columbia, and the Maui Writers Conference and Retreat.

We're already collecting questions for Terry, so start thinking of what you'd like him to talk about. If you're one of the lucky ones to have your question chosen for Terry’s response, we have a free signed copy of his latest book waiting for you.

Participation in the webinar costs $25. At the end of the registration form you'll be redirected to the Wired Writers website, where you'll find payment instructions at the bottom of the page. Upon receipt of payment, we'll confirm your registration. We accept PayPal, personal check, and money order. Payments should me made out to McQuinn Enterprises, Inc. All mailed payments must be received by Saturday, Oct. 17th.

For questions, concerns or feedback, please email Wired Writers at info@wiredwriters.net.

As posted last week, Terry will be participating in a joint chat session with author Christopher Paolini on Wednesday, October 14th at 7 pm EDT / 4 PDT!

The chat will be on Suvudu.com. To enter a very cool contest to win a signed copy of Brisingr or a copy of The World of Shannara and be reminded via email that the chat is about to take place, click HERE!

See you at the chat!

Terry at Conversion 2009 in Calgary with Robert Sawyer and Tanya Huff!

Labels: Pictures

I have given in.

Finally.

Today the Amazon Kindle version of Song of the Fell Hammer went live. It is $2.99.

Song of the Fell Hammer was my first attempt at a novel and like many debut books it is wordy. The book is near 200,000 words. As a reference, the average novel length today is 90,000 words with fantasy novels usually being closer to 105,000 words. In other words, you'll be getting a lot of words for the price!

That might not be a good thing. Ha!

I decided to do this for one reason. Not for vanity or money or prestige. A lot of Terry's fans over the last three years have asked that I publish Fell Hammer for them to read. A lot of his fans when he is on tour ask about it. I think it is a good solid book, not great by any stretch of the imagination as it was my learning book. But those people have asked nicely and how can I say no to readers?

After all, I write for myself but I also write to be read.

I will say this. The first few chapters are fairly slow. But once through them I think the story takes off quite nicely.

If you have Adobe Reader, you can read for free the Prologue, Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three of Song of the Fell Hammer by clicking the links.

If you have a Kindle, click Song of the Fell Hammer to download it!

And yes, I am thinking about offering this as a .PDF download. Just have to figure out how to make that a possibility where no or limited theft will take place.

Have questions? Just ask.

Labels: Shawn C. Speakman, Song of the Fell Hammer, Web Druid

Judine just sent me this picture via email:


It was taken at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, at a "release" party for Eoin Colfer and his forthcoming Hitchhiker's Guide novel, And Another Thing.... Eoin was super excited to finally meet Terry and Terry felt the same about Eoin.

Labels: Pictures