Brooks & Books

I’ve been reading Terry Brooks since I was twelve. (Yes that's 13 year-old-me nerding out at Christmas 1985-style with perm and bangs included!)

He was the first author I picked out on my own. Everything I had read up until then was either a recommendation or stolen from my sister’s bookshelf ☺. Once I got my hands on his books I’ve been reading them ever since. And I’m spoiled, he writes a lot of books!

My favorite of all time is Elfstones of Shannara the second book in the Shannara series! And now they're making a TV show of it on MTV. So. Excited. I even painted some fan art years ago!

I met him once when I was fifteen. My mom and dad drove me to the mall to get all my paperback books signed. When I stood in the long line waiting anxiously to meet my hero, I realized that everyone else (which happened to be all adults, I was the only kid) had hard cover books for him to sign. I immediately felt self-conscious (a symptom of teenager-hood) and I made my dad hold my large stack of paperbacks and I picked just one for him to sign. The beat up, falling apart, “Sword of Shannara.” (As you can see, I read these book A LOT! Lol)

When my mom and I finally arrived in front of Mr. Brooks, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything but just stare at him. I was in fifteen-year-old awe at the fact that my genuine hero was sitting in front of me. He was so nice!

At my lack of speaking ability he assumed my mom was there for the signing, but my mom quickly told him it was, in fact, the mute standing beside her.

He tried everything to get me to talk. He just kept smiling and being the extremely kind person he is. Finally he held up a book from each of his series and asked me to point to which one I liked best. I pointed to the Shannara book and he said, “What if I told you I’m going to come out with a new Shannara book next year.”

Inside I was bursting with excitement. I couldn’t believe it! He hadn’t written a Shannara book in years. (This was 1988 and Brooks hadn’t released a Shannara book since 1985 and in kid years 3 years is an eternity, remember waiting between Star Wars films, torture!!)

So I finally uttered my first words to the man that was about to write another book in my favorite series.

I said (and I’m not kidding), “No.”

Yep.

I meant, “Nooooooo, really???? Holy crap, that’s amazing!!” But all that came out was a very small, “No.”

My mom laughed and said I was just nervous which thank goodness Mr. Brooks already figured out. He was just as kind as can be and signed my brand new “Wizard at Large” book and my falling apart “Sword of Shannara.” Such a great guy.

This experience is probably why I always shy away from meeting anyone I admire for fear of becoming an embarrassing mute again! But, thank goodness Mr. Brooks was understanding and just plain cool about the whole ordeal. 


There’s just nothing like reading a good book. It’s the love of stepping into another place and feeling like you're there and you know these people intimately.

That’s why I love writing so much. It’s such an amazing feeling creating your own world and the characters in it. I just hope people have as much fun reading my books as I did writing them!