About Terry Brooks:
Terry Brooks was born Terence Dean Brooks on January 8, 1944, in Sterling, Ill. He has written 23 New York Times bestsellers and primarily writes in the epic fantasy genre. He spent much of his life in the rural Illinois town he was born in.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, he attended law school and obtained a law degree from Washington and Lee University. Brooks worked as an attorney before becoming a full-time writer. He is one of the biggest-selling living fantasy writers.
Terry Brooks currently lives in northwestern Oregon with his wife, Judine.
During a Q&A session about his short story, “Indomitable,” Brooks said, “I find it much harder to write short stories than long fiction. I feel cramped by the lack of space and the dictates of the form.”
About The Sword of Shannara:
Long ago, wars ravaged the world. In peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knows little of such troubles. Then the giant, forbidding Allanon reveals that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord is plotting to destroy everything in his wake. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness is the Sword of Shannara, which can be used only by a true heir of Shannara. On Shea, last of the bloodline, rests the hope of all the races.
Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of a mighty evil, flies into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save his home, Shea must flee, drawing the Skull Bearer after him in menacing pursuit.
Thus begins the enthralling Shannara epic, a spellbinding tale of adventure, magic, and myth.
(This book is Book One of a trilogy.)
How did Brooks get the idea for The Sword of Shannara?
In a footnote in the 35th Anniversary edition of The Sword of Shannara, Brooks states of the opening sentence, “Thus begins The Sword of Shannara, which took me more than seven years to write. I drew on inspiration from the European adventure storytellers Sir Walter Scott, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Alexander Dumas, but it was only after reading The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien that I realized the fantasy genre held the grand tapestry I needed to tell the tale of The Sword of Shannara.
Opening Line of The Sword of Shannara:
The sun was already sinking into the deep green of the hills to the west of the valley, the red and gray-pink of its shadows touching the corners of the land, when Flick Ohmsford began his descent.
Quotes by Terry Brooks:
- “We forget that what matters begins with the imagination.”
- “If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.”
- “If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical.”
- “What you write chooses you.”