I’ve been pretty out of it because of work and various other things going on.  Today I resolved to get back into the flow, and I see this (stolen from John Scalzi).

I’ll post more later but right now I wanted to mark the passing of a master.   Anne McCaffrey’s Pern was the very first world I delved into when I was a child.

My parents, perhaps realizing I was a big reader, signed me up for the Science Fiction book club and I still remember the day they surprised me with the (to my child eyes) HUGE box of books!  All Sci-fi and fantasy and all for me to read.  Thus began a lifelong love affair with science fiction, reading and books that has led all the way to today where I want to write, own too many (yet not enough) books (readers will know what I mean).

In that box, one of the books (among MANY classics, I have no idea how my parents chose those books but their selection could not have been better) was Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern Omnibus edition and while my memory is a little sketchy, I believe it may have been the first book out of that box that I read (by virtue of being the biggest).   I was instantly in love with Pern’s dragons and the adventures of F’lar, F’nor and Lessa both against the threat of thread and other things.   I never really continued the series but I’ve always had a soft spot for Pern and dragons since then.

RIP Ms McCaffrey and thank you for the great stories.