My Favorite Author

My Favorite Author

         What an incredible dilemma!  I don’t know that I have one favorite author. If we were allowed to select a favorite within a particular genre, it might be a little simpler.  However, even that would be a difficult task.  I suppose I will be forced to use a criteria other than ‘who I like to read the best”.  With all of the preceding in mind, I will select Anne McCaffrey as my favorite author.  I arrived at this decision because Ms. McCaffrey is the only fiction author to whom I have ever written.

         I was first introduced to Anne McCaffrey over thirty years ago when I started reading her “Pern” series.  These books created a universe where fantasy and science fiction melded seamlessly.  I was so impressed with her elaborate characterizations of the dragons, their riders and the other denizens of Pern that it fostered a life-long fascination and, even love, of those fantastical reptilian creatures.  I have a large collection of dragons, now, that started with an infant caught in the act of hatching. I found the intricately detailed piece while reading my very first Pern book.  When I found my life situation drastically altered, I decided to take a stab at pursuing a youthful dream of becoming an author myself.  Inspired by Ms. McCaffrey, I started a story about a dragon and wrote to her about my fledgling efforts.  Much to my amazement, nearly three months later, I received a lovely postcard from her picturing Harper Hall, with encouraging words.  I am still trying to decide how to frame the card so that both sides can be easily viewed.

         After devouring every offering about Pern, I went so far as to research her other works, and read some of them, as well.  One of her early works was a romantic novel called “The Lady: A Tale of Ireland”.  In my opinion, she found her niche in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre.  I really enjoyed reading the tidbits I found about her, especially the mix-up of the title of her “Get Off the Unicorn”.  It seems she intended the title to be: Get of the Unicorn”, as in the “offspring of…”  Once she discovered the mistake, she decided to leave it.  It appealed to her admittedly “weird” sense of humor.  In verifying some of the information for this essay, I was delighted to find that there are some new books about Pern being published with Anne’s son Todd as author.  I read their first collaboration and found it delightful. For anyone who is drawn to Science Fantasy, I heartedly recommend the Pern Saga, as well as her “Acorna” series.  More mainstream Science Fiction readers will enjoy the “Ship” and “Crystal Singer” books and the “Petaybee” novels.  For something a little different, “No One Noticed the Cat” is a delightful quick read that is a humorous and accurate depiction of a very talented feline.

         To lengthen a short story, it was a real thrill to receive a reply from the Grande Dame of Dragonhold-Underhill, although my dragon story is still unfinished.  My hope is that my participation in the A-1 Writing Academy will provide me with the incentive to finish that story for my grandchildren to read, and who knows, maybe there will be a broader audience, as well.