Andre Norton -- masquerading as Andrew North

 Andrew North was an early pseudonym of Andre Norton's --partly because she wrote too quickly and partly because women were NOT SF authors in the 1960's.

Norton isn't the only woman to have to hide behind a pseudonym (and in fact, Andre Norton is one as well-- Norton's real name is Mary Alice Norton).

Some other day, I'll get to some of those women authors...remind me.

A cool book with a cool scifi cover.

Norton's eighth published book. Her first was in the 1940's but most of the books readers know and love are from the 1950's and 1960's.

Another cool dust jacket cover too.

All three of these books are currently available on my website.

Enjoy!

More photos... one disaster, the other not too shabby!

this is the not too shabby -

I thought I'd put it first because it makes me feel better that way.

Remember a month ago when I despaired of ever having all the boxes out of the front room?

Well -- Christmas time (and a tree supposed to go where the table is standing) makes for the impetus to CLEAN UP.

Note - there are the tall bookcases behind... and in front are portable cases filled with the overflow.

Problem is... I still have TONS more books to go on the shelves.

I'm running out of space to put the portables and still be able to move!

This room is in an L shape - there's more room off to the right. With bookcases as well.

And a small upright piano.

Notice though -- NO BOXES!

(I cheated and moved one box of books that still needs to be put away).

Now, on to the disaster...

My work room. Notice the very well posed cat. She posed for free.

On the way to my desk.  I have two stacks of boxes by the door to the room, making it harder to get into.

Sigh.

This is NOT getting better as the year goes on.

I'm really trying to get through these boxes to free up space.

I LIKE space.

I like CLEAN.

I'd like to be cloned into 12 other mini me's so I can get some things done.

Tomorrow -- pictures of the SHOWER disater.

And after that (hopefully) pictures of Christmas foods... yum.

I've got the stollen  dough in the fridge for tonight or tomorrow,

AND

if I can swing it, I'm going to make a Buche de Noel

starting either today or tomorrow (it usually takes me two days to do it right)

After that, it's some cookies, etc. to give to friends...

We'll see -- great idea and all that...

I've got some pictures from the Pasadena fair -- the lighting in the booth is quite bright, so getting good shots wasn't easy. I also had a somewhat weird set-up.

Here's a view from what should be the front.

Behind the glass case (as for the glass case, I wanted to take pictures, but the lighting off the glass and chrome was a nightmare)

another case

My Janet Evanovich signed First Editions - found a week before the fair.

I wish I could show you the flaps on this -- it's a moveable piece of art with all sorts of medical terminology, and parts flip up to show different systems.

The sublime and the ridiculous -- A Tolkien Bestiary topped with a children's book from Harlin Quist company.

Some close up shots -- I took more, but it seems overkill to include them today. I might need to make this a two part blog.

Most of the items shown are - unfortunately - still available...

While the show went generally well, the number of books that I brought back were very close to the number I took with me. 

And as for buying, I bought about 15 books at a local bookstore. Nothing from the fair itself.

 For a closer look at any of these -- just click on the picture.

Break's over... back to work

So I THOUGHT I'd be able to do it all -- you know, get ready for the fair, attend the fair, post on the website every day, keep updating my database and online listings... get all the Christmas shopping, baking, housecleaning, etc. done -- all at the same time.

Guess what?

I couldn't.

Which is why I haven't posted since the 4th of December.

I've got pictures to add to the site -- from my book fair booth, from my almost clean living room, from the shower / linoleum disaster that is my upstairs bathroom, even from the box filled cave that is my work room, but not today.

As with all of last week, today is another catch-up day.

I do need to blog about the fair at some point -- but I need to clear my head first. And I need to get some urgently done things DONE first.

In the mean time, I'm posting pictures of some of the books that went down to Pasadena with me (and unfortunately, came right back up again) which have now been ENTERED into my database.

Today it's War Fiction / Vietnam Fiction:

Made into a FUNNY, poignant Movie

A Classic

 Vietnam Fiction at its best

Signed by the author

 More War Fiction... this time World War II

Pasadena - Day 1: Set-Up

I was hoping to continue my string of posting nearly every day,  but holidays (and book fairs) do tend to mess things up.

