Living
ships, crystal singers, and dragons, oh, my.
We're
off to see the singer of songs and writer of tales whose dreams and
fantasies we have read and reread -- some since childhood.
If
you haven't visited Anne McCaffrey's worlds, now is the time.
Pick a world, any world, and watch it come to life. Be part of
the landscape, laugh and work with the people. Face your fears
and live your dreams. Find your destiny.
From
Pern, where men and women protect their world on winged, teleporting,
fire-breathing dragons, to Ballybran where those who successfully host
a symbiont and are gifted (or cursed) with perfect pitch, cut
mountains that reverberate with their voices to supply the worlds of
the Federated Sentient Planets with the crystals that power space
flight throughout their galaxies. These are but two worlds of
the many Ms. McCaffrey has created and populated over the last nearly
four decades.
There
are sentient space ships that sing, think, and feel, but need brawn --
humanoids -- to go where they cannot. There's a telepathic queen
who spawned a dynasty of telepaths, an orphan found by three rough
miners who is a human-unicorn hybrid, a planet where furred dinosaurs
fly strange skies, and many, many others.
Ms.
McCaffrey was born on April Fool's Day, she says, "...in the hour
of the Sheep, year of the Fire Tiger, [in the sun sign] of Aries with
Taurus rising and Leo mid-heaven (which seems to suggest an early
interest in the stars)." She graduated cum laude from
Radcliffe College majoring in Slavonic languages and
Literatures. For nine years, during which time she was a stage
character actress, Ms. McCaffrey studied voice and became interested
in stage direction of opera and operetta. The American premiere
of Carl Orff's "Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus" was the
last production she directed. She also played a witch.
Her
working life also included stints with the Liberty Music Shops and
Helena Rubenstein. And then there's her family: Alec Anthony,
Todd, and Georgeanne, born after her marriage in 1950.
As
a Long Island wife whose children were in school, Ms. McCaffrey filled
her days with housework, errands, and words. Some of those words
became a short story which was published in Science Fiction + Magazine
by Sam Moskowitz.
In
1967, "...as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic
portrayals of women in Science Fiction novels in the 50s and early
60s," Ms. McCaffrey's relates, her first book, Restoree,
was published. More short stories followed until one day she sat
down in her living room and, still under the spell of Austin Tappan
Wright's Islandia,
she created Pern. She said she discovered Islandia at fourteen
and "...began going [there] whenever things got rough for me on
earth." Wright's "...dystopia was so real that I
looked in vain on the globe for it. ...[A]nd ultimately, if
anyone's responsible for Pern, it's Mr. Wright!"
In
that short afternoon she created a world colonized by humans who faced
certain death because help from their home world wasn't an
option. Small flying, fire-breathing lizards who winked in and
out of view gave the colonist hope -- if they could genetically
alter them. The rest is the history of a dream and a world that
grew into more than two million words.
"Until
I sat down that day in my living room," Ms. McCaffrey remembers,
"I never dreamed that I'd be able to create that sort of magic
myself. But as I began to envision Pern, it took on a life of
its own, becoming more and more real to me as it developed."
Ms.
McCaffrey may have cheated a little by creating an earth type world,
but she is in stellar company. at one annual Science Fiction
Writers of America Nebula awards banquet Carl Sagan postulated
thousands of earth type planets. Of course, biologists deny the
likelihood of humans developing from the primordial stew, "[b]ut
I didn't need humans." She said, "I needed
critters."
Pern
came to life in Weyr Search, which she called "...a short
story of 26,000 words that John Campbell bought for Analog..."
on the condition Ms. McCaffrey cut 6,000 words so it would fit.
"I did -- and put them back in later-- when I wrote..." Dragonflight,
the first full length Pern novel. Reminiscing about that
experience, she said "...[I didn't] realize at the time I was
going to write a novel...or that I would be spending a goodly part of
the next thirty years [there]..." Ms. McCaffrey says she
"...[knows] much more about Pern than I have ever had the time,
or the occasion, to develop, despite fourteen novels and three
reference books."
