Ask Shawn: March 11, 2022

Anna Ray writes: Are you and Terry Brooks ever coming back to Oklahoma?

Shawn Speakman answers: You are getting very specific about your request there, Anna Ray. I love it. Direct and to the point.

I won’t talk about Oklahoma specifically but more generally about touring widely. It is an interesting question, one that Terry is mulling right now. He has been very careful during COVID, taking few risks. That meant he stayed home for the better part of two years. It wasn’t until omicron swept through our communities like wildfire — effectively creating anti-bodies everywhere it went — before he even thought going on vacation could happen. He has since went on that vacation, enjoyed it quite a bit, and felt like he and Judine did it safely.

The question is this: Has that experience changed his feelings about being in the public? Perhaps. We had a lovely time in Hawaii, but we were still careful. I know he plans on attending RavenCon next month, which means he is willing to be in public at a convention at least. But touring is quite different from a convention. For a convention, you ride on a plane, you are in the same hotel, and the convention ensures his feelings on COVID are taken into account. There is continuity. When touring, it is multiple planes, multiple hotels, and different states and different populations have different feelings about the pandemic.

I know he is talking to Del Rey Books right now about all of this. I expect we will have some answer by June or July. Daughter of Darkness, the sequel to Child of Light, publishes on October 11, 2022, and publicists usually set up tour dates and venues three or four months before a book’s release.

Will I tour with Terry? That’s a whole other question. It’s something I’d love to do. We’ve attended conventions together and we’ve done local signing events together. But for me to tour alongside him, it’d take someone paying my way. Airfare and hotels aren’t cheap, and it’s not like I can just jump into his suitcase. Ha.

Regardless, we’ll get an answer to your question, Anna Ray, sometime this summer, I expect. Stay tuned!

Got another question for me? Feel free to Ask Shawn!