Greeting Everyone,

Beware. This post might go on for a bit longer than usual and perhaps long enough to strain your attention span, but please hang in there with me. What I have to say to you is important. I have several matters to address, and as I set out to reveal them I will admit to not being entirely sure how to go about it.

Let’s start with a few life facts that I have come to accept and just recently decided to address. I am now eighty-one years old. I have been writing in the Shannara series since 1968 – which is more than fifty years. I have written steadily with no breaks save for vacations and illnesses. I have a total count of just under fifty books to my name as of today. In all that time, I have been writing at least one book or often two at the same time.

I am still writing regularly, but I noticed recently that my physical and mental abilities have diminished. Not that I am derailed in any measurable way from what I was, but my endurance, concentration, attention span and memory are not what they once were. All this is a function of what aging involves and living requires of us at one point or another. I knew this was coming, but I did not expect it when it arrived and have spent my eightieth year coming to terms with its presence. Whatever happens, I do not want to be one of those writers who is remembered for going on a bit too long than his or her faculties could tolerate and thereby produce books that are less than my best work.

Accordingly, I have decided to step back from my intense writing lifestyle and settle down into a form or semi-retirement. This was a hard choice to make. I hate to admit that I don’t have the abilities I once had. But better to face up to your diminishments than pretend they don’t exist. Better to make some adjustments to account for the onset of those diminishments before the readers you rely on to support your efforts begin to point them out.

Beginning immediately, with the publishing of my new book GALAPHILE, I am stepping back in my author role and engaging help from another writer in steering the series in the proper direction with the necessary amount of care. I will no longer be doing the primary writing. My new co-author will take on that task. Instead, I will offer what help I can with providing storyline ideas, revisionary plot suggestions and a thorough overview that will help my co-author to continue to give you the kind of book you would expect of me. I know her well and have been friends with her for years. Both my editor and I have agreed that she is the right choice to take on the task of continuing SHANNARA. That she can provide the skills and inventiveness that is needed to accomplish this is something of which I am sure. She is every bit as professionally capable and committed as I am. What help and support I can give her, I will. That she will give you what you want and expect is something I am certain she will do.

Her name is Delilah Dawson, and she is a skilled professional writer and a delightful person. If you haven’t read any of her work to date, I encourage you to do so now.

I promise all of you as readers of my work that I will still be involved in the process and do my best to help Delilah whenever she requires it. I wish I could hang in there forever, but let’s get real. This time had to come sooner or later, and I want it to happen when I can still be of use to whoever picks up the pen and paper to continue the work I started so long ago. I want to be useful without being invasive. I don’t want you, as readers, to remember that at the end of things my writing quality fell off or my production diminished or that I simply lost control of my work in a noticeable way.

I love what I do, and I doubt that I will ever back away from writing entirely and be happy doing so. But I also know that it is time for me to begin easing into my elderly years. I have had a great run as a professional writer of fantasy/adventure books, and I am hopeful that it is not entirely over. I have reason to believe that I have a few good years left in which to contribute to the writing community. I want to put that time to the best use I can.

I want to thank all of you who have followed my work throughout my career and contributed so much happiness to my life. I started out with little knowledge and no experience to become a writer, and I had no reason to think I would ever achieve the success I have. I have spent my entire writing life trying to learn better how to wield storytelling skills and make those characters and their magic come alive for you. I will continue to do so for as long as I am able. I owe it to you to do so. I am grateful to you for so much.

Magic always,

Terry Brooks

March 9, 2025