Editing Anne McCaffrey (section)

=== Writer ===
McCaffrey had had two short stories published during the 1950s. The first ("Freedom of the Race", about women impregnated by aliens) was written in 1952 when she was pregnant with her son Alec. It earned a $100 prize in ''[[Science-Fiction Plus]]''.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=9, 13, 38}} Her second story, "The Lady in the Tower", was published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' by editor [[Robert P. Mills]] and published again by editor [[Judith Merril]] for ''The Year's Greatest Science Fiction''.{{efn|name=evidently}} McCaffrey said "she thought of the story when wishing herself alone, like a lady in an ivory tower".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=13}}

Judith Merril matched McCaffrey with her long-time literary agent [[Virginia Kidd]] and invited her to the [[Milford Writer's Workshop]] (to which she returned many times), where participants each brought a story to be critiqued.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=8–10}} After her first Milford workshop in 1959 she worked on "The Ship Who Sang", the story which began the Brain & Brawn Ship series. At the story's end, the spaceship Helva sings "[[Taps (bugle call)|Taps]]" for her human partner. Decades later, McCaffrey's son Todd called it "almost an elegy to her father".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=13–14}} In interviews between 1994 and 2004, she considered it her best story and her favourite.{{sfn|Jamneck|2004}}{{sfn|''SFFWorld''|2000}}{{sfn|Karsmakers|1994}}{{sfn|''Locus''|2004}} "I put much of myself into it: myself and the troubles I had in accepting my father's death [1954] and a troubled marriage."{{sfn|''SFFWorld''|2000}}

McCaffrey then wrote two more "Ship" stories and began her first novel. Regarding her motivation for ''Restoree'' (1967), her son recalled her saying, "I was so ''tired'' of all the weak women screaming in the corner while their boyfriends were beating off the aliens. I wouldn't have been—I'd've been in there swinging with something or kicking them as hard as I could".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=45–46}} McCaffrey explained that it did not require a sequel; it "served its purpose of an intelligent, survivor-type woman as the protagonist of an s-f story".<ref name="FAQ">{{cite web |last=McCaffrey |first=Anne |title=Frequently Asked Questions |work=The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey |publisher=Pern Home |url=http://pernhome.com/aim/?page_id=40 |access-date=2011-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715064515/http://pernhome.com/aim/?page_id=40 |archive-date=2011-07-15 |url-status=live}}. See questions 2, 10, 17, 19, 22.</ref>

Regarding her 1969 ''Decision at Doona'' (which she dedicated "To [[Todd McCaffrey|Todd Johnson]]—of course!"), her son recalled that he was directed to lower his voice in his [[Fourth grade|fourth-grade]] school play when his mother was in the auditorium. That inspired the Doona story, which opens on "an overcrowded planet where just talking too loud made you a social outcast".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=2, 50}} As a settler on Doona, the boy talker has a priceless talent.

McCaffrey made a fast start in [[Ireland]], completing for 1971 publication ''Dragonquest'' and two Gothic novels for [[Dell Publishing|Dell]], ''The Mark of Merlin'' and ''The Ring of Fear''.<ref name="isfdb">{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Anne_McCaffrey |title=Anne McCaffrey&nbsp;– Summary Bibliography |work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database |access-date=2011-11-17}}</ref>{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=74}} With a contract for ''The White Dragon'' (which would complete the "original trilogy" with Ballantine), her writing stalled. During the next few years the family moved several times in the Dublin area and struggled to make ends meet, supported largely by child-care payments and meager royalties.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=71–101}}

The young-adult book market provided a crucial opportunity. Editor [[Roger Elwood]] sought short contributions for anthologies, and McCaffrey started the Pern story of Menolly. She delivered "The Smallest Dragonboy" for $154, and four stories which later became ''The Crystal Singer''.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=82–83, 95}} Futura Publications in London signed her to write books about [[dinosaur]]s for children.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=101}} Editor [[Jean E. Karl]] at [[Atheneum Books]] sought to attract more female readers to science fiction and solicited "a story for young women in a different part of Pern". McCaffrey completed Menolly's story as ''[[Dragonsong]]'' and contracted for a sequel before its publication in 1976.
The tales of Menolly are continued in ''[[Dragonsinger]]: Harper of Pern'', and ''[[Dragondrums]]'' as the "Harper Hall Trilogy".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=103–04}} With a contract with Atheneum she was able to buy a home (named "Dragonhold" for the dragons who bought it).{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=104–05}} Her son wrote, 20 years later, that she "first set dragons free on Pern and then was herself freed by her dragons."{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=113 (conclusion)}}