Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Great insights	Customer Rating:
Brooks gives an insightful look at being a fantasy writer, both in regards to the craft and the business. If you're a fantasy writer or interested in the process, this is a nice title to read.

Easy to read, insightful	Customer Rating:
I find most of Terry Brooks's work to be hit-and-miss, but this one was a definite hit. He lets us in to his head during the creating process. While there is nothing particularly ground-breaking here, his style is very conversational and easy to read. He doesn't get bogged down in mechanics but tries to convey that writing is a process and a craft, not just a hobby.

Wonderful Book!

Customer Rating:

"Sometimes the Magic Works" is a wonderful book for aspiring authors and fans of best-selling fantasy author Terry Brooks alike. Mr. Brooks has created a truly delightful blend of personal memoir and writing guide that offers a rare peek behind the curtain at the life of a successful writer. In revealing what it takes to "make it" in this incredibly competitive field (discipline, perseverance, creativity, and LOTS of luck, among other things), Mr. Brooks provides the kind of invaluable advice and insight that any young writer would consider themselves lucky to happen upon.

Not all there.

Customer Rating:

Five or six chapters in, I doubt I'll finish. It's probably interesting to Terry Brooks fans, but... The opening chapter goes into some detail about how he's "not all here," explaining that his attention is usually in the world of his writing instead of on his "real" world surroundings. Unfortunately, he's not all here in the book, either. It feels amazingly superficial, like Brooks was severely distracted while writing it. I can barely remember each chapter by the end of it. Several pages, I've simply skimmed, looking for something worth reading and coming up empty. I expect I'll "finish" it that way, if at all. By contrast, I found King's "On Writing" to be inspirational, instructive, informative, and engaging. I sincerely wish I could say the same for this book.

Sometimes the magic really does work

Customer Rating:

I picked up this book when I was doing research for my own book about writing - I wanted to learn what other writers thought of their crafts, what pearls of wisdom or insight I might be able to glean for use in my own work. Terry Brooks has written a gem with this book. The back cover tells us that "in addition to being a writing guide, Sometimes the Magic Works is Terry Brooks's self-portrait of the artist." This is precisely true. The book gives the reader a sense of what it is to be a writer - the excitement and joy of getting swept up in a story as you create it, the frustration of doing a book signing event to which nobody shows up, and the sheer pleasure of doing professionally something that you enjoy so much. This book is also invaluable to writers - the ideas and techniques that it describes are priceless, and the way in which the text flows with the reader is the perfect example of the concepts that the book describes. More than anything else, though, the book shows the reader how exciting and enjoyable writing can be. Brooks shows us that - for writers, at least - sometimes the magic really does work. Danny Iny Author of "Ordinary Miracles - Harness the power of writing and get your point across!" (ISBN 1-4116-7252-6)