Anne McCaffrey's fantasy novel, No One Noticed the Cat, appeared awhile back in Starfire Reviews. Now I have the great pleasure of offering for your perusal an interview I've done with the author since then!
Anne McCaffrey has written many novels and, through long-running series, established in vivid detail several different worlds of her own creation. She has likewise done a number of collaborations with authors I (coincidentally) interviewed before, including Jody Lynn Nye and Elizabeth Moon.
I haven't read all of her works--though I've sincerely tried to find them all--but I have enjoyed everything that I did; I hope to find and read all the rest at least once in my lifetime. I'm always watching for the works I haven't read, but again, the bookstores in Hawai'i don't exactly have the most complete inventories. I won't give up hope, though!
The interview that follows comes from e-mail messages sent back and forth between myself and Ms. McCaffrey. I've filtered the interview down somewhat, but all with her approval. Enjoy!--XS
XS: I guess we should start at the top. Is Anne McCaffrey your real name?
AM: Yes, it is.
XS: Have you ever considered writing under a psuedonym?
AM: I haven't considered a psuedonym since I was 15.
XS: Oh? What happened at 15?
AM: I decided how stupid I was, trying to find a penname when mine was perfectly good.
XS: I see. Well, under what circumstances might you use a psuedonym? Or, to put it another way, under what circumstances do you thinkg other writers should use a pseudonym?
AM: Other writers use psuedonyms to get published in different genres or because they are such prolific writers their publisher asks them to split their series to different names.
XS: Well, that's understandable, though I can't imagine me ever discovering your "Talent" novels if they'd been written under another name. What was your family life like for you as you grew up?
AM: My family life was secure until the World War II when it all fell apart--like so many other people.
XS: How did World War II impact on your schooling?
AM: It impacted heavily on my life and my schooling, since I spent what would have been my senior year in a girls' boarding school which wouldn't graduate me because I didn't have two years of Bible. I finished back at good ol' Montclair High in the accelerated program.
XS: Where was home for you then?
AM: Upper Montclair, New Jersey, until I left for college, though we were several other places briefly...with my father in the war, and my brother in various hospitals trying to beat osteomyelitis.
XS: Who was the biggest influence on your life as you matured?
AM: The biggest influence, outside of my immediate family, was my Aunt Gladys Norton McElroy, my mother's sister-in-law.
XS: What level of education did you complete?
AM: I graduated from Radcliffe--that's Harvard--cum laude in Slavonic Languages and Literatures.
XS: What are your views of education in general?
AM: I think the Irish education system is now far superior to what can be obtained in the USA.
XS: Why is that?
AM: The quality of the teaching, smaller classes, better rounded, career-teaching staff and an insistence on a world view.
XS: Sounds good...I remember my how large my classes were. Have you held other job positions besides that of a writer?
AM: I held many jobs--from waiting on tables, to cooking, to being an advertising copy layout artist, to a secretary...but I'm not going through all that. It's too damned far in my past.
XS: Sorry about that. Well, in that case, what were your ambitions as a child and young adult?
AM: I was going to be rich and famous and make everyone be sorry they had been mean to me. Since I was a brat of the first water, it wasn't hard for my peer group to be mean to me.
XS: That's a reasonable ambition. What is your family life like now?
AM: I'm 72, my family life is fine.
XS: And where do you call home?
AM: I call County Wickow, Ireland home and I built Dragonhold-Underhill to conform to my standards.
XS: Could you describe it somewhat?
AM: It's an Irish bungalow--or an American ranch-style house--6000 square feet...much of it covered by books.
XS: Sounds great to me...all those books. What is your greatest dream in life, and what have you done--or are you doing--to attain it?
AM: My greatest dream was to own a horse. I have owned about 40 at various times and still ride my black and white--pinto or piebald--mare when my prosthetic hip isn't bothering me.
XS: "Prosthetic hip"? Where did that come from?