Last week, it was travel and family time. Not really good time to sit and blog.


 Yesterday, it was traveling again.

Today should be a bit less hectic-- all I HAVE to do is set up for the book fair.

It SHOULD only take a few hours....

should.

We'll see.

In the mean  time, I need to get my rear up this morning after a decent motel sleep and get myself ready for food and heavy lifting.

I'll try and have pictures later.

Wish me luck!

(PS: When I get back home I'll show you the pictures of  the bathroom floor that's been pulled up, the dishwasher that's NOT working, the Shower that has to be repaired ...by ME... and the hole in the downstairs ceiling that will have to be patched.... all of which happened between Monday last and now....sigh)

One for the Money...

One for the Money is the first book in the Stephanie Plum series of mysteries by Janet Evanovich. The series is a humorous one (as in, NOT all dark and violent like, say... Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer or Dashiell Hammet's Sam Spade .... mind you, Nick and Nora Charles were much more refined, but neither are they like Stephanie Plum).

So Stephanie is from New Jersey. She's a bounty hunter (working for a bail bondsman), a profession she picked up after her other profession as a lingerie buyer went defunct. Not your usual private investigator type. She's tough, but feminine, she's funny and yet serious, she pals around with men who can be a bit unsavory. She also manages to get stuck in the middle of a bucket-load full murders.

There are, so far, 15 books in the series.

This particular book, and the next three in the series, are books I picked up while I was traveling during our Thanksgiving vacation.

The nice thing is that all four of the books I found are First Editions.

PLUS...

three of the four are signed.

Score!

All four are going down to Pasadena with me this week, along with a few other things I found in my wandering.  Hopefully I'll be able to mention at least one more this week.

Now I've got to go and haul seats out of the van to make room for boxes.

Sigh...

Thanksgiving ....

Right at the moment, I'm thankful for Thanksgiving, for friends and family and for being safe at home after a wonderful visit.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have pictures for you -- not of the family, unfortunately (forgot to take pictures while we were there WITH people) but I do have some wonderful stormy cloud pictures from our return trip.

The Tehachapis (one of the mountain passes from the west side of the sierra's to the east just south east of Bakersfield) got their first dusting of snow (nope, we weren't able to get out and throw snowballs at each other -- not because we didn't want to, but because the snow was WAY up and not anywhere near where we were... and with the six hour trip, we didn't really fancy adding another half an hour or more wending our way through back roads for an up-close glimpse of snow.)

We will get up close and personal with Snow sometime soon.  We Promise.

In the meantime, we spent time with my husband's family, got to take a couple of days off from the world and get away.

(BUT - not without book hunting.... and I FOUND stuff too! That's for another post).

Now it's clean up after visiting, throw the last few boxes of books into the newly cleaned van (it WILL be clean by Thursday.... It WILL!) and get ready for another four-day wonder trip.

Hopefully the trip over the Grapevine (the mountain pass that divides Southern California from Northern California) will be as hassle free as this trip over the Tehachapis. I did see some snow on the mountain tops there as we traveled, but in a week's time, who knows what will happen. No matter what, I'm on my way.

AND -- I finally feel like I have GOOD STUFF to take along.

I'll mention a few of the fun things I just found (or traded), etc. this week before I go (hopefully).

By the way -- did I mention that I actually WON a computer?

It's a fun little (and I do mean LITTLE) Dell Mini (approximately 10" across and about 3 pounds in weight).  Back in September, I saw a flyer for a contest at the grocery store -- at the time, I was grumbling because we needed at least one more computer in the house (and three would be REALLY nice) so I thought, sure, what the heck, I'll enter....

I did enter.

Then completely forgot about it.

In October I got a letter from SaveMart Corp and Kelloggs that I MIGHT be a winner.... fill out this.... notarize that.... blah, blah, blah.

So I did.

Then waited. And waited. And waited.

Until I figured that I wasn't the winner.

Then, this last Tuesday, just before we were supposed to leave for our Thanksgiving weekend, a big box that needed a signature arrived.

And it was the computer!

COOLNESS!

I'll have to take a picture of it too.

So now I can't say I've haven't ever won anything. Because I have.

And I'm Thankful for it too.