Alison Bruce has a degree in history and philosophy, which has nothing to do with any regular job she`s held since. After university, her first career was a comic book store manager where she was in charge of advertising and promotions as well as the usual retail chores. She started writing and editing professionally for business and community organizations in 1991. In partnership with two other women, she published Women’s Work for five years, serving as the principle writer and general editor. In addition to CWC, Alison has worked for York Region and the Windfall Ecology Centre. And she will still argue philosophy after all these years.
Okay, that’s the official biographical info on Alison, as given to me. Now here comes the fun stuff:
Alison started writing stories for other people when she was twelve. She lost her first novel in the women's washroom at Ryerson University (not known if it was stolen, or if she flushed it). A year later she received her first rejection slip for another story. Being a sensitive sort, she waited several years before trying for her next rejection slip.
As a result of having inherited her mother’s and sister’s libraries, she now has six copies of The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer. Her niece is named for the title character. Her daughter Kate is named for comic characters: Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and Katie Powers of the Power Pack. Her son Sam is named for the cat she had as a child. Her blog, “Have laptop will travel” (http://alisonebruce.blogspot.com/) was inspired by the book title: Have Gat Will Travel, first seen as a child climbing the bookshelves.
Alison is fueled by coffee and one heck of a sense of humour about life. She’s the kind of gal who gets your back and won’t let you down. She won’t let you down as a writer, either.
Her book Under a Texas Star is now available at Amazon.com. And it’s damn good.
Melodie Campbell
