Ages when I "discovered" my favorite authors

Andre Norton 

Age 10-11 "Warlock of the Witchworld"

My oldest big brother brought home a coverless used paperback copy. My introduction to adult Fantasy. Magic as personal, unique, familial legacy, and frightening. The rest is history... 

Lois Duncan

Age 12 "A Gift of Magic"

I lost a lot of Summertime as a kid because I was always stuck in Summer School(which is also a favorite 80s movie of mine. My first film showing a pregnant teen and the storyline NOT punishing her for that). I found this book on the school library spinner rack(found so many favorites over the years on the spinner rack). The cover was a touched-up photograph of an eerie-looking pre-teen white girl. Her eyes aglow while she sat crouched in an easy chair, her fingers digging into its arms while she stared at the viewer. Behind her was another photo of a younger girl seemingly floating in shades of blue. The story was as surreal and real as a story could get about a regular girl inheriting her matriarchal line's ability to telepathy, telekinesis, and prescience.

Anne McCaffrey 

Age 20 "The Rowan"

Now in the realm of far-future SF with a psychic woman protagonist(thanks to A Gift of Magic) I started to relish reading about. This title was the first in a family drama/space opera series. The protagonist is in blue clothing and seat on a seat likened to a throne, appearing as regal as any queen. An orphan, she is considered one of the most powerful psychics in human-inhabited space. She sits straight with her ankles crossed, her arms straight with her fingertips on her seat's arms. She is flanked by a smallish(serval-size?) snow leopard-like domesticated cat. More psychic abilities and alien-implied invasions of the galaxy. The first story where the protagonist and her intended get together, she gets pregnant, and they don't immediately marry(they marry in the second book when she's pregnant with their third child). That blew my mind and I appreciated this subplot point. 

Ursula K. le Guin

Age 23(?) "Catwings Returns"

I know I read this story late in my local library, not even realizing it was a series. It had cats with bird wings born to a regular black cat mama. The cats flying through a city felt very real to me and delighted me that another writer could make a story about a cat character that could fly. Disclaimer: My first character I made up as a kid was a brown and white cat with bat wings I called Cat the Bat.😊😄 I worked as a substitute teacher at the time.

Andre Norton as undergrad studies - PART 2

Ok, remember that I learned from two students they are being taught about ANDRE NORTON? Both students are taking the same instructor/professor.

Here's my question...
WHERE WAS I WHEN THIS WAS BEING TAUGHT?
The answer: the 'Grand Dame' wasn't taught when I was a student back when the college was a community college! Back then, most folks didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned her!

Both my students (one for this semester and one from a previous semester) had to do RESEARCH Papers on her! One student interviewed me! My student I tutored asked me out of the blue about Norton. This is how I figured out something was amiss.

Now, I was told about the author's new website. I would have still been going to the fan-made one had my students not made me aware of what their teacher told them to use as citation!
CITATION. Andre Norton is being CITED?

I know, I know. This post is becoming one heavy rant, but, I can't help it. I feel like Charlie in Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when he fears he didn't get the golden ticket! But he did! He did!

And what did I get? Well, I did get the chance to rant about my favorite late author on-the-job.
*Sigh* Why oh why wasn't she a college course when I was a student?
[Part 3 coming up]

Andre Norton Post re-posted***

[Post originally on Dec. 26, 2012]
*There is a brand-spanking-new official website for Ms. Norton. http://www.andre-norton-books.com/
*There is a new post about Ms. Norton. Link is previous post to this *Andre Norton as an undergrad studies*.
Another blog post where I mentioned her is here when discussing one of the famous spec fiction anthologies she co-edited.

When the stifling of summer changes to the cool breezes of fall and becomes the set cold of winter, I get nostalgic.

I mentioned in the last post that since I am in Second-draft mode, I am taking a more inward analysis about myself as a writer. What do I mean?

Because I keep a library in my bedroom as well as the family library in the den (sun room), this puts me in a unique position: I often have immediate or near immediate access to the books and stories that helped to shape my reading and writing persona.

Let me tell you about a lady who named herself Andre Norton.

From site: http://wishestrumpet.com

Andre Norton was born Mary Alice Norton but legally changed her name to Andre Norton because she began to publish at a time (mid-1930s) when women writing SF were very likely to have their works snubbed by the 'male establishment'.

(For more of this phenomenal writer's bio - go to her official site - created by fans, no less! ANDRE NORTON ORG:: Main Index)

She was incredibly prolific, and her space adventures involving youth, strong female protagonists, won her many readers and lifelong fans.

Originally a librarian, she seemed to know what middle-schoolers-to-high-schoolers-to-young adults were thinking, what they worried about.
Whether it was coming to grips with new found abilities, or feeling an outcast because of said abilities, Andre Norton's stories seemed to touch upon very real pre-adolescent and adolescent feelings even in fantastical settings!

After a used, tattered, coverless paperback was handed to me at 11, "Warlock of the Witch World", my imagination was lit on fire. Later, I took down every hardcover title we had on the family bookcase, snatching them for my bedroom library.

I knew then, this was the author for me!

It seemed predestined when, in Seventh Grade, an English teacher I didn't like very much, but who had recognized my gift for storytelling, gave me Ms. Norton's address while the author lived in Florida.
I never followed through, and later, health and other reasons caused my role model to migrate to Tennessee.
I can tell you I eventually did connect with Ms. Norton, wrote to her, but by then, she was growing feeble and unable to receive books to autograph, but I still have and cherish the card and letter I received from her.
It is one of my regrets that I didn't interact more with this great author while she lived in Florida at the behest of my teacher.
I would've had a longer relationship with someone I admired for so long and to tell her how much she influenced and inspired me to become the writer I am now.

Thank You, Ms. Norton, THANK YOU