Make no judgements where you have no compassion.
Anne McCaffrey
That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.
People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?
I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage.
I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens.
That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.
I have written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.
Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.
I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.
What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.
The thing is, emotion - if it's visibly felt by the writer - will go through all the processes it takes to publish a story and still hit the reader right in the gut. But you have to really mean it.
Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims.
I'm very fond of the Talent series, and also the Crystal Singer trio.
I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff.
I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start.
I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel.
I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale.
I think the Internet, particularly the availability of information, is great. I do a lot of correspondence on-line and have a chat line to talk to my fans as well.
I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write.
I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept.
I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom.
I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway.
I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime.
But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end.
But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible.
Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.
At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book.
A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.
