35 Years of Adventure
We all have our childhood heroes. Sometimes it’s an actor or sports star. Sometimes it’s an author or a director or a musician. An astronaut, or historical figure. Sometimes, if we’re really lucky, we get to actually meet that person.
One of my heroes, maybe the biggest, was Terry Brooks. It was a HUGE thrill for me to meet Terry at ComicCon a couple of years ago, and an incredible honor to have him write this blurb for The Warded Man:
“I enjoyed THE WARDED MAN immensely. There is much to admire in Peter Brett’s writing, and his concept is brilliant. Action and suspense all the way; he made me care about his characters and want to know what’s going to happen next.”
A few months ago, I got to do a Live Web Chat with Terry (click here for transcript) , which was a blast, especially because Terry and I were on a conference call during the chat, joking and laughing the whole time. Terry is a riot.
Back in June of this year, Terry’s editor and the Editorial Director of Del Rey books, Betsy Mitchell, asked me to take part in a special gift for Terry. To celebrate his 35 years with Del Rey Books (I believe his book The Sword of Shannara was one of the first published under the Del Rey imprint by Lester Del Rey himself), they were putting together a hand-made scrapbook of signatures, letters, etc., and invited me to add a page.
It was a huge honor and a chance to say a lot of things to Terry that I had always wanted to say, but never been able to say to his face. They sent me two pages in case I messed one up, and I used them both (and messed both up with my godawful handwriting). Before sending them off, though, I took the liberty of scanning them (click to enlarge):
That was in June, and after a while, I forgot all about it. Then, just the other day, I got this response:
—–Original Message—-
From: Terrence Brooks
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 5:09 PM
To: Peter V. Brett
Subject: The Big Book of Kind Words
Just received my book of appreciations over the Thanksgiving weekend and wanted to tell you how much your entry meant to me. I am excited for this new generation of fantasy writers that I have been privileged to read and comment on, yourself included. To have you offer a submission to this book – a Betsy Mitchell/Del Rey secret endeavor that blew me away – really seems appropriate for an author like myself who wants to see the magic continue.
I am still in recovery after reading what people said. Many thanks, Terry.
I have reached Nerdvana. If I am in any way helping the magic continue, it is because Uncle Brooks and Grandpa Tolkien taught me my first tricks.
That’s pretty nifty. I have a copy of The Sword of Shannara floating around somewhere that I never really read. I should go see if it still has all the pages.
As for the handwriting, I can see why you write digitally!
Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara was the book that got me into fantasy – both reading and writing. I also got the chance to meet him a few years back. What a wonderful man.
Congrats on being blurbed by him. That’s quite an honour – and a well deserved one. Your novels have been inspiring a whole new generation of fantasy readers and writers (along with us die hard fans).
Peat, thanks for sharing that… wow Nerdvana indeed, so very cool! How fantastic to get a letter back from Terry himself!!!
Wow that is so cool! Ah Nerdvana indeed!
That’s fantastic. And he’s right…your books continue the magic. Special “fan moments” stoke the fires of our love for fantasy. Soon enough, you’ll be receiving letters from people you’ve inspired.