Andre Norton

10:29
Good Wednesday morning,

I spent hours yesterday researching Andre Norton(1912-2005), and sending  an omnibus edition to BPS and starting to read Beast Master '59 on line.

1 She was one of the most creative science fiction authors I have ever come across. One series of her books on another planet has the women guides and soldiers living on coffee. Many of them involve telepathy between talented humans and animals and aliens. Some of them include same gender love which always bugged me.

2 She used a number of different pen names so that although a woman she would be read by science fiction boys. (And I was one of them.)

3 Talk about prolific! 130 novels.

4 I love series because I can feel the personality of the main character and vicariously live his/her life. I don't have to say good bye at the end of every book!  Last night I finished one written by R. A. Salvatore. Our shop teacher at Tonaquint Intermediate School told me about this author. I had seen his books but Salvatore sounded foreign and the covers were intense and confusing. "Night of the Hunter, Companions Codex I" '14, was so unexpected and weird.  All the heroes died 20 years ago except for Drixt who is a long-lived, dark elf. They were all reborn and gathered together and still have all their old powers and secrets as they battle about 100 pages of the 380. But yay, the characters were back. I now their personalities and how they interact and I love their loyalty to each other although they each have hopes, dreams, goals pulling them apart.

5 There are online audio readers that will read any book aloud. But don't put any dashes or strange punctuation in the paragraphs or it will say funny numbers, and the mispronounced words almost make it impossible to understand. Yesterday I researched and tried for an hour or two to use a special reading system called DAISY, but couldn't get it to work. At one point it looked like you had to sign up for government aid and be blind or disabled to use it.

6 I got the color instructions, 3 pages, from the library to start using the books available on line for the public library a month ago. But it has taken me this long to think that downloading special reading programs would be safe and not damage the computer.

7 So the best part is. . . Brandon PS should receive his omnibus edition of '59, '62, "Beast Master" and "Lord of Thunder" tomorrow, for only $5.49!  That is less than the 64 Crayola Crayon's I sent him 3 weeks ago for over $6 and they are a controlled substance that he will never be able to touch or use but will be kept in his safety deposit box at Purgatory along with his other personal possessions  until he leaves! : (    Oops, I didn't understand.

8 Reading on line is something I hate. I plugged through 3 chapters last night because they were written so well but I was interrupted about every 2-3 minutes by an internet glitch and it had to tell me about it every time, change my position on the page and shrink my screen. Yuck!

9 I had a goal of learning how to download pictures from my phone for a couple of months and finally learned how last week. Maybe I will read and follow the instructions for using the library, WCL, down loads.

10 Melissa Wrench wrote me off yesterday! (At least that is when I read it.)She just stopped communicating on Saturday, August 9 and I texted and voicemailed but no response. And she had been so intent to connect and call and talk.  She was forever making appointments for when my next call would be and I would have to relax and remind her that it wasn't my appointment. Eventually I got her to call me when she wanted a call. Relief. So 9 days after our last exchange, and about 6 efforts on my part, she finally lets me know. I did not have any hopes of it materializing but was trying to see if I could get her figured out. She doesn't have a car and lives in NYC, was exploring the world and far from the church for a long time, collected 4 tattoos of which only two show when she is wearing a swimming suit, whose father is a new patriarch but can't stand being called one, whose mother was always depressed and crying while missymusic was growing up, whose father was seldom home and spent months in South America and ran the NYC LDS radio station for the church, who was bullied and ridiculed and beaten up in every grade for being a Mormon, but got contacts and shape and braces off as a senior and had the boys swarming around her unsuccessfully because she remembered their true colors and meanness.  She can't have kids. Speaks 4-5 languages. Loves Latin men and had one for 9 years and converted him and got him through the temple but never lived with him, with whom she broke up 2-3 months ago, but he still came over bought cheetos and they watched a new release together 3 weeks ago. I suspect she is emotionally handicapped and maybe mentally as well but I hadn't been able to pin her down quite enough to find out. Although I found out all about her thoughts on old men's saggy genitalia and her bra size without even asking. Reminded me of Mareea in some ways.

From:	missymusic
Sent:	Monday, 18 August 2014, 10:38 AM
Subject:	RE: arms outstretched

Hi Vern,

This is a very difficult subject to bring up. I do not want you to think it was anything personal,but I just became exclusive with someone I met on this site and I will no longer be replying to your calls or emails.

I wish you all the best and hope you find the love you deserve. You do deserve it because you are a special man.

best wishes,

Warmly,

Melissa

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I don't know how to get out of this mode, so I wrote an extra long paragraph before pasting this email. vj  11:27a