Terry Brooks was born in 1944 in the town Sterling in Illinois where he lived most of his childhood and a part of his adult life. He got his degree of Bachelors in Art in English Literature in 1966 from Hamilton College and then later a ‘Juris Doctor’ from Washington and Lee University. Before a full time career in writing he practiced law. But his writing skills were seen since his school days where he wrote many stories of different genres. His writing style was instigated from William Faulkner’s technique. Using his renewed writing manner he wrote his first novel ‘The Sword of Shannara’ which was published in 1977. This book has the honor of becoming the first nook of its kind that is a fantasy book to reach the best selling list of The New York Times. This first novel was followed by two sequels making this book to be known as the ‘Landover Series’ with many Landover novels written later on. Brooks realized that his passion of writing was not only fulfilling his dream of becoming an author but is also a means for earning money. The later book of the series was published in August 2009 called ‘A Princess of Landover’.
After the Landover series, Brooke wanted to write something fresh so he could give something else to his readers and also satisfy his creative sense. He took the place where he grew up as the background and wrote ‘Running with the Demon’ which was published in 1997. This was very different concept than his previous series. It was darker more complex with his characters Nest Freeman and John Ross who were also in the upcoming novels ‘A Knight of the Word’ and ‘Angel Fire East’. This series is known as ‘The Word and Void’ trilogy. Impressed by this trilogy the maker of Star Wars requested Terry Brooks to write the novelization of ‘Star Wars, The Phantom of the Menace’ which he did and was very successful.
Terry also has his website where his fans could get the latest news about his books and his life. Brookes wrote two more books of the Shannara series called ‘The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara’ and ‘High Druid of Shannara’. His recent books include ‘Bearers of the Black Staff’ which was published in 2010 and ‘The Measure of Magic’ which was released in 2011.
Brooke also wrote a short story ‘Indomitable’ but later Terry said that it was much easier to write long fiction than short stories which give less room to write as well as dictates of the form. Other short stories by Terry are ‘Imaginary Friends’ ( 1991) and ‘Why I Write about Elves’ (2005). Twenty novels by Terry brooks have reached the best selling lists of The New York Times. All his books are very different from each other with each series presenting a different kind of fantasy to the readers.
Terry currently lives with his wife in the Pacific Northwest. He is one of the most renowned author of fantasy books.