Author's Table

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series Combines The Best of Fantasy, Romance, and Adventure by Rochelle O'Gorman

EDITOR'S NOTE: To label Terry Goodkind as merely a fantasy writer is a misnomer. While his Sword of Truth series does include all of the elements of the genre, it also contains subplots of thrilling adventures and uplifting and sometimes heart-breaking romance. The character development is excellent and proportional to the character's role. Primary and secondary characters are fully-developed, but the text is not padded by adding excruciating details about characters that have no impact on the story. Goodkind stated to me that it's important to him to keep his characters' actions focused, and related to the plot and theme.
The Sword of Truth characters interact like real people. They do not act like the cliched, stilted characters a reader encounters in many traditional fantasy books. Their actions and responses are as believable as those of characters presented in contemporary fiction; often they are more believable. Goodkind's characters have the same qualities, faults, insecurities, and emotions that we all have. Their behavior is based upon the insight he has developed into each character. This allows him to answer the important questions of how and why a character acts in a specific situation. Conflicts between the two main characters (Richard and Kahlan) are played out like those one finds in real lovers' quarrels between mature adults. While they are faithful and honorable they are not portrayed as flawless or above the petty jealousies and squabbling inherent to any long-term secure relationship. This is an extremely difficult concept to realistically present and may explain why serious romance is avoided by many fantasy writers.
Terry Goodkind is not just a great fantasy writer. His captivating storytelling ability transcends the genre.

Terry Goodkind is the best-selling author of "The Sword of Truth" fantasy series, which began in 1994 when "Wizard's First Rule" was published. He quickly followed its success with "Stone of Tears", "Blood of the Fold", "Temple of the Winds", and "Soul of the Fire". Artist Keith Parkinson produced the breathtaking cover art for "Stone of Tears", "Temple of the Winds", and "Soul of the Fire".
Living a quiet life with his wife in the Northeast (although a move to the West is being contemplated), Terry Goodkind is now working on the sixth book in the series, "Faith of the Fallen", which is due to be released in August. He was also among a group of 11 authors that contributed to a fantasy collection: "Legends: Short Novels by Masters of Modern Fantasy". Interestingly enough, this man who has made a living in the genre inhabited by wizards, confessors, Sisters of the Light (and Dark), prophets, and dreamwalkers said his favorite author is Ayn Rand, "by a factor of 10".

Recently, Terry talked with us at Audiobookcafe.com.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Do you follow a specific writing schedule?

Terry Goodkind: I'm a night person. One of the things I firmly believe is that you have to be on a schedule and get enough sleep. I can't write when I don't have enough sleep, so I always try to get eight or nine hours of sleep and then I'm alert to write. I can't focus if I'm in that fog of sleepiness.
Writing, also, is not a process of typing; it's a process of thought. So a lot of writing is not just sitting at the keyboard pecking away. It will be going back over what you wrote the day before and doing the editing or looking at reference material. For example, I'm researching medieval marble-carving knowledge and techniques. I have a stack of books on my desk devoted to that topic. Last night I needed to know something about the color of horses so I got out one of my horse books. I probably spent half an hour looking through the book, looking at pictures and reading little bits and pieces. Then I went back to what I was writing. So, when you say you write 12 to 14 hours a day, it sounds like some kind of grueling thing -- in a chair chained to the keyboard. But in reality, I get up and walk around, go do something and think about what I am doing, go to the store, whatever. So it's not 14 hours of super-intensive, grueling, hard work. It's a relaxed 14 hours. I love writing more than anything else in the world, and to me it's not work.

Rochelle O'Gorman: What did you do before you were a writer?

Terry Goodkind: I worked with my parents in their direct mail business. I grew up in Nebraska. In 1983 I decided I didn't want to do that with my life. So I moved to the Northeast and built my own house. I've done a lot of things. I was a cabinetmaker and a violinmaker, but mostly I was a wildlife artist. I had gone to art school and I liked it, but art was not my bliss. I thought that I was going to live here and be a wildlife artist, but I decided over the course of building my house that what I really wanted to do was be a writer. So I decided to try it.

