When Terry Brooks quit being a lawyer, left Illinois, and moved to a new city to try and fulfill his dreams of becoming a professional writer, he only had his eyes set on one place.

“I had relatives in Seattle back in the early ’70s and came out here when the city was much younger,” Brooks says. “I sort of fled Illinois. I had been in the same place too long. I was in a place that had no writers. Moving out [to Seattle] put me in the middle of a major publishing and author area.”

It’s safe to say that Brooks—who now splits his time between Seattle and Cannon Beach, Oregon—made the right choice. If you’re a fantasy fan, you might know that Brooks has written 23 New York Times bestsellers and sold over 25 million novels worldwide. Sister of Starlit Seas, the third book in his Viridian Deep fantasy series hits shelves on November 14.

It didn’t take long for the Emerald City to embrace Brooks when he first moved here in 1986. Nearly 38 years later, Brooks is still repaying the support that galvanized his career, regularly communicating with the huge fantasy and sci-fi community in Seattle and trying to inspire the next generation of writers in the genre. Later this month he’ll take part in a speaking tour across the Pacific Northwest, visiting Spokane, Seattle, and Tukwila, before heading out of state.

“He is a fan favorite,” says SunnyJim Morgan, the chair for Norwescon, Seattle’s annual science fiction and fantasy convention that has run continuously since 1978 and attracts up to 2,300 fantasy and sci-fi fans every year. “He’s one of those A-list, top-tier genre authors that we would love to have come every year. But they often can’t make it because they’re so overwhelmed with requests.”

The origins of Norwescon were simple, says Morgan. It began with the question “Wouldn’t it be cool if we invited our favorite authors to come and hang out with us for the weekend?” The importance of the convention is that it gives members of the science-fiction and fantasy community a chance to find their “logical family [and] the people that you want to surround yourself with, who share your interests.” 

That’s exactly why, in the 12 months leading up to Norwescon, Morgan and her team of volunteers put in hours of work to organize the event, all for no compensation. “The reason we do it is because going to that monthly meeting is where we see our friends. That’s where we get to hang out with the people we like to hang out with. Then, at the end of it all, we throw the party that we want to go to… It’s an environment that nurtures emerging writers and helps people connect with each other and form that community.”

When he comes face to face with this community at these talks and conventions, Brooks is always bowled over by the deep devotion and intelligence of his readers. In order to be even closer to them, Brooks and his team have embraced social media, most notably on the Terry Brooks Community Facebook page, where they offer daily updates on his work and readings.

But as democratic as he is, Brooks has still had to get used to people being intimidated when they initially talk to him. “They speak to me like I’m the president. It’s so funny, because I’ve never been that person,” he says. But while they’re obviously primarily interested in talking about his work, Brooks actually finds discussing their projects to be one of the most fulfilling aspects of being so in demand.

Even if the person he’s speaking to doesn’t write professionally or even in the same genre, the fact they share the “commonality” of writing means that Brooks is always able to bond with them. “I’m really interested in finding out what they do and their process. It’s such a gratifying experience. I’ve been writing since I was 10. I started in 1954. I love to know how things have changed.”

Brooks has no intention of slowing down in his own career, either. He’s already completed his next two books, teasing fans that they’ve set him off on a “new tangent.” For the time being, though, Brooks’s attention is fully on the release of Sister of Starlit Seas, and once again delivering for the community of readers that has formed around his work.

“What's important is that I’ve told a good story. If I don't do that, then I’ve failed right away,” Brooks says. “I want them to feel impacted by the characters and what happens to them.”

He plans to keep on doing so for a long while to come, too.

“I’m going to keep writing fantasy. I am never going to stop.”