Quick visit to Mary GrandPré

In accordance with the arrangement I had made earlier, I drove over to Mary GrandPré's house tonight to get signatures on two new copies of The Order of the Phoenix. They will be auctioned off at Nimbus to raise money for HP Education Fanon, Inc, and for the literacy fundraiser. She was kind enough to sign my personal copy, too.

I was very lucky to catch her because she is actually about to leave Minnesota: her husband has taken a faculty position (in Florida, I think). Their home is sold and they are leaving this month. I was extremely conscious of not wanting to take up her time (she's busy packing, of course) and so I was in her house all of two minutes. I asked her whether she has been experiencing an uptick of attention on her work with the release of the new book. "It's actually worse right before a new book gets released," she said ruefully. "Because people contact me hoping that I'll give away information that of course I can't tell." She made a face. "Some of them are, er, quite persistent."

I was highly diverted to see what she has planted under her front living room window:

Hydrangeas.

"Purely coincidence," she said. "I just happen to like hydrangeas."

Cheers,
Peg