Quote of the Week: Anne McCaffrey

“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.” -- Anne McCaffrey

It always seemed appropriate that Anne McCaffrey, best known for her various award-winning and bestselling Pern series, was often photographed holding a cat or standing with one of her animals.

Anyone who ever read the Pern books wouldn’t have needed to be told that McCaffrey was an animal lover of the first order. The emotional connection she builds between Pern’s dragons and their keepers is so clearly an idealized version of our own connections with our pets. They probably don’t understand what we’re thinking. And, if they do, they mostly couldn’t be bothered to act on it. On Pern, though, things are different. And the dragons? They understand human hearts.

“What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.” -- Anne McCaffrey

Sadly, there is a little less magic in the world today.