Rochelle O'Gorman: And how successful were you at first?

Terry Goodkind: I wrote "Wizards First Rule" in about 15 months. I wrote a letter to the best agent in the country -- I still believe in starting at the top -- and he wanted to see the book. He loved the book and wanted to represent it. He showed it to some publishers. They all wanted it; they had an auction and it sold 10 weeks after I wrote the end. It sold for a record price for a first science fiction novel. So, it worked well.

Rochelle O'Gorman: How old were you when you started writing?

Terry Goodkind: Forty-five. That's the short answer, which sounds simplistic, but I don't think you start writing at that age. I've always been a writer. When I was a little kid, my earliest memories are of these characters that lived in my head and would tell me their stories. I would go to sleep at night listening to them. They were always stories of adventure and great peril.
Because I have dyslexia -- at the time that I was in school they didn't know what dyslexia was; the teachers thought I wasn't trying hard -- I have a difficult time reading because I misinterpret words. Consequently, they thought I was lazy and I was always being chastised for not trying hard enough. The result was that I learned to hate reading and I hated school and I had no respect for the teachers because they were the instruments of torture, they were the jailers. I wasn't a troublemaker or anything; I just hated the experience of school. I was an adult trapped in a child's body and I wanted to be an adult so I could live my own life. So I didn't write things down because then I would just get more ridicule for grammar and spelling mistakes, because one of the side benefits of dyslexia is that I am the world's worst speller.
I liked reading adventure books when I was little. I sort of did it in secret because you weren't supposed to read those kinds of books. You were supposed to read books that would prepare you for college, the great literary works. If you weren't reading things like Shakespeare and Byron you were a worthless person. Well, at 10 years old I could have cared less. At 50 I still could care less. So, school taught me to dislike reading, to dislike the process of school, and it drove my concept of writing more or less underground and made it a very secret thing within me.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Then how did you ever begin writing?

Terry Goodkind: It wasn't until I was a senior in high school English composition class that a teacher told me: "Terry, yes all those things, the grammar and spelling and punctuation, all those things are important. But, there is something far more noble to what the author is saying than just those mechanical things. There's a story there." Of course, that is what I always believed. That teacher was the one that really made a difference for me. I dedicated the third book to her. Ever since I was little, writing was my most sacred dream. When you have a dream that is really sacred, you don't want to test it easily, because if you fail at it then you don't have your most sacred dream anymore. So it was always something that I was afraid to bring out into the light of day.
When I was 45, when I was building my house in the woods -- it took me nine years to build this house -- it was an experience like going to a mountain and meditating, only I meditated with a hammer. Instead of tapping bells I tapped nails. There was a lot of solitude and time to think about the things I'd done throughout my life. All of those things sort of fell into perspective. I liked them all, but I realized that all of them were a search for what I really wanted to do, what was my bliss. And I realized what I really hungered to do was to write. So I decided that I would give it a try. I remember when I wrote the first page I told my wife, "This is it. I've found what I'm here to do. This is what I've always been meant to do." And she said, "Well, what if you can't make a living at it?" And I said, "I don't care. If I have to dig ditches in the day, I'll be able to write at night, but this is why I'm here." So I didn't start writing until I was 45, but in a way I started when I was born.

Rochelle O'Gorman: I firmly believe that if you do what you love the money will follow.

Terry Goodkind: I agree, because money is payment for value. And what you love doing has value because you put your best effort into it. I consider myself so fortunate that it [writing my novel] worked. On the other hand, and this is kind of strange, I also knew it would work. I remember when I was writing it I was someplace with my wife and she was talking about her job and they turned to me and said, "What do you do?" And I said, "I'm writing a novel and it's going to be a bestseller." My wife burst out laughing. She said, "What do you mean, its going to be a best seller? You can't just tell people that." And I was kind of startled because, well, I knew it was going to be. You don't enter a race unless you think you're going to win.

