The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey

We have news to read, books to browse and plenty of information to keep you occupied during your visit!

If you’re looking for my personal stash of books that are currently for sale via WYSIWYG Books, look no further - just click here to visit the listings and find what you’re looking for.

You can also feel free to visit my favorite links, such as the website of Tania Opland and Mike Freeman, the wonderful musicians behind the Masterharper of Pern Teaching Songs CD and Songbook, as well as the new Sunset's Gold featuring music from the writings of Menolly!

There’s lots more - please look around and enjoy!

I have some marvelous news that I’m just busting to tell folks! My son Todd’s daughter, Ceara (ERGO one of my granddaughters), won a Scholastic Golden Key for the story she submitted to a Christmas competition. She used my computer to do the final draft. I did read it, but as I have no idea of the criteria by which it was judged I couldn’t say more than that it was well done!

That’s three generations of my family that have made it as writers. I’m sure Ceara Rose will go on with writing. Certainly she reads almost as much as I do. But I couldn’t be prouder of her at 14. I think I tried to win one of those Scholastic contests but she has had a firmer foundation, and has a splendid verbal base. It has certainly been marvelous that Todd does so well in S-f but for his daughter to start challenging us is even more marvelous!

Ciao, Annie

I’ve had a marvelous Christmas, with both Alec and Todd here at the celebratory weekend. They each brought a daughter a-piece… So it’s been quite a reunion, since Gigi and my grandson, Owen, already live here in Ireland, not far from me. Many Happy Returns for me.

I’ve had many Christmas cards from fans so let me take this opportunity to thank all of you for your good wishes and to wish the same to you. This is the Chinese year of the Ox… I don’t think they get on all that well with sleepy Fire Tigers like me but I’ll respect them if they charge by me.

I would also like to take this occasion to recommend Robin McKinley’s latest book, titled Chalice… It is an amazing story as well as a beautiful one. All of her books are certainly fine but this one is unusually so.

All the best for 2009… Which we all of us need.

Ciao, Anne McCaffrey, Grand Master 2005!

Anne McCaffrey, Tania Opland and Mike Freeman are delighted to announce the CD release of their second collaboration! The long awaited “Sunset’s Gold” features music from the writings of Menolly and is a fitting partner to the hugely popular “The Masterharper of Pern” CD and songbook.

The CD will be available for delivery around January 9 2009 and advance orders are already stacking up. For more information or to pre order your copy, please visit Tania and Mike’s online ordering page.

I have received two of the largest GET WELL cards I’ve ever seen, signed by what seems like all the attendees of Albacon… which was very thoughtful of both the guests and the convention.

I shall remark, in passing on such thanks, that Ireland, at least my part, is being gradually covered by some of the biggest snow-flakes I ever remember seeing – which means it won’t be a long snow but it is even beginning to stay on the grass without melting away. Some of it might just stay… which would be fun after so much rain. But you’d know what that would mean even in America, timid drivers doing all the wrong things and causing havoc and accidents on the road. I shall stay safely in my house, attend to my mail and peruse the 1st delivery of books Amazon.con sent me. And I have had Todd’s latest to bemuse me as well… Dragonheart.

The snow is now covering the rambler roses on the arcade outside my office window and falling with implacable insistence on remaining for a while. I was browsing through the LL Bean catalog and it offered snow paddles of plastic which would have been fun to try using right now. But then, it’s fun to watch without getting frozen toes and fingers, parched lips and wet clothing. I hate standing about in wet, cold clothing.

I can only hope that some of the lovely and considerate persons who signed my get well cards will have a snow they can use. Here comes my black cat, Maggie, and she is suitably showing off her snow coat while trying to lick off the flakes, which are still cold and make her shake her head with irritation. I told her she couldn’t catch snowflakes but she’s been trying.

All the best to you and thank you for passing on such inspiring notes of people who did notice the cat.

Ciao,

Annie

Wysiwyg Books has overhauled its website, and there are quite a few of Anne’s signed first editions available. You can find them here.

Bryan from Wysiwyg let us know that the signed books are in the best possible condition, and all signed or bookplated books are shipped domestically, in a sturdy box, and packed so that they get to their destination in the condition they started out in. International orders are sent in a Global Priority Flat Rate envelope with as much packaging material as will fit inside, and books can be gift-wrapped and sent Express if so desired.

