Perhaps April 1 is a creative date, not just for fools, because April 1 is the birthday of not just one, but two stellar novelists writing in the fantasy or sci-fi genres: Anne MacCaffrey and Samuel R. Delany.
Anne McCaffrey was born 100 years ago (1926). An Irish-American writer who moved to Ireland and became famous for the Dragonriders of Pern series. She was the first woman to win the Hugo and the Nebula awards. I read her books in the 1970’s. Good fantasy never goes out of style.
My nightly craft is winged in white, a dragon of night dark sea.
Swift born, dream bound and rudderless, her captain and crew are me.
We’ve sailed a hundred sleeping tides where no seaman’s ever been
And only my white-winged craft and I know the wonders we have seen.
Samuel R. Delany was born mid-century (1942) and was also a winner of the Nebula and the Hugo Awards. An African-American’ gay man from a Harlem family, he explored not only other worlds but difficult topics. I also read some of his many books in the 1970’s when I was into science fiction! Some of his titles include Babel-17, Dhalgren, Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand andCity of a Thousand Suns.
It is a magic book. Words mean things. When you put them together they speak. Yes, sometimes they flatten out and nothing they say is real, and that is one kind of magic. But sometimes a vision will rip up from them and shriek and clank wings clear as the sweat smudge on the paper under your thumb. And that is another kind.
If you haven’t read sci-fi or fantasy, may I suggest you use April to explore some of the titles from these birthday authors.