Rochelle O'Gorman: There is a lot of enthusiasm for your work by fans of the fantasy genre. Do you ever go to the conventions and meet fans?

Terry Goodkind: No, I'm very isolated. And I deliberately keep myself isolated from comments. For example, I don't have a modem; I don't go on the Internet. In the first place, I have no time. In the second place, it's very easy to get distracted by people who, were it not for the Internet, would not be able to find an audience. The Internet is the CB of the '90's. Anybody can get on there and say anything. I have to keep what I hear in perspective. If someone says they hate the way Richard and Kahlan hold hands, then as I'm writing the book I have it in my head that fans hate the way Richard and Kahlan hold hands. Then I'm writing to satisfy an infinitesimal minority. So, I try to just ignore all that and I write to satisfy myself. I don't think about anybody else. When I'm writing my book it's a very private thing. No one reads it until I'm done. It's my world. I live there. I am god. I'm living the emotions of these people. I'm having a great time. And I'm not thinking about what other people want me to do. I know that fans are fanatical and I have two different comments about the enthusiasm of fans: I don't believe that the enthusiasm of fans for my books reflects the enthusiasm of fans for fantasy in general. And, I'm not writing fantasy.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Okay, what do you call it then?

Terry Goodkind: Well, it is defined as fantasy because the bookstores have to have some place to put it. Fantasy, to a large extent, is viewed as clichéd tripe. And fantasy has gone out of its way to earn that title, as most of it is clichéd tripe. Most of it is very bad writing. The thing that makes my books different, and I believe is the reason fans love them so much, is that I'm not writing about magic. I'm not writing about this fantasy element. I'm writing about characters who are real, who have the same kinds of loves, ambitions, desires, and longings that we all understand and share.
A good novel consists of four elements: theme, plot, characterization and style. To the extent that an author who holds ethical values understands those elements, his book will be enjoyable to many readers because it represents a sense of life they intuitively recognize as valid. That's what's missing out of fantasy. Most fantasies are sagas. A saga is not a novel. A lot of fantasy is like a role-playing game. The characters are cardboard cutouts and you just fill in the space with the action. And that's not what I do.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Well that would explain something. I understand you are very popular with college-educated women in their 30's, 40's, and 50's. That would explain why.

Terry Goodkind: I read some of these books and I am just absolutely baffled that some authors treat women as if they are a species from another planet. I just don't get it. They have no understanding that a woman is a human being just like a man. They think she is some kind of special creature that has these cliched attributes and that's all she is.

Rochelle O'Gorman: I'm laughing because I'm sitting under a slogan that says, "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."

Terry Goodkind: It has never once occurred to me, "How would a woman think in this situation?" It is always, "How would a human being think?" I love writing characters and I write women characters just like men characters. They run the gamut from nice, innocent people to very vile creatures.

Rochelle O'Gorman: But what about magic in your books? Do you use it as a metaphor for anything?

Terry Goodkind: I use it two ways. The first way is as a metaphor for technology. Most of the things that are done with magic are things that are in our everyday life. That's one of the reasons that the books relate to people in everyday life. I'll give you an example. There's something called the journey book. These books are twinned and two people at distant points from each other can communicate. One person writes a message in one of these books and it will appear in the other one. Well, big deal. E-mail. The metaphor of magic as technology is a surface element -- the true underlying theme of magic and the basic conflict of the entire series of books is that magic is a metaphor for individualism. The bad people want to stamp out magic and our ever-suffering hero or heroine wants to preserve magic in this world. The reasons they want to get rid of magic throughout this series of books makes it clear that it is individualism they are really trying to stomp out. They want sort of a gray collective society in which everyone is the same. They don't want anyone to be able to be better than anyone else, and the use of magic is simply someone using their own abilities to be the best they can be; to strive for excellence.

