Pirimba Raven

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.

Pirimba Raven is fifteen, beautiful, self-willed, athletic, and lucky. That is, until she skips school one day. This leads indirectly to the accident that leaves her quadriplegic. Suddenly, independent Pirimba must rely on others for everything, and there's little hope she will ever improve. When she begins to dream of dancing, it almost drives her mad, but still the music lures her into astral travel. Suddenly, she is free of her ruined body and living as someone else, a Valourn (acrobatic dancer) named Pirry of Midpoint. Pirimba knows nothing of the land of Rargon or of the strange encampment of Valourns, but she has a mentor. As she learns to live and to dance, danger threatens, and then comes the hardest choice of all. The real Pirry begins to stir deep in Pirimba's consciousness. Can she stay in Rargon and share a life, a vocation, a body and a love with Pirry, or must she return to her real identity?

Pirimba was the first of my teenaged characters to face real terror... and the first to face an ambiguous ending. I thought it was pretty obvious, but readers didn't necessarily agree.

Pirimba appeared in "Shadowdancers", which has one of my most beautiful covers, painted by Greg Rogers. I am lucky enough to own the original. Shadowdancers is related to the other titles "Amy Amaryllis", "Candle Iron" and "Wintersong".