The Author

Terry Goodkind's first novel, Wizard's First Rule (Tor Books, 1994) immediately established him as one of the world's bestselling authors. Each subsequent book in the Sword of Truth series sold better than the one before and some twenty million copies of books in the series have now been sold.

The saga of the Sword of Truth started growing in Goodkind's mind during the early 1990s while he was building his house in the forests of the northeastern U.S.

"It started with the character of Kahlan, and grew from that seed," he recalls. "It really became a haunting experience. As soon as I started writing Wizard's First Rule, I knew writing was my calling. I'd found something to which I truly want to dedicate my life."

Goodkind was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also attended art school, one of his many interests on the way to becoming a writer. Besides a career in wildlife art, he has been a cabinet maker and violin maker, and he has done restoration work on rare and exotic artifacts from around the world - each with its own story to tell, he says.

While continuing to maintain the northeastern home he built with his own hands, in recent years he and his wife, Jeri, have created a second home in the desert Southwest, where he now spends the majority of his time.

(from terrygoodkind.com)