MTV presentedThe Shannara Chroniclesto the Television Critics Association the day after it premiered.

Why was the second book the right one for the series?

Its actually pretty easy.

The first one did not have any strong female characters.

It had one female character and she was very much a supporting character in the book.

Wed have to change the sex of the characters or something like that.

That was one thing.

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Second one, theres no love story.

Women like action too, but its good to have a full bodied story.

You want a more well rounded story and really,Elfstonesis a more well rounded story.

Its still a quest story.

It still has magic.

Its a part of our lives every day.

We have to take on things we dont want to.

We have to face up to things we dont particularly want to.

Sometimes problems that arent even of our own making.

This story very much has that in mind, obviously on a much more elevated scale.

Does that represent your growth as an author also from the first to the second book?

I didnt even think about it at the time.

I was very much under the influence of Tolkien and using his format.

I was really rewriting William Faulkner but thats another story.

But I was under the influence of that.

I felt like that book,Sword, was better in the second half than the first half.

I remember the art of the hardcovers from book stores growing up.

Is that artist still around and in any way involved with the design of the show?

Those people are all gone.

In fact, theyre all dead.

I guess one of the Hildebrandt brothers is still alive but the other ones gone.

Darrell Sweet is also gone.

That covers the first 12 books.

The show does remind me of those covers.

Did Al and Miles look at those for the production design?

Oh, absolutely they did.

And the cover art?

I dont know the extent to which they were influenced by it.

Maybe to some extent they were but we never actually discussed that particular aspect of things.

Had there been movie talk when the books were first published?

I think we optionedSwordin the second year that it was out to somebody or other.

There was a lot of talk about what was going to happen but nothing ever happened.

There were never any scripts.

There were never any actors, directors, anybody that wouldve suggested anything was ever going to happen.

I wasnt paying a lot of attention to it.

By the time other novels likeHarry PotterandGame of Thronesgot adapted, had you let it go?

Well, I think I felt Id already said Im going to end up just like Tolkien.

Ill be 30 years dead and then theyll make the movie.

There was never any serious interest and I just figured that it wasnt important enough to pursue.

Im a book guy.

Im interested in books.

Thats what I write.

There hadnt been much talk about it in the 90s, late 90s, early 2000s.

There really wasnt too much talk about it until [executive producer] Dan Farrah showed up.

He seemed messianic about it.

25 years old or something like that, this kid saying, I can do something with this.

I think I can do it.

I said, Who are you?

Why do you feel this way?

He gave me some reasons why he could do it and so forth.

We were very excited about it.

Jonathan Liebesman would say, One more time, one more time.

So that was good.

They want something right away.

Were those in the book?

No, no, of course not and heres the reason why.

When I wrote those books, I had not made the commitment that this was this world.

All the time readers were saying, Well, where does this take place?

Is this this world?

I would say, What do you think?

Because I thought it was good that they would decide and make that connection for themselves.

So when I did finally make it, it became set in stone at that point.

MTV decided early on that they wanted that connection to this world.

They felt it would ground the story.

It wouldnt be an anomalous experience.

It would be clear that it was this world in the future.

They wanted to shorten it up so that it was closer to the time.

I didnt have any problem with that, partly because of the juxtaposition of magic to science.

And that just like science, magic could be good but magic could be bad.

It could be unpredictable.

Magic rose to fill the void but then science starts to come back in.

How do you come up with magic names?

Well, I dont know.

I keep a list of interesting names, characters, places, anything.

When were traveling, I take em down off of street signs, storefronts, off maps.

I tell everybody I feel free to steal from everywhere.

Has anyone come forward and said, Im from that town.

You used our name?

Especially in the Pacific Northwest they say, Are you writing about the town of Pe El?

Thats where Im from.

I say, Well, yes.

I just thought it would be cool to have the name of this assassin.

Where did Shannara come from?

I get asked that question.

I think I just made it up at some point and I cant remember now where or why.

A lot of that has just vanished with the passage of time.

Are any just flat out made up?

Oh yeah, a lot of em are made up.

Sometimes theyre hybrids of existing words.

Sometimes theyre totally made up and sometimes theyre actual names I took from one place or another.

In what episode of the show do you think it really starts diverging from the book?

Oh gosh, lets see.

Thats hard to say because they do it sporadically throughout.

Theyve kept the main characters.

Weve seen so much of that already now.

So they wanted to stick with that more than any of the rest of it.

How well does it work?

I think everything they did that was a deviation worked for me.

I didnt feel myself saying, Oh no, you cant do that.

I didnt want to be that kind of guy.

I think too many authors are like that.

Weve heard those stories and seen those movies with the authors who had that kind of strangelhold.

We have, and believe me, they know who they are too.

Even in the publishing field sometimes, we know those authors as being fairly difficult people to work with.

The publishers dont like it any better than the people working in the movie business do.

Do some just have the clout to demand that if their book is successful enough?

Nobody has that kind of clout that I know of, except J.K. Rowling.

Shes the only one.

E.L. James did too.

Its one thing to say something after.

Its another to have the clout to influence the production.

When its going on.

These people I think maybe had that kind of power but not often.

I cant come in and say no.

What I can do is say, This would be a mistake.

And maybe heres a way you could do it that would work better.

And then wed talk it through which is really the way things ought to get done.

Congress should come visit us.

I would never say to Al and Miles, You cant do that.

Its not in the book.

I would never say that to them.

What other books could the series entail?

Well, were going to follow up withWishsongI think, to some extent at least.

And well work together to make that happen.

Thats doable, so well attempt to find a way to do that.

How many more books are coming?

Im writing one now.

I have one Ive already written coming out in June.

Then Im writing a three book series to conclude the entireShannaraseries.

I want it to be done before Im dead.

The Shannara Chroniclesairs Tuesdays at 10PM on MTV.