AM: Hell, I have arthritis in all my joints. It's just first the right knee and then the hip became too painful to use...so I had them replaced. Marvelous what modern science can do. I'm bionic.
XS: Gee, I had no idea. The Bionic...well, never mind that now. What is your worst fear?
AM: I never had a particular worst fear...there were so many. I overcame each by working hard and achieving one goal at a time.
XS: Words to live by, I should think. How did it feel to see your first novel in print?
AM: It felt supreme to see my first book in print. It feels great every time I see a new book in print.
XS: I know you've received a number of awards. Which one or ones do you value most and why?
AM: I think I value the Science Fiction Book Club awards most.
XS: Those are the ones that SFBC members vote on, right? I can understand why they'd mean more to an author.
AM: Yes...because more people voted for their choice.
XS: Let's change the pace a bit. Having written extensively in science fiction and a number in fantasy, are there any other genres you'd like to explore, such as horror or mysteries?
AM: You haven't done your homework. I've written four romantic mysteries, one family saga, and a "contemporary" novel of domestic problems. I have no taste for horror. My daughter writes that...and gets published.
XS: Your daughter? Hmm, I don't recall seeing a McCaffrey in the horror section at the bookstores.
AM: Georgeanne Kennedy--my daughter--has published three horror stories in anthologies...no books yet, she's busy raising her adopted son.
XS: Oh. When is the easiest time for you to write?
AM: As I had children to raise, I had to keep to a normal domestic (there's that word again) schedule, up at 7 get the kids up, go to work at my keyboard. I quit about suppertime. If I am not doing creative writing, there is always correspondence and records to keep me busy on a 9-5 basis.
XS: What makes that time most conducive to your productivity and creativity?
AM: I dunno. I disciplined myself to use the uninterrupted time I had--which was when the kids were at school--and 40 years later, I'm still using it.
XS: Where is the easiest place for you to write?
AM: A keyboard is essential. It can be anywhere, and has been, but now I have a proper office and use it as such.
XS: Do you have any anecdotes about writing in a less-than-amenable location, such as in a taxi or...?
AM: I'd be a damn fool to write in a taxi--moving objects. I have utilized air travel time with a laptop--when the security arch hasn't messed up the mother board or the disk file. Give me a keyboard to concentrate on and everything else falls away.
XS: I wish I were so dedicated. Doing research for your novels must take a lot of time, too.
AM: If you organize your questions, research doesn't take that much time--especially now one has the resources of the Web. Or e-mail.
XS: What bit of information did you uncover that you are most grateful for?
AM: What bit of info? I dunno. I always learn something new that I can trade on. Can't remember anything specific.
XS: Does your degree in Slavonic Languages in Literatures come in handy during the research process?
AM: Any discipline--language, science, art--which teaches you to think and learn is useful. Any information, acquired in a random fashion, may one day be useful.
XS: What first drew you into writing? Did someone "turn you on" to it?
AM: I've always read and told myself stories. So when I could write, I wrote them down because I thought they were amazing. Mother did, too. I went on from there. But no one urged me to write...except maybe Mother, so I'd be involved and not bother her.
XS: Did you take any writing classes before--or after--you started writing?
AM: I only took one "writing" course: Composition in college for which I wrote the first three chapters of Mark of Merlin.
XS: Has writing become any easier or more difficult since you started writing?
AM: Writing is never "easy" but you gain fluency in vocabulary and wisdom about grammar over the years of "doing". I have some books that flow along as if I'm merely the vehicle to translate them from thin air to paper. I have others that take a lot of thinking, revising, restructuring...fiddling. It's grand to be paid for what you like doing.
XS: What is the easiest thing about writing?
AM: Printing a final copy is now the easiest part of the process...press a button, and voila, the nice neat pages come flipping out onto the desk.
XS: It is satisfying, isn't it? I'm thinking final papers...well, what is the most difficult thing about writing? I've always found it to be searching and searching for the extremely precise turn of phrase I'm looking for.