The
words do not stop there -- nor have the worlds, people, and
stories. Ms. McCaffrey has created many worlds to visit and to
believe we will find if we had a space ship to go exploring. She
chronicles the lives and actions of space pirates and ravening Hivers
who destroy worlds forcing strange alliances between humans and
humanoids -- like the cat-like Hrrubans. Many worlds and
people live under the long reach of the Federation of Sentient Planets
and voyage through the trackless stars in living ships.
Telepathic Damia
and her ever growing brood may well live and rule not far from
snow-bound Petaybee, in Powers
That Be, whose benevolence changes those who allow her to guide
and nurture them. And there is also the mingled taste of history
of fantasy found in Ms. McCaffrey's Black
Horses for the King. The king is called Arturo, which is
Latin for Arthur, a king out of legend. Many more worlds and
unforgettable people live, love, and face the galaxy's whims and
varied faces.
You
will find music and horses and dragons here and there. They are
the real Anne McCaffrey peering from between the pages -- as
inextricable from their worlds as they are from their creator.
Ms.
McCaffrey moved long ago from Long Island to settle on the ancestral
soil of Ireland. She designed a hold fit for Pern, but it is no
stone castle. There are stables to house her favorite black and
white mare, Pi, as well as her private livery stable of show
horses. Dragondhold-Underhill (so named "...because I had
to dig out a hill on the farm to build it") rests in County
Wicklow. And although arthritis curtails personal appearances at
Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions, she still writes, rides (or
rather ambles on Pi), and creates and peoples her worlds.
Ms.
McCaffrey is cutting back on her writing, but just a little as she is
grooming her son, Todd, to carry on the torch with a new book about
Pern, her favorite place to work, create, and live. According to
Ms. McCaffrey, "He is my designated heir." You will
still see her fine hand planning -- and leading -- the charge into new
worlds and new situations for some time.
There
is no mystery to Ms. McCaffrey's writing; it's right there for all to
read and enjoy. But how does she create such believable
worlds? To Ms. McCaffrey, "The trick to creating a world
that everyone wants to exist is to believe in it yourself. But
then, that's what Science Fiction is all about, isn't it?"
Nowhere
else will you find an orphan unicorn girl raised by miners or dragons
you can ride to battle Thread. If you have not visited Ms.
McCaffrey's federation of lives and dreams, maybe it's time you
did.
Rose
& Thorn (R&T):
When did you begin writing?
Why?
Anne
McCaffrey
(Anne): I
began writing at about nine, using the family's upright Royal
typewriter to write poetry (very bad poetry). Why? Well, I
was a curious kid and liked fooling with the typewriter. It was
in my father's office, and I wasn't to disturb his military maps which
were spread out on the desk beside the typewriter. (Dad kept up
in Reserves between wars.)
R&T:
What writers
influenced you the most?
Anne:
[Rudyard] Kipling is the number one influence, and then Austin
Tappen Wright and his Islandia.
R&T:
Throughout your books and stories runs a thread of science,
despite the fantastical elements.
Why?
Anne:
Why not? I liked to blend the fantastic and make them
seem logical and scientific, if at all possible. What science I
do use I get from an expert in that field. On-line helps this
research.
R&T:
How do you balance the science and fantasy elements in your
stories?
Anne:
How do I balance the components? I dunno; it just
works out that way.
R&T:
The dragons of Pern
have been optioned for movies. How
many of their adventures have and will be filmed?
When will they be released?
How much input did you have during the creative and filming
processes? How much input
do you feel a writer should have in such instances?
Anne:
Can't answer this question about movies because it's too
soon. I don't know how much input I will have...few authors get
any. I think a writer should be listened to because, hell, they
invented the circumstances and know the parameters better than anyone
else...and I'm still fiddling with elements on Pern.
R&T:
How do you feel movies and television have impacted reading?
Do you feel they are or should be mutually exclusive?
Anne:
I'm not the only person I know who still wants to hold [the]
book in their hands while they read.
R&T:
Of all the awards you have won, which means the most to you.
Why?
Anne:
Awards are great -
I've collected l8 now. My first, the Hugo, was an incredible
'go-ahead' and vindication of my 'odd' interest in science
fiction. The most important one was the American Library
Association for lifetime achievement in the field. That meant I
was also writing my own brand of 'literature' and could hold my head
up in any literary gathering.
