Friday Night Dialogues: Dogs and romance

Nola Thacker has many interests but two of her favorite things are romance novels and dogs. For the Shelter Island Library’s Friday Night Dialogues on October 12, she has combined the two to enlighten the audience about “Dogs in Romance Novels.”

It appears that she knows what she’s talking about because she was admitted to the prestigious Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association based on her submission of a literary paper on just that topic.

For years Nola, who lives in Noyac, wrote young adult novels, almost 100 of them! Under her own name she wrote many including the “Skating Dreams” and “Laguna Beach” series. As Tom B. Stone she wrote the “Graveyard School” books. Using the pseudonym D.E. Atkins she gave us the thrillers “Secret Santa,” “The Ripper,” “Sister Dearest” and “Mirror and The Bride.”

She was also a ghostwriter for such beloved series as “The Baby-Sitters Club” and “The Boxcar Children,” but of all her books her favorite is the adult satire “The Complete Petrosexual: A Handbook of Style for the Modern Dog.”

Currently Nola is program coordinator for the Westhampton Free Library and works part time at the Mastic Library in the teen room, where she is encouraged to keep up with popular culture. She is a fan of manga, has been a panelist at anime/manga conferences and oversees the graphic novel collection at her library.

Nola’s affinity for romance novels is understandable, but the way she ties in dogs is unique. She explains that dogs figure into love stories as plot catalysts or to reveal character traits. She gives as an example Lady Bertram in Jane Austin’s “Mansfield Park,” who adores her lap dog, Pug, far more than she does her children. And who hasn’t been warned to reconsider a suitor because he was mean to dogs?

Nola says that her writing days are behind her but we can only hope that an idea will pop into her head and she’ll start again. In the meantime, join her at the library on October 12 at 7 p.m. for an illuminating and a bit tongue-in-cheek dialogue.

Next up: All about Bitcoin and Altcoins with Tyler Kassten on Friday, October 19, at 7 p.m.
Submitted by Jocelyn Ozolins