My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

So the cover story of this week's New York magazine is about dogs and how we treat them as family members, and are they even dogs anymore. And it got me thinking about a conversation I had with my father on my birthday last week.

After he wished me a happy birthday he said "I want you to see if you can list every dog we had from the time you were born." I waited for him to tell me what my prize would be if I could do it, but he didn't offer anything up but because I'm always up for a challenge I took the bait. When I was done--listing some that he had completely forgotten about -- the grand total came to 21.

21 dogs in 41 years.

And I wonder why I have problems with commitment.

Hmm...

I've been having blog envy recently.

To be more specific, I was just perusing Neil Gaiman's blog because I kind-of-sort-of have a crush on him (I was also kind-of-sort-of devastated to hear that he and Amanda Palmer got engaged a few weeks ago...who, BTW, is also from Boston, with the same last name as me). Anyway, if you click on the link, you'll see what I mean. Because he's got stuff to say. Granted, at the moment, it's really sad stuff--like how he had to put his cat to sleep--but I envy the way that he talks about himself and his personal life in such a way that it never feels narcissistic or self-indulgent. Then again, maybe it is, and the crush thing just makes it seem all so adorable to me.

Here's my issue: I don't WANT to have every blog entry I do be in the vein of "Hey, go onto Amazon and pre-order Little Miss Red and/or Yours Truly, Lucy B. Parker or - better yet - both!" but when I think about writing about my personal life and stuff that isn't related to my books, I just feel like "Who the hell wants to read about THAT?"

A few years ago there was a story in the New York Times magazine written by Emily Gould about the perils of oversharing. And I remember reading it and thinking "that girl just completely overshared about oversharing..." And I don't ever want to be that kind of girl, you know? But on the other hand, there's probably a happy medium...like I can write about stuff that has to do with me and my life without feeling too exposed.

Then again, if I had Neil Gaiman's life, I'd probably have a lot more to say...

More later.

My 15 minutes of fame...

..at least in YouTube land.

As promised, here are the videos I shot in Central Park last week.

You can watch the one about LITTLE MISS RED here and the one about YOURS TRULY, LUCY B. PARKER here.

Let's all be thankful that I spend most of my time in solitary confinement writing rather than in front of a camera. Yikes.

Once upon a time...

...there was an author who wrote modern-day retellings of fairy tales. (That would be me). And one day, the fabulously creative Courtney Wood --the senior online marketing manager for Penguin Young Readers, who publishes the aforementioned fairy tale retelling author -- came up with the brilliant idea that instead of sitting in a boring office to do an author profile video, they should do it in a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park because that's a very fairy tale-like thing to do. The fairy tale author loved the idea, especially since she had recently procured a black fur headband over the holidays which made her look very Russian princess-like and would be the perfect accessory to wear during the shoot. So one Thursday morning, on a very beautiful, freeze-your-butt-off January morning, the two -- along with the uber talented filmmaker Lauren Saffa -- went for a carriage ride around the park with a horse named Blackie (a lot of originality in that name) leading the way. Actually, they went around the park TWICE because the author tends to be a bit longwinded at times so they needed more coverage.

The video should be ready very shortly and of course I'll post a link here even though, to be honest, while I have no problem whatsoever talking in front of groups, whenever I see myself on film I want to book a one-way ticket to a deserted island and never return. Let's just say it's a good thing I chose the writing vs. acting path.

Have you ordered your copy of Little Miss Red yet?

...because it comes out ONE MONTH FROM TOMORROW.

So you can click here to order it.

I did my first reading from it on Wednesday and people seemed to really like it.

Ciao...mi chiamo Robin e scrivo romanzi....

"My name is Robin and I write novels."

That's about the only thing I've perfected so far as I try and learn Italian. I've said it so many times aloud that I swear Onyx, one of my cats, has taken to rolling her eyes.

So I studied French from grade 7 all the way through college. 10 years. And you'd think that after all that time and effort, I would have tried to keep it up. But I didn't. Which is why 20 years later, I can't say I'm fluent in French, and yet it keeps getting in the way of me learning Italian.

And that's why I've decided that I will start a new language...Fritalian. Where we will say things like "Bonjour! Come stai?" (Hi--in French--How are you? -- in Italian).

That being said, Italian is a really beautiful language and there are enough similarities to French that at some point something will click and it'll get easier (at least that's what I tell myself.)

I'm not a big resolution-maker, but learning Italian is definitely on the list of Things-I-want-to-do-in-2010-but-I'm-not-going-to-call-them-resolutions-in-case-I-fail-miserably.

And cooking. Definitely more cooking.

And buying an apartment (which translates to please-buy-lots-and-lots-of-my-books-so-I-can-afford-to-do-that).

AND BLOGGING ON A REGULAR BASIS. That's #1 on the non-resolution list.

Happy happy new year, anyone who is reading this--even the people who post anonymous comments that are obviously computer-generated.

xx