Ivana Write: Pocket Books has signed Ivana...

Ivana Write: Pocket Books has signed Ivana Trump. “I plan to draw upon my wide range of experiences to write the kind of novels I like to read--stories rich in drama and glamorous backgrounds with characters whose lives are filled with emotion and romance,” Donald Trump’s estranged wife said.

So Do We: Marilyn Quayle, the Vice President’s wife, and her sister, Nancy Northcott of Tullahome, Tenn., have written “The Rage of the Lamb,” a novel based on a power struggle in Cuba after the death of Fidel Castro. “It’s actually quite a good read,” a source told New York magazine.

Roundabout: Though former President Ronald Reagan selected George Bush as his running mate in 1980, Bush was the one candidate Reagan had promised his closest friend, Sen. Paul Laxalt, that he wouldn’t pick, Sidney Blumenthal writes in his new book, “Pledging Allegiance.” Reagan’s first choice for the ticket? Laxalt. A Reagan pollster tested three names: Gerald Ford, Howard Baker and George Bush, none of whom Reagan liked, Blumenthal says. Reagan chose Bush as the strongest. Then, “one of Reagan’s aides was dispatched with the unpleasant task of informing the volcanic Laxalt that the pledge had been broken . . . . . “

Buckley Moves: William F. Buckley Jr., founder of the National Review, will leave the post he has held as editor for 35 years at the conservative biweekly. Buckley, 64, said he would become an editor at large. “We did as much as anybody, with the exception of himself, to shepherd into the White House Ronald Reagan,” Buckley said.