Thanks Again, Terry
I’ve said before in countless interviews and panels that the first two fantasy books I ever read were The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, and The Wishsong of Shannara, by Terry Brooks.
For completeness’ sake, I will add the caveat that I attempted to read The Fellowship of the Ring as well, but it was maybe a bit too big a book when I was 9-10, and I never got past the Tom Bombadil parts. As an adult, I can see why. Much as I love LOTR, I think old Tom adds nothing to the story, and I totally support Peter Jackson for excising him from the movies. I guess that is where Merry gets the magic dagger that he later uses to stab the Witch-King of Angmar, but there’s a dozen other ways he could have gotten a special weapon, if one was even needed (and I don’t think it was).
Anyway, while my own work is a lot heavier and adult-themed in many ways, there can be no denying that I would probably not be doing what I am doing today without the influence of these two authors, and if I was, I expect my work would be very different. Reading the various adventures of the Baggins and Ohmsford families gave me incredible joy over the many years since then, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.
So I was incredibly excited to meet Terry at the 2008 NY ComicCon, and it was mind-blowing a couple of weeks later, when he sent a blurb for my book to my publisher, going so far as to say he admired my writing and thought the concept was “brilliant”. There is no greater feeling than the honest respect of someone you have admired your whole life.
On my launch day last week (March 10, 2009), Terry’s webmaster Shawn Speakman, who I met at this year’s ComicCon, posted Terry’s review again on Terry’s news page. There’s a special joy in that for me that I wish I could describe, but this is one of the rare times that words fail me.