The Voice of Experience

Terry Brooks was in town today (Saturday the 12th) to do a book signing and reading. He's doing the last few days of his book tour for The Princess of Landover. It was fun actually having a well-known Fantasy author in town. Seems like very few people bother to come to Boise, so when someone does, it's a rare treat. The line for the book signing was pretty long, and a lot of people were excited to hear that he was in town. The advertising for the event wasn't all that good, unfortunately. I decided not to go say hi after the reading, since I couldn't afford to buy a book for him to sign, and of course I left all my other copies of his books at home. I've met him several times at the PNWA conference in Seattle, and taken classes from him.

The funny thing today was that someone asked him how he outlines, and he mentioned that he doesn't outline as completely today as he used to do before about 1998. I thought that was funny, as it was about then that I went to my first writers' conference, and I can remember him mock-pounding on the table, saying "Outline, outline, outline!" (He was adamant back then that detailed outlining was crucial, but since then he's backed off that idea a bit.) But I have a file on my computer with the outline for my first Oantra book (the epic fantasy series that is still looking for a publisher.) That file's title is "Outline, Outline, Outline!" Interesting that Mr. Brooks' experiences since that time have led him to change his tune about the need to plan things to such an extent before writing the book.