Rochelle O'Gorman: What about love in your books? Do you think love conquers all, because that seems to come through in your work.

Terry Goodkind: No, I don't think love conquers all, but I think love is a very important part of being a human being. It is a central part of our lives and therefore a central part of the lives of the characters. When you have someone that you love, you are, in essence, admiring in them what you admire about yourself because the things that you value they also value, so you can see those values reflected in them.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Can you tell me about the "Legends" collection?

Terry Goodkind: Yes. That book was a collection of short novels; each story was set in the separate world of the contributing author. My story ("Debt of Bones") was set in the world that my series is set in, but about 40 years before it begins. The Sword of Truth series starts out with these two people -- Richard and Kahlan -- who meet and go through a lot of trials and tribulations throughout the books. So, it is the story of their lives. Until now every book starts about five minutes after the last one ended. I don't leave any gaps between the books. My editor is very frustrated with me for doing that because he says it's a very difficult task and I am making it hard on myself, but I don't care. I like readers to know everything that's happened. That's kind of hard to do, though, as you can imagine. You have to dovetail things and the chronology gets very complex and hard to keep in order.

Rochelle O'Gorman: You said that you started creating characters in your head when you were a kid. Do you have any idea where these ideas came from? Have you had any specific influences?

Terry Goodkind: Writing is a re-creation of reality according to the writer's value judgement. So the characters are invented to fit my view of life and the books are a reflection of my view of life.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Do you want to do another series? Are you going to try something different?

Terry Goodkind: Well, for me, writing is an act of fruition, not of whim, so I feel that I can write any kind of book that I set my mind to do. Right now I'm having a tremendous amount of fun writing this series and writing about these characters and I'm not tired of them. But I may like to write something else, I don't know. I don't know if it would be fantasy or what. It's just that right now my mind is focused on what I'm doing. I don't think ahead because I try to put everything that I have into the book I'm writing. I don't hold back stuff, save it, hoard it for the future. If I think of a good line, I put it in there, I don't save it. What I'm working on is the whole focus of my world and I put 100% of my effort into that and trust that in the future, when it comes time to write the next book, I'll be able to do it again.

Rochelle O'Gorman: It must be difficult to keep up the momentum. You can tell when an author of a series has run out of steam and is just writing for the paycheck.

Terry Goodkind: That's one reason that I introduce new characters all the time, even though a certain vocal minority gets very upset with me. They want me to go back and do the old ones. Well, I've done the old ones; I want to have new blood. Every person has a view of their world. For example, in the second book there was a scene where Richard goes to the Palace of the Prophets and gives a speech. It's not very long, but he says something to them all. In the book that I am writing now, someone who was there recalls that scene and you see it from her eyes. It is a completely different take on what happened. That makes it fun for me.

Rochelle O'Gorman: Now what about audiobooks in general. Do you ever listen to them?

Terry Goodkind: No, because I don't have the time. I have listened to a little bit of them as I drive somewhere, but generally my mind is focused on the story at present.

Rochelle O'Gorman: What do you think of the audio versions of your books?

Terry Goodkind: I have heard that a lot of people really like them. It makes me happy that so many people who don't have the time to read have the time to listen and are able to get involved in the books I write. I know at the post office, for example, the people who do very repetitive simple tasks listen to audiobooks all day long and my tapes have gone around the whole postal department. They have all listened to them. And that's fun because that may be their only access to books. Personally I don't like audiobooks because that is not the way my mind works. I like to read and go back and look at the last sentence if I didn't quite understand what the author meant or didn't quite get a point. And, I notice sometimes on audiobooks that the sound will go down, somebody's whispering. If you can't quite hear it you're turning up the volume and you're weaving between traffic and the next person yells and it's too loud. So you're fiddling with mechanics and you're missing the author's intent.