Pat Fortunato Profile

About Me: After slaving away as a free-lance writer, editor, and puzzle-maker, Pat decided to start her own company, Mega-Books, which produced Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, and many other series, fiction and nonfiction, with publishers such as Simon &Schuster, Random House, and Harper-Collins.  Before Mega, Pat produced Lucky Day, a syndicated newspaper feature for children, edited The Electric Company Magazine for Children’s Television Workshop, and created MuppetMagazine for Jim Henson. Her books include The Official Kids’ Survival Kit; When We Were Young: An Album of Stars; and All Around the Construction Site, which comes out this spring.

Last year, she finally figured out what she wanted to be when she grew up . . . a humor columnist! Let Carrie Bradshaw have the sex, she wanted the laughs. And she got the job -for New York Woman, a free paper in Manhattan. How perfect was that! No cranky clients or payrolls to meet: just tell her stories, in her own slightly off-center way, and get feedback from other women who have experienced the same problems.

Alas, like most of Carrie’s loves (or hers, for that matter), the job didn’t last. The paper is no longer in print. But don’t worry: Pat’s still not bitter! In spite of the worst case of blogger’s block known to woman, she’s finally started her very own blog. Plus, she’s writing for a new paper, which is even better because it’s online, so more of you can read it. (Check it out at www.womanaroundtown.com.) Pat is also President (and Founder) of the Institute for the Very, Very Silly. More about that later. And is president of Entertainment East, Inc., a consulting company in New York City.

Thanks to everyone for helping to put this blog together (you think it was easy?), and to Marc Nadel for his wonderful (as usual) caricature.