It is with great sadness that I write today

To share the new that one of the great authors has passed away.  Born in Cambridge Massachusetts on April fools day, author and world builder  Anne McCaffrey has passed away.  She had not been well of late, but hearing the news she had passed away from a stroke was still a blow.  I always admired Anne, and the one time I meet her years ago only made me love her more.  She was the first female author to win a Hugo, for her novella Weyr Search, and the first to win a Nebula for Dragonriders   The first woman to win both awards.  She always had time for her fans, and encouragement for people who wanted to write themselves.

I discovered Anne in high school. She had created a wonderful world where woman DID something. Must fiction and fantasy use woman as objects, some thing to be protected, to be chased after, never once to add or subtract anything to the story.  Anne was different, no one was useless.  Every person no matter what they did or who they were did something. Woman took the lead in many stories, strong woman, who did not need protecting.  In the Harper Hall series, Anne was writing commentary about  male centric  society.  Well she was writing a story about a woman who was a great songwriter and singer who lived in a society where woman did neither.  Kind of like how the world felt to me in the late 70's.  I wanted more than a working class girl should have wanted. I married the first guy who agreed with me that a woman should go to college, and be more than just a wife and mother.  In middle class and upper class famalies, it was expected that woman would go to college, but not in the blue collar world I lived in.  In Menolly I found a teen age girl wanting to be so much more than just a wife and mother. It was my life, only with Dragons!  I'm not a great singer, and it has been ages since I touched the organ even longer for the clarinet . But, like Menolly I wanted some thing more. When she found her place, I felt like I could do that too!

If you have not yet read this wonderful writer or know anything about  Pern wiki this will help. 

Anne did not just write Pern novels, thought they were her longest series.  She also wrote
The worlds of Anne McCaffrey



 My personal non Pern series is the Freedom Series 4 novels about what happens when the Earth is attacked by a superior alien race and manages to fight back. The series is complex, amazing and follows the  many races enslaved by the Eosi as they work together to bring freedom to the galaxy. As always Anne writes strong woman, and equally strong men.


When is a legend a legend? she famously asked in 1968 in the introduction to Dragonflight.  Well Anne my dear, you are a legend. An amazing woman who opened doors, and held them open for any one else who wanted to go through. 

 some of the most wonderful writing about her from the web. 

  NPR Remembering Anne McCaffrey   

About scifi Anne McCaffrey

My heart goes out to her family, and her son Todd, who like his mother is a wonderful talented writer, who always has time for fans, and turns most of them into friends. 

I wish I had been able to listen to this today

 I was on the Pike for a good part of today's episode of NPR Here and Here and Now I really like the program, but WBUR has a tendency to skip on the research some times. Since I am quite the nut about Boston and her history I can always catch the mistakes. While they are not massive mistakes, but things that should have been caught by a fact checker; or any one with a good history class under their belt it bothers me.  No it more than bothers me, it makes me angry. If they are not researching the stories about Boston well enough to suit me, well what else are the messing up?   I'm no historian, but honestly...

So I was driving out to my sisters and heard this story Black Pilgrim - Puritan and wished I could have called in.  They made the mistake of calling all 102 passengers on the Mayflower Pilgrims, when in fact  only 37 people on the ship were members of the Leiden congregation, which is what they called themselves.  




 

I'm reading

Sorry for the delay in posting lately. I stumbled upon a book called "Grand Theft Jesus"  It looked interesting and even though I walked away from Jesus a long time ago I thought it would be an interesting read, and it has been so far. It's also a hard book to get through, I have been doing a lot of page markup and taking lots of notes. So once I get through it, there will be a review. I promise. 

Guest post Tuesday

I would like the thank the great folks at Boston Smarts for today's posts. If you like what you read here, swing on over to their blog Boston Smarts blog and say hello. BPL's Children's Writer in Residence Program Boston is not only home to great schools, the Red Sox, delicious seafood and good museums, Boston is also a destination for young writers aspiring to publish their first children's book. Boston Public Library provides its patrons with award-winning children's literature and unique educational programs, but it also fosters excellence in children's writing within our own community. The BPL's Children's Writer in Residence is a year-long program focused on children's authors and is intended to provide an emerging children's author in the Boston area with financial and administrative support to complete one children's book. Additionally it establishes a link between the library and the community by promoting the awareness of its offerings to young readers, families and teachers. Many free educational opportunities are provided by BPL and this program seeks to draw attention to those as well. BPL just announced the most recent addition to their Children's Writer in Residence: Sarah Winifred Searle from Danver, MA was chosen from among 60 applicants. She graduated from Southern Maine Community College with a degree in New Media and is studying Humanities at Harvard Extension School. She started her career as a game artist and wants to use this background to create a unique storytelling foundation for her children's books. As the BPL Writer in Residence, Sarah will have a stipend of $20,000 for the next nine months, access to the Library's special collections, use of office space as well as use of the Library as a forum to promote her finished work.

