Anne McCaffrey

I met Anne McCaffrey, who died on Monday of a stroke, only once. And it was by chance, really. While she lived in Ireland, she was born in Massachusetts. So, for one reason or another, she was in the United States back in the late 80s, and she visited the B. Dalton Bookseller's I worked at in Woodfield Mall with collaborator Jodie Lynn Nye. And it was a casual visit as well, because if memory serves me right, she had nothing new out.

Anyways, I had never read her Dragon Riders of Pern novels, even though the 1980s was my decade of reading a lot of fantasy novels. I know this sound misogynistic of me to say, but I was never interested (then) in reading female centric fantasy novels written by female authors (but I was a huge fan of Barbara Hambly)-though she had said that "I started writing s-f in the late 50's early 60's when readership was predominantly male. And their attitudes unreconstructed. [... Women] began reading s-f and fantasy—and, by preference, women writers. My stories had themes and heroines they could relate to. And did. I never had any trouble with editors and publishers. I had trouble getting male readers to believe I was serious, and a good enough writer to interest them."

It was not that I did not taker her serious, I was just never interested.

Anyways while she was at our store, she agreed to autograph a few papberbacks we had of her titles, but like I said, I don't think she had a hard cover out (though, now that I write this, she may have had a historical fiction novel out in hard cover {?}. It's some 20 years ago, so my memory is not as sharp). What did have in hard cover was a few remainders of her early works, what's called "bargain" books you see today at many book stores. Granted they were not full price books, but they were hers. 

But she refused to sign them, and seemed insulted that I would even suggest such thing. And there lies another reason I never would pick-up a Pern novel, or anything else she wrote. Sure she was tired -she plumped down in one of the benches we had like the she was carrying the whole world on her shoulders- from traveling (and I don't remember asking her why she was in Schamburg, a suburb of Chicago, in the first place. Most major authors publicists hated the idea of venturing into the 'burbs with their authors), but I felt disappointed with her attitude.

So that first impression of her, sort of tainted me. Plus, as I've seen over these last 20 years, she became a victim of her success. Authors like Anne Rice, Terry Brooks and many others found writing outside their established series hard to do. Fans just wanted vampire novels from Rice, while fans just wanted Pern novels from McCaffery. The other stuff they did, while it did well, never drew in those fans of their more successful titles.

I appreciate authors who try something different.

But I realize her passing is big, not only for her family, but her friends and the readers of Pern novels (even though her son has taken up the mantle). That series will forever define her, which is good. 

I just wished I met her on a better day.