Anne McCaffrey

This post is about one of my favorite authors, Anne McCaffrey. For those of you who do not know of her work then you are missing out. Science Fiction Fantasy was her genre. Was is the correct tense she passed away November of 2011.
I write about her because she was a gutsy lady, one to be admired. After divorcing her husband of many years she uprooted herself and moved to Ireland. Supporting herself with her writing she saw many thin years and when her Dragon riders of Pern series took off she gained the recognition she deserved.
She writes stories with strong female characters who are intelligent, sensuous and strong. Women who were not afraid of being leaders or going against the grain. Ms McCaffrey was herself a leader and went against the grain. Not many individuals have wherewithal to move to another country on their own to make a fresh start. To make a move even a short distance takes a lot of fortitude.
So back to her stories. I have several of her books the ones I like the most are the Crystal Singer series. I am currently rereading them and noticed that the main character also threw her old life to the wind and moved to a new planet, new career, new adventures. With in the stories we also see that McCaffrey also showed us the internet. Many of her characters go to the terminal to look up information. They record personal thoughts and check their credits balance. I found this so insightful for a woman writing a book back in 1985 to include this in her stories. Checking messages and looking up stuff is something so common place now but unheard of back in 1985.
Killshandra the main character of the Crystal Singer series develops memory loss ,as do all the singers. Seems that the Crystal affects the singer in such a way that they become obsessed with the crystal. Could this be a description of Alzheimer's and it's memory loss or possibly the single minded obsession of a drug addict.
I never read the dragon rider series. Life got in the way. So as soon as I am able I will have to obtain the series and read it.
When Ms McCaffrey died we lost a really great writer. Her depictions of strong independent women were spot on.