Dragonwriter (17 page)

CHANTAL GAUDIANO:

           
“My life has been immeasurably improved by finding Anne's literature and meeting other fans of her work. I have made friends among other Pern fans whose longstanding friendships are precious to me. I regard them as a second family, and a couple of them I regard as sisters of my soul. I have learned and shared wisdom with them, shared tears and joys with them. If Anne McCaffrey were still alive today, I'd tell her that I could never thank her enough for providing a common ground for me to meet such exemplary, brilliant, and fun people.”

LINDA EICHER:

           
“Because of my love of Anne's stories, I went looking for other people who enjoyed her books like I did and I found the *Meeting of Minds* fan forum and the Kitchen Table forum. The result of finding those two Anne McCaffrey fan forums, I also found not only wonderful friends . . . but also got to finally meet Anne herself. I drew the members of MoM, and then Anne herself. After seeing one portrait of her, she wrote to me asking if she could have it . . . I have made the most wonderful friends in the world, and have had the privilege of meeting the wonderful woman herself . . . and knowing I was able to give her back a small amount of the joy she had given to me over so many, many years.”

ANNELI CONROY:

           
“In the early days of the Kitchen Table, one man traveled the world staying with friends from the bulletin board. It was the kind of link that meant that a stranger can spend two nights on your sofa without your having to worry—‘hey, he's an Anne fan.'”

Nothing is perfect. Even Camelot had its rough spots. At one point, the KTL shut down, but the hosts opened up two new websites, A Meeting of Minds (hosted by Cheryl Miller) and Anne McCaffrey Fans (hosted by Hans van den Boom). At first the fans separated between the two, but over time Anne's influence and the general friendly feeling among the group eventually brought about a détente.

Though the new sites were run entirely by fans, they have also reached out to writers who for one reason or another had become associated with Anne. We have been asked several times to stop in for scheduled chats, but also have been made very welcome should we log on any time we happen to be free. A Meeting of Minds also has provided Jody with a thread of her own to post in. The same courtesy has been extended to other writers associated with Anne, such as Elizabeth Moon, who co-wrote two of the Planet Pirates novels with Anne,
Sassinak
and
Generation Warriors.

And what do the fans themselves get out of the equation? The name of Cheryl Miller's website describes it well: a meeting of minds. Like-minded readers are able to meet, either in person or on the web, others who feel the way they do about the work of their favorite writer.

Conventions and ordinary mail fostered the first of the devoted fan communities. Then they were supplemented, though not superseded, by electronic forums. As CompuServe and Oracle gave way to reliable email and the internet, communication became easier. Online role-playing grew more widespread. Fan-fiction moved from paper zines to electronic sharing. The community has diffused, but whenever it meets, it seems to be as strong as ever. This closeness is seen most readily at Dragon*Con, held every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. (In spite of its title, Dragon*Con was not named for Anne's work, though she was its first and favorite guest of honor.) Other fandoms have their associations, such as the Star Wars-inspired Storm-troopers, who like to hang out in large groups at conventions, but rarely have organized interaction outside of a fan event. Dragon*Con has a shared programming track devoted to the worlds that Anne created, most especially Pern. Fans return year after year, even after Anne's passing, to celebrate what she has created and what they all share. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and all the other online media, the community never has to be out of touch.

No official celebration had been planned for the fortieth anniversary of Pern in 2003, but her admirers banded together under Hans van den Boom to produce
40 Years of Pern
, a book of essays by fans and fellow writers alike, including Bill and Jody. When Anne attended Eurocon in Copenhagen that year, as Anneli Conroy put it, twelve to fourteen fans from five different countries “kidnapped” Anne for Chinese food and presented the first copy of the book to her. Needless to say, Anne was deeply touched. Her fans were proud to give back to Pern's creator appreciation for what she had given to them.

Like Camelot, the golden age of McCaffrey fandom may be a glorious time that we will look back on with nostalgic longing. While her books are still with us, she is not. The McCaffrey Effect may not be as powerful without Anne's presence, but the legacy of openness and acceptance that she promoted through her books always will be. We regret that that special connection with the writer herself is no longer possible. Time passes. The lives she changed remain changed. The fans whose lives she touched still love her work and will continue to give it to others to enjoy. It is up to those privileged souls to keep the joy alive by being open, accepting, curious, inclusive, and cooperative—by reaching out to those who are not yet a part of the group and giving them the same kind of welcome that Anne gave to them.

Best-selling science fiction and fantasy author JODY LYNN NYE describes her main career activity as “spoiling cats.” When not engaged in this worthy enterprise, she has published more than forty books and novels, largely humorous, some in collaboration with noted writers in the field, such as Anne McCaffrey and Robert Asprin, and more than 110 short stories. Her latest books are
Myth-Quoted,
nineteenth in Asprin's Myth-Adventures series, and
View from the Imperium,
a sort of Jeeves and Wooster in space. She is married to Bill Fawcett.

BILL FAWCETT first met Anne at Mayfair Games. He has been writing and editing SF since his years at Mayfair in the early '80s. He has edited or co-edited more than forty science fiction anthologies including a Nebula anthology. As Quinn Fawcett, he has coauthored the Mycroft Holmes and Madame Vernet mystery novels. His nonfiction books include a book on UFOs, two oral histories of the US Navy SEALs, and ten nonfiction books on mistakes in history. He is also a game and computer game designer.

1
Bill was one of the owners of Mayfair Games and was on the design team that developed the
Dragonriders of Pern
role-play game (and, not incidentally, employed one Todd McCaffrey to help work on it). He packaged not only the Crossroads game books,
Dragonharper
and
Dragonfire,
but also
The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern,
as well as a number of novels coauthored by Anne and less established writers in some of her other universes. Jody wrote
The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, Dragonharper,
and
Dragonfire,
as well as co-authoring four of those other books; writing a solo sequel to one,
The Ship Errant
; and penning short stories for a few of Anne's own anthologies.

2
The riders of green (female) dragons, except for a girl named Mirrim, are men. When these dragons mate, it is with male dragons whose riders are also male. Pernese society does not discriminate against green riders. They are just dragonriders like all the others, courageous and competent defenders.

B
ill Fawcett had a great idea: get Anne McCaffrey to outline some story ideas that she didn't particularly want to write on her own but that would continue the universes of her other worlds. The idea was part of a larger strategy to pair established authors with up-and-coming writers so as to get a good book, name recognition for the new writer, and a story that otherwise wouldn't have been told. It was very much in keeping with Mum's credo, “Never just return a favor—pass it on!”

And with that were born such stories as
Crisis an Doona, Sassinak, The City Who Fought,
and
The Ship Who Searched—
the last cowritten by Mercedes Lackey.

Since that book, Mercedes Lackey has gone on to become a major force in the world of science fiction and fantasy, and we're very glad to have her in this tribute.

IT'S REALLY TEMPTING
for critics to try to read things about the writer into a writer's work. And yes, sometimes things in the work really can apply to the writer herself—heaven knows that Anne McCaffrey was fun and funny to be around, and . . . well, if not
obsessed
with food and cooking, certainly was good at it. And she loved music, opera especially, and was a classically trained operatic singer, which she used to great effect in her Crystal Singer series.

But when it comes to things that are more internal than external—attitudes and leanings—believing you can judge the writer by the story becomes a very slippery slope indeed. Not to name any names here, but I know several writers whose work would suggest that they are great, open people to be around, the kind of people you would like as friends, and in reality, they are anything but open—often curmudgeonly and reclusive—and would be the kind of folk that would cause problems at your parties, whether they had overimbibed at the punch bowl or not.