Month: March 2008

The best you

The best you

This is from my horoscope (Taurus) from Georgia Nicols but I think it’s generally applicable to all of us and worthy of serious reflection:

Think about how you can be the best you can be! Your inner values will be reflected in your outer world. Your inner choices dictate what you do, what you say and what you buy.

Checking in from Aggiecon

Checking in from Aggiecon

This post is coming to you from Aggiecon‘s dealers room, my second day in College Station, TX. The weekend has been eventful: The Aggiecon Art Show is having a run-in with censorship of nudity (which my webmistress has briefly overviewed on her personal blog, if you’re curious). Censored or not, there were quite a few very nice pieces and I enjoyed browsing.

There was also an exciting turn of events wherein I donated a digital rendering to the Aggiecon Charity Auction. I found out earlier that it sold for over a thousand dollars, which went to Scotty’s House and the Soldier & Family Assistance Center, partnered with the Warrior & Family Support Center (links to both can be found here). I heard tales of a bidding war (so far unsubstantiated). I blogged my early attempts here. (The images are quite large, so be patient if you decide to take a look.) None of them has proper Pern dragons… yet!

I had a lot of fun at my panels with Steven Brust and others, and am thankful to Susan Martin for her excellent assistance in getting around and fed at the appropriate moments. My last con engagement is a reading that happens this evening at 7pm (in room 502, if you’re currently at Aggiecon). I haven’t decided what to read, so it will be a surprise.

I’m looking forward to the last 24 hours of Aggiecon — it should be interesting!

(Edit: I had incomplete information about the charities earlier, but have them updated now.)

Letter from Wayne

Letter from Wayne

I just wanted to drop a note and say thanks for keeping Pern alive.

It is nice to know now that I have found a series I really like that’s not going to fade away. I was wondering if you have ever toyed with the idea of connecting earth fables with Pern dragons — maybe a jump between ends up in early earth?

There are probably too many variables for that to be possible but it is a cool idea.

Keep up the good work! I am looking forward to your next book. You have picked up where your Mom left off with out missing a beat and that’s no easy task.

Thanks again,
Wayne

Hi Wayne,

I’m glad you like what I’ve been doing on Pern.

As for your question — no, never. Pern dragons are so clearly different from either Eastern or Western dragons of our culture that I couldn’t imagine them being mis-represented so poorly in art and fiction if they were to have ever returned to Earth.

However… I believe it was once suggested tongue-in-cheek by my mother’s late agent, the redoubtable Virginia Kidd, that perhaps the Pernese discovered a really, really, really old drawing and jumped back in time and — it wasn’t Uther Pendragon, it was Uther Perndragon! (Uther, you might recall, figuring prominently in the Arthurian legends.) But even Mum couldn’t stomach the idea of ending the series in one giant pun!

So, no, we’ll keep Pern separate from Earth. There is enough time there already and so many interesting stories to tell that I don’t think we’ll have to worry about traveling back in time and space to this distant planet of ours.

Cheers,
Todd

Letter from Karen

Letter from Karen

Just finished re-reading Dragonharper for the third time, and once again I’m both impressed and frightened by the description of the plague. It’s a timely message, as well as being just plain riveting reading. Keep those books coming!

The only wedding of note I can remember in the Pern books was that of Robinton and Kasia. Could we sometime have a Pern wedding that isn’t shortly followed by the death of one of the participants? Lorana and Kindan come to mind…

Hi Karen,

Are you forgetting the wedding of Silstra and Terregar at the start of Dragon’s Kin?

As for Kindan and Lorana… we’ll have to see what happens!

Cheers,
Todd