'Making you want to go there'

 

"That'swhat writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put downon the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to gothere." – Anne McCaffrey
Born on April Fool's Day in 1926, McCaffrey was anactress and singer for 15 years before she started writing.  Herfirst short story was published in the late 1950s and her first novel in 1967after her three children were off to school each day and she made more time forher writing.     That first novel, Restoree, was written as a protestagainst what she termed “absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in science fictionnovels in the 1950s and early 1960s.”  That opened the gates to a spectacular writing career, particularly with her series' TheShip Who Sang and the Dragonriders of Pern.   Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first Sci-Fi books to be listed on the NewYork Times Bestseller list.
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The first woman to win Hugo and Nebula awardsfor fiction and science fiction, she also was honored by the Science Fictionand Fantasy Writers of America as a “Grand Master” and was inducted into theScience Fiction Hall of Fame.  McCaffrey used emotion as a writing tool, something she developed duringher years on the stage.  Known for hervivid scenes and settings, she also never hesitated to putproblematic elements into her work.  “(Myworlds) contain scary things; problems, but also a sense of rightness thatmakes them alive and makes us want to live there,” she said.