Todd I put a photo album on Pernese Friends that contains the pictures of Dawn (Tawna on the KT) that I have from Dragon Con 2003. She was a wonderful person.
Kool
Koolness,
Thanks a lot! They’re good photos. Dawn will be missed.
Dear Todd,
Dawn Ziegler has been my best friend for 28 years. We met when I was 8 and she was 10. I remember celebrating the 4th of July Bi-Centennial with her on a beach in Los Angeles. We, of course, went off without our parents and caused them much alarm while we were locked in one of the first of our many famous conversations.
She has been the truest of friends and I can only hope to be able to go on without her in the world. I am still in shock, wondering when I get to wake up from this nightmare. Waiting for her to come back and wonder where the heck is all her stuff?!?! I have some of her precious things, I will gladly give them back.
We used to ride her horses, crazy-wild along the Santa Cruz mountain tops, hands mane-entangled, laughing our asses off, living moments of the many dreams we had. We had entire personas and scenarios within which we would endlessly play. We had Deeds of Ownership for our imaginary horses and blood lines of royalty for ourselves.
Sharing our poetry and stories with each other was second nature and such a thrill. She has always been so very talented. Our visions of unicorns and dragons and heroic acts are still vibrant and alive in my mind.
I, too, have been anxiously awaiting the completion of Andavan. She better send me a draft… so I can proof it! I have always been her spelling/definitions guru… funny that… She would ask me (even up until last week) how to spell something, even when she had an online dictionary at her disposal, for old-time’s sake or simply to let me feel brilliant… I keep looking for her on AIM, wishing that I could define or spell something for her, whereas she is defining something altogether new for herself…
I know that when it is my turn to follow, her hand will be the first one reaching for mine and her smile will beem and her twinkling eyes will look into mine and it will be as if no time has passed…as is always the case with us.
I want to thank you for your open letter to her. It moved me so very much and I know that she is grinning like an idiot wherever she is because of it. Being a fan of your mother’s work for so long, she and I were both excited when she made your aquaintance. I’m a particular fan of the Crystal Singer. And, you KNOW what a fan Dawn is of the Dragon Riders…
Your friendship and support helped strengthen her resolve and confidence even more and I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart. Knowing that she was in the happiest place and time of her life, knowing that she had a family of friends around her that believed in her so much and knowing that she lived up to being the hero she wanted to be gives me much comfort during this unimaginable time.
We were two odd peas that formed our own odd pod and her love and friendship fill me up to overflowing… how I will miss her and yet, she is even more with me now than ever before, if that’s possible. We were ever together and thick as thieves. She’s still right with me, nudging me along and hugging me and poking me when I get too heavy and serious…
Thank you again for being her friend and for your admiration of her writing and her spirit. Please know that it meant so very much to her.
She is truly a Shield Maiden of Rohan and she will always be my hero.
With joy for having been blessed with her presence, with sorrow for her early departure… although, if this is the price I must pay for having had her in my life, I will willingly pay it until the end of my days.
Blessings to you, good man, and with deepest gratitude,
Ashley
Dear Ashley,
Thank you for your lovely letter and for agreeing to share it here online.
Dawn truly was a marvelous person. I am only beginning to suspect the huge number of people whose lives she touched — and who were enriched by her.
— Todd
Ashley also said that if any of Dawn’s friends want to contact her, they can e-mail her at jiggymama@earthlink.net.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the new Pern novel! I loved it! The only thing wrong with it was it was too short,now I’ll have to wait(I’ll try to be patient) for the next one,hopefully not for long(please,please please)
Jerri,
Thanks for the compliment! I’m glad that you loved Dragon’s Kin. I’m sorry that it was so short, it was originally going to be a YA (young adult) book and was contracted to be only 60,000 words. It ended up being close to 80,000.
However, Dragonsblood was contracted to be 100,000 words — and it’s over 147,000 words and still not finished. So it will probably be even longer.
Cheers,
Todd
Greetings Dragon Lord Todd,
I think the title most fitting seeing as how you are plainly taking over where your Mother will eventually leave off, as we all must do at some point. I look forward to getting to read Dragon’s Kin within the next week. I’ve had to hold off on getting it so that my family had something they could get me for Christmas they knew I would like and use. Clearly I am a fan of the Pern books. I have many alter egos that live there though I won’t waste your time going into them. I myself am working on creating my own world for a set of books I hope to get written before I’m too old to enjoy them and I was wondering if there would be any way or anyone you could suggest as being helpful to a beginner as myself. I’ve already had some of my poems published here in the US and another in the U.K. but I don’t want to be known for only those. I have worlds flowing threw my every thought, waking and sleeping. I would also like to know if there was any way I could maybe send you a teaser for my book idea to see if it would be something you would pick up in the bookstore if you saw it. There’s no point in writing something no one is going to want to read. I will be keeping my eye on your site in case you reply to my letter for I am interested in what you have to say.
A fan through fog, Fall, and fire,
Alieshia (a.k.a. Rill)
P.S. To answer Ashley’s question about the golds (best I can being I didn’t create the world), on page 327 of Dragons Dawn it is speculated that the golds were designed to be unable to produce flame but that was never confirmed, at least not in that book.
Alieshia,
Thanks for the note! I do hope you like Dragon’s Kin.
I’m a bit leery of being called “Dragon Lord” but I appreciate the compliment.
As for writing and ideas, I suggest that you write, keep writing, finish what you write, and send it out to a publisher. My opinion won’t help you get published one way or the other. The best thing to do is to learn the market (read,read,read — but you’ve been doing that already, haven’t you?), get a copy of “The Writers’ Market” and read it, identify an agent or publisher, and submit your manuscript.
There are writers’ groups and there are even on-line writers’ groups, like critters.rog which can help critique a work. Also, don’t forget writer’s workshops, like Clarion West. The Clarion concept followed on from the seminal writer’s workshops hosted by Damon Knight way back in the late ’60’s. Mum was a frequent guest there and I recall being bored out of my mind waiting for them to finish critiquing each other more than one day.
And I have to disagree with you about there being no point in writing something “no one is going to want to read” — some things are important just for you. It’s really nice if someone else wants to read it — or thousands of people want to read it. But there’s a lot to be learned in writing, the process itself is very illuminating. And you may well discover that your first effort, like your first childhood drawing, is not very good — don’t give up or despair. Just continue writing. Remember that Emily Dickinson’s poems weren’t found until after her death — and she wrote them anyway and we’re all the richer for them.
Finally, I’ll badly paraphrase Ray Bradbury when I recount that he says that he had to write five thousand bad stories before he ever wrote one that sell.
So, write! And send it to a publisher. That alone will put you in that distinctive category of those who want to write.
Cheers,
Todd