Fairy Tale Is a Dream Come True for Retiree-Turned-Author

Mollie Mole of Northridge, who is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Romance Writers of America, has struggled for years to become a published novelist. At last she has achieved her goal with release of her first book by Harlequin’s America Romance Novels Division.

But Mole, 72, is quick to distinguish herself from the stereotyped notion of the romance novelist as Barbara Courtland-esque creatures who sit in bed in negligees batting foot-long eyelashes while penning purple prose between nibbles of bon bons and sips of champagne.

Mole does her writing on a computer in her kitchen between her part-time job as a travel agent and visits from friends and family.

She rolls her eyes heavenward at the description of romance novels as “bodice rippers.” “That may be a description of flamboyant, unrealistic English romance novels, but doesn’t apply to novels written in the United States,” she says.

The Canadian-born author, who came to Los Angeles with her family when she was a baby, worked as an administrator for 30 years at Lockheed in Burbank, retiring from her $39,000-a-year job when she was 65.

She married after finishing one year of college, and for 25 years worked full time and tended to her husband and two daughters.

After her first husband died, she returned to college, graduating from Cal State Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in sociology at age 53.

She remarried and continued to work, but felt an unfulfilled longing.

“I loved the people I worked with, but I had no outlet for my creative side at Lockheed,” she says. “I guess I must have mentioned I wanted to become a writer because they gave me an electric typewriter when I retired.”

Determined to write, she enrolled at classes at the Learning Tree University in the San Fernando Valley. Unlike millions of novelist wanna-bes, she knew she had to study structure, plot and other writing basics.

“It took me several years to get to the point where I had the skills,” says Mole, who wrote three books before her first was published.

“My breakthrough came when I attended a talk by Harlequin senior editor Debra Matteucci at an Orange County Romance Writers of America meeting,” Mole says. “Debra, who is now my editor, told the group’s 400 members that her company had tip sheets for anyone interested.”

Mole was interested. She sent for one and read it, then wrote a book following the suggestions. The rest is the icing on her personal history.

“After four years of struggling to become a published author, it happened,” said the happy writer who took to heart Matteucci’s description of a romance novel as a contemporary fairy tale in which all dreams can come true.

Mole, whose name is pronounced Molay, and who writes under the name of Molay to avoid mispronunciation, enjoys the new-found benefits of being a published author.

On a recent cruise through the Panama Canal, the crew found out she was a novelist, and she was asked to speak to the other passengers, becoming an instant celebrity.

She will be speaking at 7 tonight at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Northridge to budding authors and those interested in starting a second career. Also, she has contracts for two more books--one she has completed and the other she is now writing.

But she said she is happiest about a writers group that gathers at her home every Sunday afternoon.

“It started out to be a work group but has turned into something more than that,” says Mole. “We read one another’s manuscripts and make suggestions, but mostly we have become like a second family. It’s a wonderful feeling.”

Zoo Group Heads for Wilds of Desert for Thanksgiving

Barbara Stiles, a Northridge elementary school teacher, says she becomes stir-crazy when she can’t get away from the urban sprawl for a nature fix.

“Since I am now teaching year-round, I didn’t get my usual camping vacation with my family this summer, so I really need to get away,” she says.

Which is why she, her husband, and their 12-year-old son, Evan, are going to be joining other members of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., or GLAZA, on a Thanksgiving weekend campout at Anza-Borrego State Park south of Palm Springs.

This is the first of what may become an annual GLAZA-sponsored outing.

The event is being organized by Dave Wyman, who has made a full-time job out of arranging camping trips. Wyman was a Sierra Club camping leader during his days as a UCLA undergraduate and then became the wilderness resource director at USC, a post in which he arranged student campouts and ski trips.

“When my wife, Kathy, and I tried to figure out a business we would love and would allow us to work together as a family, we decided putting together camping trips is what we wanted to do,” he says.

Campers who want to attend the GLAZA family event, which is open to the public, need only bring their own sleeping bags and tents. Wyman supplies the rest of the equipment for $95 per adult, which includes food, hikes, cookouts, side trips and campfire events.

This sounds pretty good to Stiles and her husband, Dusty, a Beverly Hills High School teacher. The couple met in graduate school in Connecticut and did much of their courting in the great outdoors.

“We don’t know anyone else who will be at the camp, but we are looking forward to getting together with other families with like interests,” she says. “It’s a wonderful area if you love the desert.”

For those who can’t vacation without hot and cold running room service, the zoo has another offer: attend the annual Thanksgiving Beastly Feast.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, visitors will be able to watch the animals being fed their annual holiday feast of foodstuffs reminiscent of holiday meals. Watching the hippos toss around their salad and the gorillas peel oranges is a visual treat, zoo lovers say.