AM: You got it in one...the hardest part is being sure you have the exact word that describes what you require.
XS: Have there ever been works you've regretted submitting?
AM: No, I've never regretted submitting any work. I always learn something.
XS: I guess that's as good a segue into your works as I'll ever come up with, so let's talk about some of your novels. First, though, I have to know: how do you create your worlds? Do you sit and sit until you have every detail clearly depicted in your mind's eye?
AM: I create my worlds by thinking logically about the one I live on and then extrapolate--alter useful details and items to make it more like the world I need to tell the story. I tell the story as I write the book so I never know how the novel will end...just where it starts.
XS: Do you sketch out on paper--in drawing or words--everything that you want to incorporate?
AM: Since I took cartography as a science requirement, I do indeed draft maps of the places I'm writing about so I know where I am. But the other world is never fully realized until I start telling its story.
XS: How do you create your characters? Are all of them based upon living people known to you? I remember reading that K'van was based on your brother, Kevin. By the way, how is the famous Kevin?
AM: Keve is still alive and well, even after two quadruple heart bypasses, and living in St. Louis.
XS: Well, I'm glad the smallest dragonboy is still alive and well.
AM: My story's characters are the people who are affected most by the story I'm telling. I rarely use people I know--though some of the best characters are modeled on friends and acquaintances. I used to do a lot of stage direction so it's relatively easy to move characters about the scnees. The character also develops as the story does.
XS: How do you decide how each character is going to look and behave? Do you create character sketches or have someone do rough drawings for you?
AM: I have a rough idea of what they should look like, and add a special detail, like an eyebrow quirk, much use of the mouth or body language, some characteristic that is unique to them--to place them in my own mind--like F'lar always brushing the lock of hair out of his eyes. I don't do rough drawings and am always surprised when the cover artist actually reproduces someone near my written description.
XS: How do you write for your characters? Do you "become" them--seeing what they see and feeling what they feel--or are you the omniscient, omnipresent watcher who can attribute emotions and sensations without needing to immerse herself in the world of the characters?
AM: That's right, I become the character for as long as I'm seeing the scene through his or her eyes. In some books, the author is omniscient...in others the observer. Depends on the story.
XS: Let's talk about the Doona books. What were the sources for this series? Were you, by chance, watching a cat and imagining it building bridges?
AM: What I imagined in Decision at Doona was how my son, Todd, he of the loud voice and large gestures, would fare in a strictly controlled society on an overcrowded world...and how much better he would function on a brand new world...Doona. I used feline humanoids because I'm a cat lover and there hadn't been any catpeople used in the 60's s-f.
XS: When you wrote that book, were there particular stresses you were writing in response to? Compared to the oppressive societies of Earth and Hrruba, the pastoral Doonan lifestyle is definitely preferable, but I was there was something else going on that I'm not aware of?
AM: You sound young enough not to have been aware of the Vietnam War when it started--
XS: Born just at the end.
AM: And the imposition of democracy on a society that could not function as a democracy because its people had not been trained to think and respond to their own needs.
XS: That went over my head. Anyway, I understand that Todd--in the book, at any rate--was an exceptional child and less restrained than the adults, but what prompted you to have him imitate the Hrrubans so deftly? I mean, a rope tail?
AM: Todd is still an exception and he would imitate as a six year old. He was also skeptical of many "adult" conventions which made him the ideal viewpoint character for Todd Reeve.
XS: One of the most impressive and touching scenes in Decision at Doona was the very last, when the two boys were located by their parents. It is both dramatic and picturesque. Have you always possessed this gift for presentation?
AM: Well, these scenes do pop into my head. And I love spectacle--which is why I was a good stage director.
XS: Was it difficult to write for Ken Reeve and the other colonists, considering that they were overcoming their conditioning? I'm especially thinking about the scene when everyone stares at Ken for shouting for his son...and his son shouting back.
AM: That sort of scene is fun to write--it shocks the performers as much as the watcher but it's a valid reaction.
