Sky Dragons

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Usually, I insist upon putting the acknowledgments at the end of the book. My thinking is that, like the credits of a film, they belong at the end—they’re like taking a bow at the end of a play or other performance, where those who have made it all possible are singled out and honored.

Sadly, the circumstances of this book are not “usual.”

To some of you—and I’m so sorry!—this news will come as a shock. After we had finished this book but before it was copyedited, my mother, Anne McCaffrey, passed away. She was eighty-five, she died “in the arms of a handsome man” (her son-in-law, Geoffrey), she died at home, quickly.

So, firstly, let me acknowledge Anne McCaffrey for her brilliant work as author, mother, cook, equestrian, friend to famous singers, astronauts, and everyone in between.

Speaking on her behalf as well as my own, I would also like to thank our editor at Del Rey, Shelly Shapiro, for all her brilliant efforts over too many decades to count, in keeping the Dragonriders of Pern^® alive. She followed gamely in the footsteps of Betty Ballantine and Judy-Lynn Del Rey and never stopped challenging us to create the best possible books we could.

Additionally, Martha Trachtenberg has followed up with the copyediting for too many years to count—keeping our numbers accurate, asking great questions, offering brilliant suggestions.

I’d also like to thank Judith Welsh of Transworld Publishers—our U.K. publisher—for all her support in this and all the other books we’ve published together.

Diana Tyler, Mum’s literary agent, was a bastion of support through this very difficult time, as was my agent, Donald Maass. Thank you both.

Anne McCaffrey’s long years and peaceful passing would not have been possible without the loving care and support of her daughter—my sister—Georgeanne “Gigi” Kennedy. She’s been a brick throughout everything and continues so, even now.

And, again speaking on Mum’s behalf, we would like to thank you all, for journeying with us to that amazing place that is Pern.