R&T:
You used your opera
background in creating the Crystal Singer series.
What other avocations or hobbies provided background for the
worlds you created?
Anne:
Opera and horses are my only two avocations/hobbies which
have been useful in my writing. Oh, yes, and knitting.
R&T:
What prompted your move from the U.S. to Ireland?
Anne:
The move to Ireland
was prompted by several things - it was 3000 wet miles from my
ex-husband, there was this Artist’s tax exemption, the schools were
good and drugs had not made their way to Ireland yet while they
proliferated on Long Island
R&T:
Your writing and achievements have fired the imaginations of
many women. What advice
would you give them when first beginning to write?
Anne:
I'd give the advice I always give. TELL ME A STORY.
So many new writers feel they have to lard their prose with fancy
similes and metaphors and big words...which all get in the way of
telling a story.
R&T:
What has taught you the most about storytelling?
Anne:
That got imprinted on my consciousness when my parents would
read Kipling to me, the stories by my mother while my father would
declaim the ballads in a deep resonant voice.
R&T:
Are you planning to create new worlds or write more stories for
the worlds already created?
Anne:
I've gotten slower with the years and my recent illnesses
have sapped my energy levels so I write only the ideas that fire me
up. I doubt I'll do any more new worlds but, wandering around
and picking themes from the ones I've got (nine of them) could be
quite enjoyable.
R&T:
What world and/or character is your favorite?
Anne:
Pern is my
favorite world and Robinton my favorite character.
R&T:
Most writers put a little of themselves and their beliefs into
the characters and worlds they create.
Which characters are most like you?
Anne:
Let's say I'd rather be like Killashandra [Crystal
Singer, Crystal
Line, and Killashandra]...who
is somewhat like me. But as there are many sides to every
person, I can usually find something personal to add in.
R&T:
What schedule do you follow when writing?
How much research goes into each world and how much is research
you have already learned and continue to rely upon?
Anne:
I work a business
day - at the computer by 9/9:30...break for lunch, usually reviewing
and rewriting in the afternoon what I spun out in the morning. I
quit all writing at dinner and will read in the evenings. How
much research always depends on what I'm writing and what the story
needs to be told properly.
R&T:
Have any of your
children been bitten by the writing bug?
Anne:
My son, Todd J.
McCaffrey, has published ten shorts, a novel, a biography of me, and
is working with me on a Pern collaboration, Nuella's
Dragon, and a set on Pern. My daughter, Georgeanne Kennedy, has
published three sort-of horror stories. She does them
well. I used to worry what the teachers would think when they
knew she was from a divorced family.
R&T:
You are branching out into film and now into gaming.
How did that come about?
Anne:
The gaming came
about when Susann Allison suggested the Freedom novels to an executive
from Red Storm. Actually RPG [Role Playing Games] could harvest
quite a lot of interesting material from [Science Fiction].
Previously, Bill Fawcett at Mayfair developed a Pern board game
but then I've known Bill a long time.
R&T:
What has the writing life meant to you?
Anne:
The writing life, while sometimes hazardous as to when monetary
considers will arrive, has been perfectly suited to my Arian
temperament. I can work at my own speed and have no trouble
(until lately) completing work on contract. I meet lots of
interesting people -- grist for the mill of character -- and have lots
of mail. Sometimes too much.
R&T:
Do you ever get writer's block? If so, how do you deal with it?
Anne:
Writer's block is somewhat defeated by my work ethics. Other
times, I can just change to a new scene or bring in a new
character. (Lately, since I suffered both a heart attack and a
stroke, both mild, it has been hard to get down to work, but that
obstacle is now working itself out.)
R&T:
Do you have advice you'd like to share with other writers?
Anne:
Writing is a hard enough trade so that you do not do it for the
financial rewards (and I devoutly hope that J. K. Rowling has a good
financial advisor to hide her eggs in productive places so she has a
steady income). Most wannabe writers don't know how important it
is to FINISH this marvelous idea they have. For them, I mention
the importance of telling a story that is interesting enough to keep
them looking for the suitable answer, and to keep on until they have
finished the book. No one else can help you do that.
Encourage you, yes, but YOU have to do the actual writing. Above
all, TELL A STORY.
The
Skies of Pern
Magazine