XS: Was it difficult to imagine the Earth culture that the Reeves were leaving behind--its rules and regulations, oppresiveness, etc.?
AM: As I was parodying the overcrowded society of Earth, I just knocked down a whole lot of the sillier conventions we still labor under.
XS: Who's idea was it to write to sequels to Decision at Doona?
AM: I was asked if I'd collaborate on a sequel to Doona--as Jody-Lynn Nye had always loved it and wanted to "go on" with the story. I agreed, read her outline, and worked with her, polishing the story.
XS: Your collaboration on Crisis on Doona was especially poignant, though I like Treaty at Doona a lot as well. Splitting two close friends apart was a masterful stroke, but I felt let down when Admiral Landreau escaped arrest by dying. Why?
AM: He got what he deserved. I didn't want to write a court martial and he had been under considerable stress...sufficient to cause a heart attack.
XS: On the other hand, I enjoyed the way Hrruna took charge at the end.
AM: That's how good stories work out--the subconscious has set up all the various clues to a good ending and you just drag 'em out. I'd always wanted Hrruna to have the final say. Good character.
XS: I know you've done a lot of collaborations. Do you enjoy them?
AM: The advantage of collaborations is that the writers have at their disposal two sets of life experiences and two sets of differing education and learning. As I'm senior writer, I got the final say...but I did not tread heavily on my collaborators' toes or I wouldn't have had a second chance. One must be tactful and agree on the rules ahead of time. In some cases, the other writer came to Ireland to live and work more closely with me. Those were great sessions.
XS: Now about your Talent books...what drew you to writing about psychic abilities?
AM: Having psychic abilities in a small measure allowed me to extrapolate to what full-blown talent would be like. I started all this, remember, in my second published story, The Lady in the Tower.
XS: Have you ever wished you were a Talent--or are you a Talent? AM: Wishing for Talent is futile--you're either born with it or not. It's not as useful as you might think and sometimes quite inhibitive. I tried to look on the good side.
XS: There was one scene--in Lyon's Pride, I think--when a disgruntled Tower personality told Laria that the Ravens were soon to fall from power. Was this an accident or a deliberate hint? I halfway expected a conspiracy once that scene took place.
AM: Of course it was a deliberate hint at the conspiracy. I had to give my readers that clue or cheat them, so naturally you suspected a conspiracy. You were meant to.
XS: I just have to know. Were the Hive queens actually telepathic, or did you intend their abilities to be an outgrowth of the hive mind?
AM: The queens were queens and you never know what they can or cannot do.
XS: Ooh, a suggestion! But I'd better move on to your Pern novels. I enjoy reading and rereading these books. When you first created Pern, did you intend to link it back to Earth or did that happen later?
AM: The link to Earth was suggested by John W. Campbell, editor of Analog (then Astounding) when he bought the story. It was his opinion that his readers felt more comfortable reading about an alien planet if there was some sort of loose tie-back to their beginnings. I picked an Earth type planet, of which there are probably thousands in the galaxy, because I could rely on my general knowledge to write authoritatively about it.
XS: Dragonsdawn filled in many blanks about Pern's history, but why did you have to give Sallah Telgar such a terrible death? I may be a guy, but I know my eyes were watering listening--as it were--to Tarvi's screams.
AM: I dunno why Sallah had to die that way. It's partly Avril's fault because she was mean and vindictive and it sure as hell got to my readers who liked Sallah and would feel sad that she died. Glad your eyes were watering. You were supposed to react to Tarvi's anguish.
XS: I felt the same way later during Telgar's final burial and Robinton's death in All the Weyrs of Pern. I don't know how other readers felt, but do you have any idea about why your death scenes--especially those involving dragon suicides--are so heart-rending?
AM: My death scenes are rending beacuse my heart has been rent by the deaths of family members and friends. That's a good place to write an effectively tragic scene. For instance, Master Robinton died--falling asleep into death--as my brother, Hugh, died ten years ago in Wahiawa [on O'ahu in Hawai'i--XS].
