A Novel Affair marks another chapter finished for library fundraising drive

Yet another chapter in the saga unfolded Saturday.

More than $50,000 was added to the cause during the annual A Novel Affair luncheon and auction at Maple Hall keynoted by best-selling Seattle author Robert Dugoni.

Support from the sold-out event, which filled the downtown venue to capacity, came on the heels of a recent $720,000 allocation by state lawmakers toward the $3.74 million project, designed to provide La Conner library users expanded floor space and services for all ages.

For the past 25 years the La Conner Regional Library has been tucked in the 2,200 square-foot former Village Hallmark outlet on Morris Street. From there it has served nearly 5,000 residents in La Conner, Swinomish, Shelter Bay, and rural parts of western Skagit County.

The proposed new library will more than double the present square footage and meet modern community needs in addition to traditional resource and reference materials.

Dugoni and La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner each stressed the invaluable roles played by libraries.

Meissner noted that books are often a luxury for children from low-income families. She praised the La Conner Library Foundation for prioritizing a student reading area in the new facility.

“It will be a space within the library,” she said, “for teens to research, plan, be creative and do great things.”

Meissner thanked attendees for “helping support those children who don’t have books on their bookshelves.”

When Dugoni was growing up, one of 10 children in a bustling household, his hometown Burlingame, California library was a godsend. Not only for him, but also his mom.

“Where else could a mother of 10 take her children,” Dugoni quipped, “and have someone else tell them to be quiet.”

He was quite serious, though, in relating the impact libraries have had on his varied careers, from journalism to a law practice to the long, winding road that has led him to what otherwise would have been the unimaginable heights of being a critically acclaimed novelist.

“Books,” he explained, “taught me how to dream.”

One of those dreams was to someday walk into a library and see a book bearing his name. That dream has become a reality.

“I’ve spoken to people,” said Dugoni, “who’ve read my books in their library.”

As a boy, during those afternoons at the Burlingame Library, Dugoni devoured countless volumes, titles both popular and obscure. Each left its mark.

“My athletic career fizzled, friends came and went, but books were a constant,” he said.

Today, while researching settings for his novels, Dugoni travels to places – Rome, Moscow, and Paris, to name a few – that he first read about on those library visits.

His books, 17 to date, are sold around the world and have been translated into more than two dozen languages. His critically acclaimed Tracy Crosswhite series alone has sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide.

A future Dugoni book will sport a La Conner connection. The final live auction item was the author’s offer to name a character in an upcoming mystery thriller after the high bidder.

Maureen Harlan, among the sponsors of A Novel Affair, narrowly outbid La Conner Library Foundation Director Susan Macek for the honor.

Even so, for Macek, A Novel Affair provided the ultimate happy ending. “The whole afternoon,” she said afterward, “was worth it to hear Robert Dugoni and then to have such amazing support for the new library project.”