Month: April 2010

Favicon

Favicon

Okay, so it’s a small thing but, as it turns out, rather nice.

The favicon (the little icon symbol that appears next to the website name) is a colored version of the standard Telgar Weyr icon.

Favicon

I tried the pure white version and thought it didn’t match the color scheme I’ve got nearly as well.

Note from Chris

Note from Chris

Hey,

How’s it going? I’ve followed Pern since I was in middle school back when your mom was writing it. Actually it’s what got me in to ficton. Harry Potter doesn’t have anything on the world of Pern. So I was just wondering what’s in store for Fiona and Talenth? More specifically, is she going to have her first mating flight?

Loving you and your Mum’s work.

Chris

Hi Chris,

It’s going well!

We’ll be seeing more of Fiona and Talenth in Dragongirl which comes out this July.

To give you a hint of what’s coming, here’s what my publisher says:

Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned from the past, where she and a group of dragons and riders fled so that the wounded could heal from their previous battles with Thread and the younger dragons could safely grow to fighting age. Gone only three days, yet aged more than three years, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman prepared to fight against the Thread that threatens to destroy her world.

Fiona’s life takes a pivotal turn when a shocking tragedy thrusts her into a position of authority. Now she finds herself leading weyrfolk who have a hard time trusting a senior Weyrwoman who is both young and an outsider.

But even greater challenges lie ahead: Thread is falling and there are too few dragons to stem the tide. Many have died from the recent plague, and even with the influx of newly mature dragons from the past, the depleted fighting force is no match for the intensifying Threadfall. Fiona knows that something must be done, and what she proposes is daring and next to impossible. But if her plan succeeds, it just might save them all.

With a cast of familiar characters from previous Pern novels—including Lorana, who sacrificed her own queen dragon so that all the dragons of Pern would have a chance to survive, and Kindan, the harper Fiona has loved her whole life—Dragongirl is another triumph for Todd McCaffrey, and a riveting new chapter for the Dragonriders of Pern.

Cheers,
Todd

Letter from Tricia

Letter from Tricia

We have to wait until July for Dragongirl??? Why the delay? I am dying to see if Xhinna gets her green. I’ve been reading the books in the Pern series for more years than I care to admit, and I have enjoyed every one. I can’t wait for the next book.

Some of the riders don’t seem to be as upset as I would expect though when their dragons got sick. When my horse got really sick with EPM I was a total wreck, and she’s a horse – with a dragon this has to be about a thousand times worse. I can’t imagine what a dragonrider would go through.

Hi Tricia,

There are a number of reasons for the delay but my understanding is that the biggest one is the Recession.

As for your other comment – read Dragongirl.

Cheers,
Todd

Question from Jason

Question from Jason

So Dragonsblood and Dragon’s Fire… are they in a series or can be read alone?

Hi Jason,

They are a bunch of books that are connected in that they take place around the same time and have some of the same characters.

They’re all books of the Third Pass (actually, they start in the Second Interval) and the order you could read them in is:

Dragon’s Kin
Dragon’s Fire
Dragon Harper

Dragonsblood
Dragonheart
Dragongirl
Dragon’s Time
Dragonrider (tentative title)

The books:

Dragonheart
Dragongirl
Dragon’s Time
Dragonrider (tentative title)

should probably be read in order as a series.

That said, so many people have found themselves reading Pern starting some number of books into a series and still enjoyed it!

Cheers,
Todd