XS: On the other hand, I found The Renegades of Pern to be the bloodiest of all your Pern novels, and I'm not talking feeding dragons and fire lizards here. I think more people died of foul play in that book than in all the rest put together. What brought this on?
AM: Renegades was violent because that was a particularly violent era on Pern. Nothing but the mechanics of the times and the pre-Thread expansion brought that on. I ain't always a pussy cat.
XS: So I see. In Dragonsinger Petiron is already dead, but by Menolly's account he was a kind and gentle soul. You painted an entirely different picture in The Masterharper of Pern. I'm glad you fleshed out a character who was already dead when he first appeared, but why such a complete turnaround?
AM: Petiron changed with Merelan's death and Robinton's reminder that he knew what his father was feeling since he'd lost his wife of a few short months. The alteration is evident when Petiron seeks an interview with his son to be sent to a distant hold. Why shouldn't I reveal a complicated character like Petiron?
XS: Yes, why not? Now, about the father and son and Menolly...the chronology is skewed--you wrote Dragonsinger first but the funeral in The Masterharper of Pern comes first chronologically--but does Menolly inadvertantly reenact Robinton's final farewell to Kasia or is it some sort of tradition for burials at sea?
AM: Burials at sea, when the sea is nearby, is common...and there is a tradition of what to say and do.
XS: I have one last question about your Pern novels. It's a shame the dragons stopped speaking with Robinton, though they begin again in The White Dragon. What was the purpose behind this? Surely Spakinth, Cortath, and Kilminth would continue doing so since they were his first contacts?
AM: Dragons talk to whom they want to--and they were amused by the brave little boy at the Harper Hall and bored waiting for their riders.
XS: Well, that was the last question, as I promised. What projects do you have in the works right now?
AM: I've finished Nimisha's Ship. It's out in the UK and will be in January in the USA, possibly a new series. Also The Tower and the Hive for publication in May. I'm beginning work on the third in the early Pegasus series.
XS: I can't wait to see them. What are your future plans?
AM: I'll be working on the TV series, Dragonriders of Pern (TM) as well. It's now to be aired in January 2000, the Year of the Dragon.
XS: How apropros. Another thing I can't wait to see! Any chance on future Pern novels involving, say, whatever it is Aramina was hearing in the pit, other queens' deaths during mating flights, or how about Torene, whome readers hear about but don't know the story of?
AM: I told everyone what Aramina heard in The Dolphins of Pern. So I suspect I'll go forward in time to when Thread finally stops. Don't know for sure.
XS: Well then, any chances on future Talent stories? That conspiracy I think you alluded to might be interesting.
AM: The Talents managed to stop tha conspiracy dead in its tracks by killing the would-be assassins.
XS: Hmm. I'd better go back and reread those books because I can't remember those events. Oh, well. I'd like to thank you for your time and patience in doing this interview. I greatly appreciate it.
AM: You're welcome.
I must say it was a tremendous pleasure doing this interview with the author whose Harper Hall of Pern trilogy first introduced me to modern genre fiction and likely sparked my love of reading. I really enjoy reading Ms. McCaffrey's books, and I hope you'll visit them yourself to share in the experience. You can visit here for more information about her and the current status of her works.
Ms. McCaffrey informed me in her latest communiqué that the International Committee of the American Library Association has awarded her the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award for the Harper Hall Trilogy, the Dragonriders of Pern® series, and The Ship Who Sang. She'll be recieving the award in New Orleans in late June. She was "totally taken by surprise at the Award and extremely gratified by the honor." In my humble opinion--okay, maybe not so humble--she definitely deserves it!
Comments? Suggestions? Just click here to send me e-mail.
Also, if this interview prompted you to read No One Noticed the Cat or some of Anne McCaffrey's other works, then let me know. I appreciate knowing I made a difference in somebody's life.
Back Home Back to Starfire Reviews Back to Corridors of Communication
Get your own Free Home Page