The titles he listed specifically are: All the Weyrs of Pern, First Fall, Pegasus in Flight, Renegades of Pern, Dragonsdawn, Damia, Crystal Line. All are published between 1988 and 1993. He also has reading copies of those seven titles — that is, books in less than perfect condition but still just fine for reading purposes. He mentioned that their store on eBay has a lot of second hand paperbacks to make it easy for fans to do some one-stop shopping for Anne’s work. It’s getting harder to find the good old stuff!

We hope you’ll check them out and find something you like!

As bad luck will have it, I am not going to be able to make it to Albacon. I had what was deemed a minor heart attack, and as my blood pressure sort of went berserk (although it’s better now) I shan’t be able to get to Albany and Jan’s convention… much as I was determined to.

I am very sorry. I talked it over with Todd, who is still attending, and he agreed with the forbearance. Todd will have made the appropriate phone calls to explain why I missed yesterday’s flight. I know a lot of people will be very disappointed… as I am… but at 82, as the doctor said with my family history of everyone conking off with heart problems, I cannot take unnecessary risks. I like to keep my word, when I give it, but common sense prevails.

Regards,
Anne

Roland wrote:

Hello Anne,

Some years ago when I was in Ireland we had a long phone conversation about “Springfarm”, where I grew up, and the location for your book “The Lady”. A cousin of mine, who also grew up on the property, and our grandfather, apparently had a paranormal experience there in the 1920s. It involved the sighting of a coach and horses drawing up by the house. I wonder if, during the course of your researches, whether you encountered any reference to such a phenomenon?

Hope all goes well at “Dragonhold”!

Anne’s response:

To reply about Springfarm,

When I was trying to buy and got overbid past what I could financially handle, I never heard anything about phantom, or real, coaches. I did know that another house nearby had a real spook, a former owner, a clergyman who had suicided and in the bedroom could be seen and heard by his relative. The kids living in the house often heard him and would never go upstairs alone after dark.

When I settled up the Kilquade road into the 1st Dragonhold, I did have an experience, not with a ghost exactly, but on a clear night we would hear the odd tones of men speaking quietly around a fire and the stamp of their bridled horses tied up in picket. It sort of amused me, but Todd kept a baseball bat handy. Then one clear night in October, we heard a lot more movement and Todd went out the front door and my Jan (who is Lessa) went out the back, both having heard the same noises and deciding to check. They met halfway behind the house near the stables and they could still hear the noise. Todd decided that what we heard was Cromwell’s soldiers bivouacked below Altador, still in their seige. And sometime later the noises stopped entirely, so the enemies had left… again.

The current Dragonhold was built on so-far calm grounds but I never heard more from the Springfarm folk. So banshees, at any rate!

Anne McCaffrey

I had a great birthday party, not a large one, only those known as my usual suspects! But it was very nice, a buffet with some new recipes. Gigi made me an angel food cake which was just as I wanted. Although I did wear down early, it was fun while I lasted and Todd, who was my April Fool’s surprise, arrived on the first plane into Dublin from sunny California. He brought sun with him and it’s still with us.

I will be attending Dragon*Con come hell, high water or hurricane (soap your mouth out, McCaffrey) and Lea Day will be my minder. It’s always nice to have a Day around.

Ciao now,
Annie

We were saddened to hear of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s recent passing. Anne sends her thoughts:

I met Sir Arthur Clarke at a Nebula Dinner, and found him very agreeable, especially after a drink or two when he began to relax. We have certainly lost one of the leaders of the genre and it will be interesting to see if some of his other ‘prophecies’ work on. He was definitely a great man.

Then there was the time I was checking into the hotel in Brighton for a Worldcon and someone grabbed me in a big hug. I heard Gigi, my daughter, demanding in an outraged tone, “Who is that hugging my mother?” Sir Arthur, of course, one of the highlights of my life, certainly. There were always times at a big con when you yearned to see more familiar faces.

We are certainly better for having him among us as long as we did. I hope the Hosannas were ringing when he knocked at the pearly gates.

Anne

Todd made an entry in honor of Sir Arthur, and Boing Boing has a link to Sir Arthur’s last interview, at IEEE Spectrum.

We’re pleased to announce something most of you already know: Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey will be attending this year’s Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia on Labor Day weekend, August 29 through September 1, 2008. If you’d like more information about Dragon*Con, take a look at their website here.

Update: Charlotte Moore was kind enough to provide us with the links to the official site for Weyrfest, which is the Dragon*Con track centered on all things McCaffrey, as well as the Weyrfest LiveJournal community. Weyrfest has a great panel line-up every year, focusing not only on Anne’s Dragonriders of Pern series but also the many other worlds about which she’s written.