Hi Friends -

Just a quick note to say that this BOOKS, ESSAYS AND STORIES page won’t be officially up and running until, well, until I finish writing all my books, essays and stories.

But for now, here’s what we have in the pipeline:

AVAILABLE TITLES:

Rex and the City: True Tales of a Rescue Dog Who Rescued a Relationship (Villard)

Now available in expanded eBook edition, Rex and the City chronicles the trials, tribulations and triumphs my then-boyfriend and I experienced after adopting an abused shelter dog named Wallace and bringing him home to our 300-square foot apartment in New York City. Based on my popular series in Bark magazine, Rex and the City has been hailed as “hands-down the best human-with-dog memoir you’ll ever read!” Visit www.rexandthecity.net for more information. 10% of all sales proceeds are donated to animal rescue. *First edition was published by Random House/Villard under the title Rex and the City: A Memoir of a Woman, a Man, and a Dysfunctional Dog)

 FORTHCOMING BOOKS:

 THE EXPATRIATE’S GUIDE TO HEARTBREAK (Forthcoming Summer 2012)

Jamie Palmer is a PhD candidate in Classical Studies trying to write her dissertation on the philosophy of love. When her boyfriend of seven years dumps her, she realizes she knows nothing at all about love and sets off on an adventure to learn about life and love and heartbreak in all its various forms.

After moving impulsively to the French Riviera, Jamie meets a broad and eccentric cast of characters—all of whom are ex-pats; all of whom have fled to the Riviera to recover from (or hide from) botched relationships, and all of whom offer Jamie conflicting advice. We meet Clara—a fiery Brit with a bad habit of lying, who thinks revenge is the best policy, and thus pursues her ex-lover’s best friend. We meet Kevin—an American triathlon coach (with a secret) who tries to squelch all his emotions through intense and punishing physical training. Then there’s Spencer—Jamie’s aristocratic and slightly pervy 78-year old British landlord—a soulful person who sees even heartbreak as a spiritual quest. He thinks Jamie needs spiritual healing (with some astral sex on the side). Spencer’s wife, however, is a (secret) Wiccan who believes Jamie can cure all her ails via herbs, vibrational ointments, and a few slightly sinister revenge-spells. And then we have Steve, the irresistible sexy Scottish yachtie, who firmly believes that all the ails of the world could be healed through non-stop Bacchanalian sex.

Together and separately, Jamie and these characters share adventures that result in a few gains, a few losses, one reunion, one death, a wedding, and lots of great sex. Plus a few broken bones along the way. But it’s all worth it, because the end result is a new understanding of True Love.

Here’s some advance praise:

“Structured as a classical heroine’s journey, The Expatriate’s Guide to Heartbreak combines the wisdom of Plato, the magic of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the sharp, poignant wit of author Lee Harrington. This book is certain to become a classic.”

SECRETS IN MOTION (Fiction)

Forthcoming Fall 2012

Who says honesty is the best policy? In Secrets In Motion—a literary novel for college-age readers—we meet six college friends (three female; three male)whose friendships are threatened when a series of Little White Lies, Big White Lies, and Flat-Out Shameless Lies are slowly uncovered, resulting in breakups, estrangements, weddings, reunions, and even murder. Ultimately a triumphant novel, this story explores the causes and effects of telling untruths, and celebrates enduring truth of friendship.

 

IN TENTS: A Spiritual Journey from Divorce to the Noble Eightfold Path (Memoir)

Forthcoming 2013

After 9/11, like many New Yorkers, I decided I had to change my life for the better. Mostly I wanted to find out why I kept myself stuck in an unhappy relationship. Thus, I up and left life as I knew it: I left my husband, I left New York, I left my job and I even left behind my dog. On a whim, I moved to a Buddhist retreat center in Colorado. There, I spent eight months living in a tent, studying Buddhist dharma, painting Tibetan art, and experiencing both the darkest and lightest parts of myself. After many struggles, triumphs and wondrous experienced, I emerged a new person, ready to start a new life.

 

THE STAR SISTERS (My Boring Working Title) (Young Adult Fiction)

Forthcoming Fall 2013 (Book 1)

This work-in-progress is a young adult fantasy series in which seven teenage girls with seven unique gifts must join together to prevent a hidden league of dark forces from destroying Mother Earth. Combining their myriad skills, these young heroines battle corrupt politicians, greedy corporations, and other-worldly adversaries. The idea for the series came to me in 2009 (seemingly from the cosmos) and the story continues to write itself—which makes the writing process very fun indeed. The Star Sisters series will explore environmentalism, self-empowerment, and the power of sacred sound.

 

REX AND THE CITY, Volume II (Memoir/Essays)

By the time Rex and the City was first published in 2006, my life had drastically changed. The memoir chronicles a short period of life in 1997, but by 2006 I was no longer living in New York City (the “city” of my title), was no longer married to Ed (my beloved partner in dysfunction), and our incorrigible dog Wallace had unexpectedly died. The original book manuscript contained the whole story (including the marriage, the separation, the death of the dog, and the divorce). But my editors decided to divide the book into two volumes.

 

ANTHOLOGIES

My fiction and non-fiction have been anthologized in various publications, including:

Howl, A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit (Crown: 2009), edited by the editors of Bark magazine

Dog is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World’s Oldest Friendships

(Crown: 2003), edited by the editors of Bark magazine

 Tennis Shorts: A Literary Companion to Tennis (Citadel: 2003),edited by Adam Sexton

Virgin Fiction: The Best New Fiction Of Writers Under Thirty (Rob Weisbach Books: 1999), edited by Colin Dickerman

 

ESSAYS

My essays and articles have appeared in such publications as Huffington Post, Salon, Nerve, Poets and Writers, Bark, Jane, Time Out New York, and O: The Oprah Magazine (forthcoming).

I continue to blog for Salon and Huffington Post, and also currently write a regular column for Bark magazine called “The Chloe Chronicles,” which chronicles the life of my wonderful new dog Chloe, whom I adopted after Wallace (of Rex and the City fame) died.

STORIES

Early in my writing career (basically when I was in graduate school), I wrote short stories exclusively, and they appeared in such publications as Playboy, Jane, Literal Latte, Potpourri, Sundog, and a handful of obscure literary magazines. These days I am focusing on writing books, but plan to return to the short story form when I am sixty-four (decades away).