Alison Pace

CITY DOG - September 2, 2008

click on it!

Outward Hound (Carlie Goes Hiking)

Dog lovers, outdoorsy types, hikers: I have an article in the March / April 2008 issue of The Bark magazine about hiking with your dog.  It chronicles a few outdoor adventures I tested out with the help of the ever-ready Carlie.  Hope you get a chance to check it out.

And here's one of my favorite pictures of Carlie "in the field," in her hiking safety harness...

 

Everything I Needed to Know about Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume

This Friday, March 7, I'll be joining the authors Jennifer O'Connell and Megan McCafferty as the Friends of the Nutley Public Library host their annual tea.

We'll be reading from and talking about my favorite anthology, Everything I Needed to Know about Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume. We'll also be talking about our different experiences as writers and readers of Judy Blume. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

It's at 7:00 p.m. For tickets and information please call Gioya at the Nutley Public Library at 973-667-0405 x. 2636.

My Book Is ALMOST Done!

February 08

Ah, February.  The month of Valentine's Day and the romantic comedy.  It's also the month of the Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden which I like to watch on TV. Westies are on Monday and Pugs are on Tuesday.

It was actually three years ago this month that my first novel IF ANDY WARHOL HAD A GIRLFRIEND was published.  I can't believe it's been three years.  It seems as if it was both yesterday and a million years ago. Time warp.  The exciting news for IAWHAG is that my terrific publisher is re-releasing it in May with this new, really spectacular cover.  Do you not have great love for the Warhol-ized schnauzers and their giant ears?  I for one think I might be a little bit in love with the art.

In other news, I turned in the second draft of my newest book on time!  I think there will be one more round of edits and then this puppy (pun completely intended) will be on its way to copy-editing.  I'm really happy with the way this book is turning out.  It's definitely a bit more weird and out there than previous books, but I think out there can be a really good thing.  Hopefully you will, too.  And also, Carlie narrates about a third of the book, so that's tremendously exciting for me.  Since everything seems to be moving along according to schedule,  CITY DOG will be out in September. That seems soon to me even now. I've seen an early version of the cover and it's stunning, too.  Hope to have something to post soon.

Last but not least, my blog friend and Westie friend, Eileen Cook's debut novel Unpredictable is out this month.  In my exact blurby words it's "a funny quirky tale of a woman on the edge and the lengths to which she'll go to bring herself back."  I laughed out loud, and very much enjoyed Eileen's writing style and the witty commentary.  Hope you get a chance to check it out.

VOTE!

Happy New Year!

2008, among other things hopefully, will be the year that I never play that brickbreaker game again because I deleted the program from my blackberry.  It was getting to be a bit of an issue. 

So now that 2007 is a thing of the past, I need to update my “books read this year” link.  The final count for 2007 was 23 books read (plus 1 book published, and 1 first draft written.)

My favorites (and these are not all books published in 2007, rather books I happened to get around to reading in 2007) to recommend are The Namesake, The Secret History, Blind Submission, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You (great cover) and They Did It With Love. 

For the immediate future, mostly I’ll be hunkered down working on the revisions to the upcoming novel.  It has a new title now: CITY DOG.  Like?  The consensus is that it’s much catchier than the original title.  I generally have quite a hard time getting over my original anything, but I like this title, too.  The revision process is so far good in that I agree with, I’d say, 95% of what my editor is saying, and so far bad because there’s so much fixing and rearranging to be done.  I swim right now in a sea of red pen, index cards and those little sticky flags I have in recent years become so fond of.  One thing that interests me is that one of my narrators (this book has three, one of whom is Carlie) comes across as depressed, and as that was not my intent at all, I’m working at trying to happy her up.  I hope to turn in the second draft at the end of this month and have that 90% nice clean slate / 5% oh no, what am I going to do next / 5% I miss all my imaginary friends feeling for February.

Carlie says hi.

Now, Monthly!

No, no, I don't actually think it's July 17th, I'm just using the handy iCal image because today's post is of the scheduling variety.

So, the blog.  I've been thinking lately that it's not exactly what it used to be.  It used to be a bit more funny ha ha than it is presently. I think over the course of the past three years and three novels I might have run out of a bit of the zeal needed to post somewhat entertaining, or even just updatey, things on a regular basis.  And since it kind of bugs me when I go to blogs I like and there is never anything remotely new or interesting, I've decided that for the time being at least, the blog is going to switch over to a once-a-month format.  We can switch back once the blog area of my brain has had a nice rest.

I hope you'll check back around the first of every month to see what's new.  I promise to try very hard to have some things more exciting than: "this month, I worked on my novel..."

Merry, merry and happy, happy!

-A

Vermont

Has it been a month?

I can't believe it's really been a month.  Nor can I believe that even with it having been a month and all, I don't really have much to say.  Let's see:

I had about a week and a half there where I didn't even open up the Word program on my computer.  On one or two occasions, I napped.  I had trouble forming complete sentences.

I got a massage.  I saw a terrific play.  I saw a movie I didn't like at all.  I worked on a magazine piece I'm pitching but didn't get as far as I'd hoped.

I had a nice Thanksgiving and tremendously enjoyed the absence of the constant nagging feeling that I should really take the next two, three hours to work on the novel.

I got the first half of my revisions back. I felt overwhelmed.

I got up to 35 minutes of running on the treadmill, which is something for me.  I started my revisions, still felt overwhelmed.

Finally finished The Secret History.  Liked it.

I'm going to Vermont for the weekend.  Looking forward to it.  Carlie is too.

And my good friends Nancy Levine and Wilson the Pug have a new book out.  It's called The Ugly Pugling: Wilson The Pug In Love.  It's very charming and adorable and you can check it out here.

More soon.  Or soonish.  I think soonish is good.