Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind
Terry Goodkind with his wife Jeri, Aug 2006 at Barnes & Noble in Las Vegas Terry Goodkind with his wife Jeri, Aug 2006 at Barnes & Noble in Las Vegas
Born	1948 Omaha, Nebraska
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	epic fantasy
Website
http://www.terrygoodkind.com/ http://www.terrygoodkind.net

Terry Goodkind (born 1948) is a contemporary American writer and author of the best-selling epic fantasy series, The Sword of Truth, which according to his publisher TOR in an August, 2006 press release has more than 10 million copies in print and been translated into 20 different languages.

Biography

Goodkind was born in 1948 and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also attended schooling in art and Catholic Catechism Instruction.

Goodkind learned early in his life that he suffered from dyslexia, a cause of constant frustration while he was in high school. He later dropped out of college, and has worked as a carpenter, a violin maker, and a restorer of rare and exotic artifacts and antiques. Prior to starting his career as a writer Goodkind was best known for his realistic marine and wildlife paintings. In 1993, during the construction of his home on the forested Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine with his wife Jeri, he began to write his first novel, Wizard's First Rule, and his writing career was launched with its publication in 1994. In addition to his home in Maine, Goodkind and his wife built a second home in the desert southwest where he now spends the majority of his time.

Career

Goodkind's first book, Wizard's First Rule, sold at auction in 1994 for more than six times the price ever paid for a first fantasy novel. With a first print run of sixty thousand copies (three to five thousand is the norm), it became an international bestseller.

Goodkind has subsequently published nine other novels and one novella to great commercial success. All of his books, with the exceptions of Stone of Tears and Wizard's First Rule, have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. Of his latest novels, Chainfire debuted at #3 in January 2005 and Phantom at #1 in August 2006 on the NYT Best Seller List.

Influences

Terry Goodkind has been largely influenced by the books of Ayn Rand and is a strong supporter of her works and of Objectivist philosophy. While he acknowledges writing in the fantasy genre, he perceives his novels to be more than just traditional fantasy due to their focus on philosophical and human themes.

Themes

Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is considered a fantasy series by both readers and critics alike. The awards it has been nominated for or won are all fantasy-related, and since the series contains all the standard fantasy elements such as dragons, magic, a more or less medieval level of technology, and fictional countries, it has been marketed as a fantasy series. Despite being placed in the genre by others, Goodkind perceives himself as more of a novelist than a fantasy author. Goodkind believes that using the fantasy genre allows him to better tell his stories and better convey the human themes and emotions which he desires to share with the reader. Regardless of the genre of his novels, Goodkind states his main goal in writing is to inspire.

Published works

Goodkind's novels include:

• Wizard's First Rule (1994)
• Stone of Tears (1995)
• Blood of the Fold (1996)
• Temple of the Winds (1997)
• Soul of the Fire (1999)
• Faith of the Fallen (2000)
• The Pillars of Creation (2002)
• Naked Empire (2003)
• Chainfire (2005)
• Phantom (2006)

In addition, Goodkind wrote a short story titled Debt of Bones for the 1998 anthology Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg. The novel takes place in the Sword of Truth universe and is set a few decades before the events in the main series. In 2001, the story was published as a stand-alone novella.

Other media

In August, 2006, it was announced that the Sword of Truth series would be produced as a mini-series. According to the press release, Sam Raimi, the director of Spider-Man and his partner Joshua Dohen would produce the mini-series.

Awards and nominations

1995 - British Fantasy Award, Icarus (Newcomer) (Nomination)

1995 - Wizard's First Rule Locus Poll Award, Best First Novel (Place: 7)

1996 - Stone of Tears Locus Poll Award, Best Fantasy Novel (Place: 15)

1996 - Stone of Tears SFBC Award, The Science Fiction Book Club's Book of the Year Award (Nomination)

1997 - Blood of the Fold Locus Poll Award, Best Fantasy Novel (Place: 18)

1999 - Locus Poll Award, Best SF/Fantasy Author of the 90's (Place: 49)

2004 - Prometheus Award - Naked Empire (Place: 4)

2006 - Prometheus Award - Chainfire (Finalist)

External links

• http://www.terrygoodkind.com - official Terry Goodkind website
• http://www.terrygoodkind.net - unofficial Terry Goodkind website (endorsed by Terry Goodkind)
• Terry Goodkind at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "'Spider-Man' director buys rights to Goodkind series", The Book Standard, July 24, 2006. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.