Story and photos by Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Best-selling West Seattle author Terry Brooks, a big name in the fantasy-fiction literature world, drew a crowd of more than 60 fans for his annual appearance to read and sign books at Barnes and Noble in Westwood Village today.

Brooks is promoting his latest book, Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff. From his website:

Terry has finished writing both books in the Legends of Shannara duology, which take place five hundred years after the events in The Gypsy Morph. Bearers of the Black Staff, Book One, will be published August 24, 2010!

The book follows on the success of his previous novel, A Princess of Landover (which was “a continuation of the Landover series after the events in Witches’ Brew,” according to his website).

Brooks’ appearance at B&N is an annual tradition that his fans clearly appreciate, and is one of the few local events that we’ve covered five consecutive years since WSB’s launch in 2005. (Read our coverage of his 2009 appearance here). According to B&N assistant manager Sonja, who has also organized Brooks’ readings in recent years, today’s crowd is “one of the biggest we’ve had” for the author, who is “one of the few authors we do these events for. He’s local, and shops here all the time!” 

Brooks read excerpts of his work, shared stories, and treated his fans to a free bookmark with a list of his suggested reading order for his various books, which he joked have been “written out of order and confusing to everyone — but this should help.”

In addition to working on some continuations of his previous books, he promised fans “something new” in the next few years — “I’m getting burned out on Shannara and need to put some time into something different.”

When asked about the possibility of film adaptations of his work in the future, Brooks lamented the stop-and-go nature of past negotiations he’s been through. “Everyone talks a good game, but nothing happens,” he sighed.  He joked that “my kids always say ‘look what happened to Tolkien!'” in reference to the famous Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, whose works made theatrical millions long after his passing in 1973.

Brooks thanked those in attendance for their dedication, and sat down afterward to sign books and meet with his fans.