And no, this isn't an April Fools joke. Vonda McIntyre, a seriously good sci-fi author died on 1st April. Her best work, in my opinion, was Dreamsnake, however, she wrote lots of other good things.
Per Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonda_N._McIntyre
Per Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonda_N._McIntyre