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Author
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Comment
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Chris
Peltier
Registered User
(3/29/05 1:21 pm)
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Andre Norton Passes
Hey Folks,
I just wanted to note the passing of one of my favorite childhood writers, Andre Norton. As a kid, I reveled in her books, such as Octogon Magic and Lavender Green Magic.
There is a particular poignancy for me that she should pass away on St. Patrick's Day here in Murfreesboro, the town where I also reside. On that night my friends gathered together to perform as The Secret Commonwealth, the Celtic band founded by my friend Jack Hunter Daves, who died last August at the age of 42. Jack's writing appeared in Grue magazine and in the Borderlands collection, and I dearly hope that as we celebrated his life that night, we also somehow eased her departure.
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Elizabeth
Genco
Registered User
(3/29/05 2:43 pm)
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Re: Andre Norton Passes
Thank you for the lovely post, Chris.
"The Secret Commonwealth" could very well be the Best
Band Name ever.
---
What's that fiddle player in the subway thinking
about?
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Chris
Peltier
Registered User
(3/29/05 4:52 pm)
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Re: Andre Norton Passes
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for your response, and the link to the busker's website! The Secret Commonwealth is a great name, and you can certainly tell that my friends are readers!
In the book Lavender-Green Magic, the good witch Tamar confers the gift of healing upon the youngest character, in much the same way that Norton the writer has done for her own readership, through the power of creativity:
"To thee do I leave such of my arts as thou dost wish to gather to thee. A healer shalt thou be in thine own time, even if thou wilt work that skill in another fashion than my own."
She will be missed.
~Chandra~
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(3/29/05 5:33 pm)
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Re: Andre Norton Passes
Chris,
You a MTSU grad, too?
Heidi
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Chris
Peltier
Registered User
(3/29/05 6:34 pm)
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Re: Andre Norton Passes
Yes! But my name is actually Chandra Cerchione-Peltier. Chris, who opened the ez-board account, is my husband. I graduated with Honors, getting my degree in English, with a double minor in Medieval and Classical Studies.
Are you familiar with MTSU, and its diva of the fairy tale realm, Prof. Margaret Ordoubadian? She is now semi-retired, and will always remain one of my favorite teachers.
~Chandra~
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(3/29/05 9:06 pm)
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Re: Andre Norton Passes
Yes, Dr. Ordoubadian mentored me as a teenager when my mother took her class and introduced us. We talked about Robin McKinley and she introduced me to The Bloody Chamber. Then I ended up at MTSU for my final two years of undergrad and took her class myself.
I did the English thing and minored in Speech and Theatre with one class shy of a French minor. Ended taking photography and a flying class instead of that extra French class. Years later, I have much more fun saying I flew a Cessna than having a French minor. Also found my husband during that photography class. I love electives.
Which is more than anyone really needs to know, OT, of course.
Heidi
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Chris
Peltier
Registered User
(3/29/05 9:41 pm)
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Re: Andre Norton Passes
Dr. Ordoubadian also introduced me to Angela Carter, and it was in her class that I saw Company of Wolves for the first time. She opened my eyes to Jane Yolen's Touch Magic, which in later years inspired my mask pin dolls, based on Yolen's history of the lapel mask pins in 18th century Venice. Dr. Ordoubadian was an educator in the best sense, a true muse.
~Chandra~
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LegendMaker
Registered User
(4/8/05 7:38 pm)
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Friend and Mentor
In February, 1992, Andre invited me over to her house in Winter Park, Florida, where we had a wonderful chat about the craft of writing. A photo from this occasion is located at:
cshaviland.com/v-web/gall...um/MeAndre
She sat comfortably in a chair that was filled with as many cat-claw marks as you can possibly imagine and told me about fans (some now passed) and fledgling authors (some now famous) who would write, call, or meet her at conventions; who would read their stories to her, ask her questions, or otherwise seek her council; and who would send her gifts and trinkets of all sorts that lined her many shelves and walls. I was near the end of a long list of such fledgling authors, a list that goes back before the birth of my own parents, and yet she still gave me her time, read my work, called me, wrote to me, and supported me. She's the only person outside of my own family who read rough drafts of all my novel manuscripts (one of which she had included in the High Hallack Library), the first author to give me an official blurb (for my novel Faith & Fairies), and the first author to contribute writing to a book project I am editing which now also includes the likes of Connie Willis, Mercedes Lackey, Sara Douglass, Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, Gwyneth Jones, and many others. I feel very honored and humbled to have known this most gracious and kind lady, a legend of science fiction and fantasy, and a pioneer among female authors in a time when the genre was nearly monopolized by the opposite gender. --C.S. Haviland
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Black
Sheep
Registered User
(4/9/05 8:10 am)
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Influential
I can only repeat what so many others have said.
Andre Norton was a major influence on my childhood reading and therefore, presumably, on my whole life.
My sympathy is with her many friends.
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