Anne McCaffrey, the US born author who was one of the first female writers to break into Sci-Fi has died, age 85. She is best remembered for her Dragonriders of Pern series, which started out fantasy and became more and more sci-fi as the series went on.
I first read the Pern books in my early teens and, as was the way as a very young writer, wanted to incorporate elements into my world, such as the dragon riders and pets like fire-lizards. Luckily that is long in the past and my stories are my works, not cheap knock-offs of other authors, a big risk among teenage writers.
Mist and Shadows 