Nerilka's Story

A deadly epidemic was sweeping across Pern!
 
Everyone, holder and dragonrider alike, pitched in to help—except Nerilka’s father, who refused to share Fort Hold’s bounty with the other Holds. So, ashamed of her family and determined to do her part, Nerilka packed up medicines and supplies and sneaked off to aid her people.
 
Her quest to help wherever she was most needed led her finally to Ruatha Hold, where Lord Alessan was frantically preparing the precious serum needed for mass inoculations against the dread plague.
 
Nerilka had long ago abandoned her hope of marriage and a home of her own. Now she found happiness in being useful and appreciated—first the Healers and then Alessan made very clear that they were grateful for her help.
 
She had no idea that her new path would change the course of her life forever!

Born on April 1, Anne McCaffrey has tried to live up to such an auspicious natal day. Her first novel was created in Latin class and might have brought her instant fame, as well as an A, had she attempted to write in the language. Much chastened, she turned to the stage and became a character actress, appearing in the first successful summer music circus at Lambertville, New Jersey. She studied voice for nine years and, during that time, became intensely interested in the stage direction of opera and operetta, ending this phase of her life with the stage direction of the American premiere of Carl Orff's Ludus De Nato Infante Mirificus, in which she also played a witch. By the time the three children of her marriage were comfortably at school most of the day, she had already achieved enough success with short stories to devote full time to writing. Between her frequent appearances in the United States and England as a lecturer and guest-of-honor at science-fiction conventions, Ms. McCaffrey lives at Dragonhold, in the hills of Wicklow County, Ireland, with two cats, two dogs, and assorted horses. Of herself, Ms. McCaffrey says, "I have green eyes, silver hair, and freckles; the rest changes without notice."