Restarting this thing

I have been doing a lot of reading, taking lots of notes in order to review books here. Doing every thing but posting said book reviews. Going to kick start myself by doing this.

Doing a selfsagacity meme, but for some reason the code will not transfer over.


1- Is my world big or small
--- Personally I have to say my world is big, not big big, but medium size big. I know people from all different walks of life, I have profiles in way to many networking sites to keep track of.

2- How do you feel about being known? Would you like to be famous?
--- It is kind of fun to be known, to talk to someone who has heard of me, or reads one of my many blogs, or comments in other blogs. In a way it helps in that I do not have to introduce my self. Someone who reads my personal blog already knows about my health issues, already knows I have a service dog. I think some times that my service dog is the famous one, and I am just along for the ride.

My two questions

1- Have you ever read a memoir of someone who suffered from an illness? One of my favorite is All in my head as a person who suffers from an invisible illness her struggles to find a cure had real resonance for me.

2- Have you ever meet a person for the first time, who you knew a little bit because you had read their blog?

I will not be attending The Boston Book festival today

I made the decision this morning when I got up. I am short on cash, so even if I did go I could not afford to buy any books. Bringing Byron was not in the cards. He is already stressed out with his surgery making him work would have been just a little to much. Without Byron I would be completely by myself.

Then my Mom called to let me know her convection oven had died, so she needed someone to take her to the store to get another one.  So no me today at the Book

I had a fluffy day

Decided to take the T to Union Square instead of trying to drive. I thought I had written down the bus route I would have to take. But I could not find my list. So when we went to a bus stop that had a transfer to the Sullivan Square I transferred to that bus. Once we got to Sullivan Square it was easy to find a bus to Union Square. Byron was well behaved on each bus we got on, sliding under the chair and resting his nose on my leg. He was so well behaved on the trip over, just chilling out like he rode the bus every day.

Byron is for the record a super chill dog.

We got to Union Square just as the Fluff festival was about to start. Found the volunteer table and took a seat. Got to spend time helping to herd volunteers and be goofy. There was a big jar on the table full of marshmallows and there was a contest to guess the number of marshmallows in the jar. First prize was a neat one of a kind festival poster and a gift certificate to a Union Square place of business. Which was plainly boring, it had to be goofed with. It begged to be goofed with.

First I started telling people the prize was getting to eat the marshmallows, then that the prize was getting to play with Byron. I got progressively sillier including telling people that the winner got to watch ME eat the marshmallows. I reminded people as they grabbed their program books that guessing the number of the marshmallows in the jar was the ONLY thing keeping ME from opening the jar and eating every single marshmallow puff in there. People asked if there was any place where they could just put spoon to jar and eat marshmallow. I was kind of surprised that Durkee-Mowers Marshmallow Fluff company did not attend the festival. Maybe next year, I hope next year HOPE HOPE HOPE! I mean Fluff is made in Lynn Massachusetts, just up the street from me.

I spent a good amount of time sitting at the volunteer table, having fun being silly. I worked with Tugboat 23 Consulting and I had such a great time that I am thinking of letting her know if she needs a crazy person to do a sitting job, I'm available. Especially since she was kind enough to give me one of the special volunteer shirts. Instead of the regular shirts I got to wear a big f on my chest.

Susan Olsen was there showing her fluff art and being an all around great person. People kept coming up to our booth and asking where "Cindy Brady" was, I smiled and said, I'm not sure, but Susan Olsen the actress and artist who played Cindy Brady is under the red tent. I wanted to say hello to her and get a picture of her with Byron but it was to busy for most of the day. At the end of the festival I ran over to talk to her and take a picture with Byron. I think this is her web site I am fluff but I'm not sure, it has her art work on the site, but nothing about her.

She was not the only amazing person at the festival. Which tells you just how amazing the festival was Rick Linnehan an astronaut who took Marshmallow Fluff with him on the Endeavor. That so totally rocks, and yes Byron and I got a picture with him too!!

They had a contest to be the "Pharoh" of fluff, I was goofing on the idea of putting Byron in as a candidate, but I could not think of a goof riff on why he should be the new Pharoh.  Of course on the bus ride home I came up with an entire great speech. I wrote it down so look out next year.

We took the bus back to Sullivan Square and from there I decided it would be easier and quicker for Byron and I to jump on the Orange line. It was a much easier to transfer from subway to subway instead of standing on a street waiting for a bus to show up.  When we got on the Orange line Byron only needed a tiny bit of encouragement to jump up on a seat.  There was a family from Japan visiting Boston and they each wanted a picture with Byron!  We got to the blue line station and helped 3 woman figure out which train to take.  They were heading into the city and did not quite understand the in bound / out bound MBTA directions.