Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks

I picked this up for $3 at a used bookstore not knowing what to expect - I have read a couple of Terry Brooks’ books and enjoyed them well enough (I do plan on reading more of him sometime). This book is something of a dual purpose memoir / writing how-to (or more precisely, how Terry Brooks writes). I would guess that the publication and success of Stephen King’s On Writing (which was quite a good book - and can almost be seen up on the left hand side of the Madness Abides bookshelf picture) enabled this book to see the inside of bookstores... and there is nothing wrong with that - more books of this nature by both bestselling and lesser known writers would be wonderful as far as I am concerned.

Sometimes the Magic Works is a slim volume containing some worthwhile reading. The writing sections/advice seemed a bit generic, although probably helpful to aspiring young writers. There is nothing groundbreaking in terms of writing lessons to be learned (although, what do I know, the last writing class I took was in high school). Terry Brooks does provide his advice in an entertaining fashion.

The memoir portions are what really entertained me, and makes this book worth every penny of those three dollars I dropped on it. The time he spends discussing his relationship with various aspects of the publishing industry, from first getting published through being a New York Times bestseller, the challenges of writing outside the genre he is known for, dealing with the woes of writing movie adaptations, and other inside type information was fascinating. The parts mentioning what he learns from his young grandson are entertaining and just goes to show you, you can teach an old dog new tricks (Terry, not saying you’re old, just saying there’s something good going on in those chapters).

There needs to be more books of this nature from a variety of writers... maybe a series of “tell us about your writing career” books - that has got to appeal to more people than me, right? OK, maybe not, but I would surely spend some money on such a series.

Give Sometimes the Magic Works a look if you like Terry Brooks, have a need for some writing advice, or enjoyed Stephen King’s On Writing.