Thanks to the editors who over the years have nursed

The Tery through various iterations to its present form:

Vincent McCaffrey

James Frenkel

Betsy Mitchell.

FOREWORD

THE TERY has had a long strange trip to this place. My science fiction beauty-and-the-beast tale had its start in 1971 as a novelette called "He Shall Be Jon." I'd intended it for John W. Campbell Jr. and Analog, but he died just as I was finishing it. His replacement, Ben Bova, passed on it so I sold it the following year to Vincent McCaffrey at Fiction; it appeared in the fourth issue.

A few years later Jim Frenkel, then science fiction editor for Dell, approached me at Lunacon about a series of books he was putting together called Binary Stars. Each volume would consist of two novellas, much like the venerable Ace Doubles; the books would have interior illustrations and each novella would be introduced by the author of the companion piece.

At that time I was breaking ground on a new house and needed all the cash I could lay my hands on. I signed on and went to work. "He Shall Be Jon" became the basis of the first ten chapters of the novella and I continued the story of Jon the tery from there. I added a new character named Tlad who linked the story to my LaNague Federation future history. I also tried my hand at overt horror for the first time.

I called the resultant novella The Tery. It was twice the length of the novelette and ended with a satisfying catharsis. A bit thin in spots, I thought, but I'd reached the word limit and the submission deadline was upon me, so I had to let it go as was.

The Tery appeared in Binary Stars #2 in 1978 and was graced with five wonderful Steve Fabian illustrations. Unfortunately, only those who have seen the originals know how wonderful they are. Everyone else was subjected to the muddied, almost indecipherable reproductions on the cheap paper Dell used. Fabian's delicate half tones were lost, reducing his illos to elaborate smudges.