Dragonwriter (27 page)

Due to a scheduling conflict, I had to begin work on the cover to
All the Weyrs of Pern
before Anne could finish writing the first draft of the book. Judy-Lynn del Rey had told me that I didn't need to read the book to do this cover anyway, since Anne had a specific scene in mind for me to paint. Anne phoned me to describe the scene in detail while I took notes. As we were talking, I ended up telling her about a dream I'd had the night before of a scene with several dragons atop eroded peaks in a huge crater valley filled with dense fog. Her response was enthusiastic: She said, “Let's do
that
one!” We agreed in the end that it would be best if I simply did comps of each of our ideas, and then she and Judy-Lynn could take their pick. As it happened, they chose my dream idea!

I would have been happy to paint any of the concepts floating around for this book, but it was an added treat to not only see the idea I dreamed about come to fruition, but also to have Anne write it into the book.

The first two sketches here I made from the description Anne gave me over the phone that day. When Smart Pop approached me about doing a painting, I thought of those sketches. It felt fitting that we use an idea of Anne's for a tribute to her and Pern . . . and those sketches became the basis for this book's cover.

With
The Girl Who Heard Dragons
I was most concerned with featuring the heroine of the story front and center. Though I usually try to avoid having characters face away from the viewer, the selected scene did just that. To compensate, I strove to make her pose as expressive as possible. Though I asked our secretary, Heather, to pose for my preliminary sketches, the figure in the comp that was chosen for the book cover was made up. I brushed in a full-size study of the figure on acetate and used that as my “model” while I did the full-size painting.

Since 1976, MICHAEL WHELAN has been one of the world's premier fantasy and science fiction artists, the first living artist to be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He currently devotes most of his time to his gallery paintings, but during his career he has created more than 350 book and album covers for authors and artists like Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen King, the Jacksons, Sepultura, and Meat Loaf. His clients have included every major U.S. book publisher, in addition to such diverse companies as National Geographic, CBS Records, and the Franklin Mint. Recent book covers seen on the top of the bestseller lists include Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novel
A Memory of Light
and Brandon Sanderson's
The Way of Kings.

A
lec Johnson is Anne McCaffrey's eldest son. There were times when Alec was also the person who put food on her table, back in the dark days before
The White Dragon
became a best-seller and we started eating pancakes for dinner because we
could.

Since the summer of 2011, when she had to pass on Dragon*Con because of another mini-stroke, Mum was worried that she would pass on before she got “to see my two sons again.” She was looking forward to having Alec over for Thanksgiving; I would arrive the week before Christmas so as to spread out the holiday cheer.

She passed away while Alec was still clearing customs. He flew to Ireland expecting his mother and found a funeral. Even so, he rose to the occasion and wrote a memorial for her, which he delivered eloquently at the service.

Here now he writes just as eloquently of the legacy he received from his mother.