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Ann Elwood

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomaelwood

born

January 03, 1931 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, The United States

gender

female

twitter username

aelwood

genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

member since

December 2010

About this author

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I live in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with six cats, a desert tortoise, seven box turtles, and a German Shepherd, Louis, who looks something like Rin Tin Tin in his soulfulness. At night I can hear the ocean when the tides are high.

When I was nine, my family moved from Ridgewood to Saddle River, New Jersey, a paradise of a town with a woods, a skating pond, a fishing pond, and 700 people who knew who we all were and where we were every minute. I had a shepherd dog, Mac, who died a tragic death, shot because someone thought his foaming-at-the-mouth fear of a thunderstorm meant he had rabies.

As an adult, I had no dogs until I settled down. After college (two miserable years at Trenton State Teachers College and two happy ones at Fairleig...more I live in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with six cats, a desert tortoise, seven box turtles, and a German Shepherd, Louis, who looks something like Rin Tin Tin in his soulfulness. At night I can hear the ocean when the tides are high.

When I was nine, my family moved from Ridgewood to Saddle River, New Jersey, a paradise of a town with a woods, a skating pond, a fishing pond, and 700 people who knew who we all were and where we were every minute. I had a shepherd dog, Mac, who died a tragic death, shot because someone thought his foaming-at-the-mouth fear of a thunderstorm meant he had rabies.

As an adult, I had no dogs until I settled down. After college (two miserable years at Trenton State Teachers College and two happy ones at Fairleigh Dickinson College), I taught elementary school for a few miserable years, then moved to Camden, New Jersey and landed a job as a typist-clerk at the Philadelpha Bulletin. When my boss discovered I had difficulty typing up circulation figures with twelve carbons, I was fired and found another job writing copy for a paternalistic insurance company that offered a low salary and delicious free lunch. One of the printers had the magical ability to square up a stack of paper into a perfect cube.

Eventually I moved to a studio apartment on Irving Place in New York City, and, after a few months of writing copy for a textbook company, went on to free-lance as a writer of anything anyone would pay me for. In 1967, I moved to Los Angeles, where I was advertising manager for a publishing company. Then the west coast was a mecca for writers and adventurers. Within a couple of years, I visited a Malibu beach house, fell in love (long-distance) with Bob Dylan, met Thomas Pynchon (he wouldn’t remember it), and saw Hair. In 1972, I returned to free-lancing, moved south, and found my first dog, Puppy, a mixed breed who looked something like a fox. (To show you how inappropriate Puppy’s name became, I’ll tell you this: Puppy died at age 17.) I wrote articles for Irving Wallace and his son, David Wallichinsky (People’s Almanac and Book of Lists), and did other wonderful things I won’t mention here. With Carol Orsag Madigan, I wrote several books.

A desire to delve more deeply into ideas finally drove me to graduate school in 1981. My dissertation focused on an order of 17th and 18th century French nuns so I had to spend a happy year in France doing research. During that year, while not in the archives, I drank local wine with fellow historians and traveled the country with Puppy, who had far less trouble than I did communicating with the French.

Now, I teach history part-time at California State University, San Marcos, spend time with Louis and the other animals, and write the books I have always wanted to write but never had the time for.

-(less)

8 posts
Ann Elwood's Blog

An Amazing Journey — It's So Awesome!

On Biggest Loser, contestants talk emotionally about their progress from obese to thin as a "journey." The journey is not just about weight loss but about a change in attitude, world view, and self-perception. (The contestants on Biggest Loser also live on a "ranch," without a cowboy or a cow, where they undergo "challenges," i.e., contests, and are attached to the "house," which is not a bui...

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Books by Ann Elwood

Average rating: 3.90 · 72 ratings · 19 reviews · 26 distinct works

	A Viewer's Guide To Cosmos, Carl Sagan 4.30 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 1980	My rating:
	Willow's Time 4.62 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2011	My rating:
	Walking Out by Ann Elwood (Goodreads Author), John Raht 4.57 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1979	My rating:
	Willow's Time 3.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2011	My rating:
	The Dog Park 3.88 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Chimpanzees 3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Lions 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1998 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Chimpanzees & Bonobos (Zoobooks) 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1991	My rating:
	Old World Monkeys 3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1991 — 3 editions	My rating:

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Ann's Writing

Laboratory Dog (Literature & Fiction)

1 chapters — updated May 25, 2011 01:15pm

Description: Miguel, a landscaper, adopts a sad beagle, who, until then, has spent her life in a sterile cage as a laboratory animal. He names her Bonnie for Bonnivard, the prisoner of Chillon. Bonnie doesn't know how to live as a companion animal, and Miguel, who is also closed off from the world, is at a loss about what to do until, with Cara, an artist, and her dog, they go on an trek into a mountain forest and. . .

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Ann's Recent Updates

Ann Elwood is now friends with Melanie
May 15, 2012 09:25pm
Ann Elwood is now following Tess's reviews
Mar 15, 2012 08:26pm
Ann Elwood added Goodreads to her Facebook Timeline Add your books to Timeline! learn more
Mar 15, 2012 08:25pm
Ann Elwood made a comment on Patricia's status in Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend "If you like it, try Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star for another point of view. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1453866655 "
Jan 17, 2012 09:24am
Ann Elwood said "yes" to attending the event: FREE book date: January 11, 2012 07:37PM location: Amazon, The United States description: My book, Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star is FREE on Amazon for Kindle January 14, 15, 16 http://www.amazon.com/Rin-Tin-Tin-Mov...
Jan 11, 2012 06:38pm
Ann Elwood made a comment on her profile "My book, Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star is available FREE on Amazon, January 14, 15, 16. http://www.amazon.com/Rin-Tin-Tin-Mov... "
Jan 11, 2012 06:37pm
Ann Elwood gave to: Uneasy Spirits (A Victorian San Francisco Mystery #2) by M. Louisa Locke (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Oct 15, 2011 09:50am
Ann Elwood added: See What You Have Done (Extraordinary Loves) by Ann Elwood (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Aug 12, 2011 10:27am
Ann Elwood wrote Laboratory Dog: Laboratory Dog "Laboratory Dog When I was about eight years old, I found myself lost in a swamp. The bogs squished b" …more
May 25, 2011 01:15pm · like
Ann Elwood gave to: A Viagem do Elefante by José Saramago	My rating:
Apr 11, 2011 12:20pm