Andre Norton Forum

Re: The Lady's Home and Library

: I have been to Mecca - or at least to High Hallack. It was a full 36 hours round trip. Most of that spent in airports.

: What I did get was a full 8 hours together with Andre Norton and Rose Wolf. [Plus an hour on Sunday - to take some picture.]

: I was given a personal tour of the library, and the first floor of the house.

: I drove in and parked next to the 3 car garage - wait that huge building is the Library. The width of a 3-car, but twice as deep. : The Library is pretty full. There are books on writing, examples of good writing, and source material (Mysteries, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance) including Diaries, Costumes, Anthropologies, Regional Histories and Geograpies, Myth, Religion, Paper Dolls & Videos fill out several shelves. Sprinked about the shelves are statues & momentos related to the books on the shelves. Everything is well lit, and wheel chair friendly. Even the chairs, and book carts are on wheels (though the computer "Darn Thing" is table based).

: The Lady is currently using a high tech walker; with wheels on all four feet, and a seat (with hidden basket) for taking breaks. Her arthritis is pretty bad. : There is a nice ramp between the house and the library, with a wood and brass bench off to one side. The house is filled with books, books, little dragons (Musgrave), little china figures, large chinese figures, china cats, large china cats, and cats pretending to be made of china.

: There are (hmmm... 2 siamese, 1 persian, 1 grey/white, 1 tiger striped grey, 1 camel tortise, one black, one black manx...I know I'm missing someone) about 8 cats. The cats have a major presence in the house. Providing entertainment, elegance and asking for attention (especially while there was turkey being heated and sliced - that Siamese isn't called Loud Mouth for nothing). Cats checking out everything - getting closed into the storage room (she didn't hold it against me when finally released 4 hours later), looking inside of my bag, rubbing against the Easter Basket.

: Andre's office includes a huge U shaped work area. A computer sits at one end, against the first wall, a work area is against the second wall, and the mail is sorted on the third end, which is free standing into the room. This was, probably, the original living room of the house, with large windows, and a seating area near the "extra" books. : [I digress here, but this is a 15 foot wall of extra copies of Lady's books. Dozens of them, stripes of color, I was forced to choose a few for myself & worse a book for my god-daughter. There is another case of extra copies of older books - I felt guilty, but took home the new BROTHER TO SHADOWS, and an old STAR KA'AT WORLD & a HOUSE OF SHADOWS for my god-daughter. For you completists - there were several copies of the program at which Andre recieved an award - I haven't looked at my copy closely yet.] There are two book cases with every edition of Andre Norton book. It was neat to see a dozen copies of one book, all different. I checked for Ngaire - there isn't a BERTIE AND MAY paper edition.

: Andre is currently doing the blue pencil work on Cat Fantastic V. Editing what looks like final copy for typos. She is especially pleased about the stories. One story, which is humor, has the cats anxiously waiting for the humans to finish and go away, so that they can do their computer Networking. [I'm sure that you cat owners have had your cats try to type while you were - or at least walk on the keys.]

: Andre and Eluki bes Shahar (aka Rosemary Edgehill) have scoped out the follow on book to SHADOW OF ALBION. I tried to close my ears to what happens, but it will take place in the Colony of North America. Andre is unhappy with the cover of SHADOW, and with the title. Albion is a medieval word for England - SHADOW takes place in a later alternate time(Where King James legitimized one of his children, putting cousin Charles out of the picture...I don't remember the I's and II's so don't shoot me.) The cover is another of those - close, but not correct for the uniform of the period.

: I'm pretty tired this morning - and since my boss is already at work, I better get to it.

:Paul here again. I too have been there. I and my family attended the Grand Opening on February 28 and naturally took lots of pictures. I am in complete agreement with you. It is a fabulous place. I only was able to spend four hours there but it was well worth the trip (8&1/2 hours of agony each way driving with a severely sprained lower back) Curiously, while I was at High Hallack, I was able to mostly ignore the pain. Oh, by the way, the story The Lady mentioned (in Catfantastic V) that has the cats waiting to get on the net is called "A Cat's Tale" and (brag mode) I am currently correcting the galleys for that. I am so excited!!! My story is between Rosemary Edgehill's and Pauline Griffin's.