Thursday, October 1, 2026
A Valley Stream native who once worked at Green Acres Mall is now an award-winning Los Angeles screenwriter and author. Gary Goldstein is releasing his fourth book, “Canine Custody,” a comedy-drama that explores love, marriage and the surprisingly complicated role pets can play in relationships.
Set in Southern California, the novel follows Franklin and Layla, a married couple in their late 30s whose relationship is falling apart. After a fender bender, they impulsively decide to divorce.
But both of them demand full custody of their beloved dog, Betty. Told through alternating perspectives between Franklin, Layla and Betty, the novel offers an unusual view of a breakup, through a dog’s perspective that cannot fully understand the reasons behind the breakup but can sense its emotional impact.
Goldstein, who will admit to being in his 60s, said his inspiration behind the novel comes from his longtime love for dogs.
“If you have a dog, you spend half of your life wondering, ‘What the hell they’re thinking, what could they possibly be thinking?’” he said.
Goldstein admits that the story draws from his own experiences as a child of divorced parents. He remembers his childhood fondly growing up in Valley Stream and even attending Corona Ave Elementary School, now known as James A. Dever School, during the 1970s.
However, this was an era where divorce was not openly discussed and there were little resources to navigate being a teenager of divorced parents, Goldstein said. He described his parents as good people individually who wanted the best for their kids — he has an older sister — but simply didn’t get along and could not make their relationship work.
Franklin and Layla follow that identical script, and despite being good people individually, become consumed by anger and competition as they fight over Betty, who exemplifies the confusion and stress that a child of divorced parents may feel.
“She [Betty] knows there’s this anger she can feel through the stress, but she still wants them together because she loves both of them,” Goldstein said. “I think that’s very real, especially from a ‘child’s’ point of view.”
Choosing to write the story through a perspective of a dog, rather than a child, allows Goldstein to explore the serious themes in relationships without making the novel overwhelmingly heavy. At most, Betty is an objective character of the couple’s behavior while also providing a sense of humor and heartfulness.
Leah Lancione, the editor at Koehler Books the company that published the novel, believes the alternating perspectives allow readers to see the character’s dynamics objectively.
“Betty doesn’t take sides, readers experience the pure emotional weight affecting everyone involved,” she said. “We feel for Layla, we feel for Franklin, and we feel for Betty. This shifts the focus from a dramatic, bitter feud to a tragic, shared loss.”
Although this story draws from personal experience, Goldstein acknowledges that sometimes divorce is inevitable but hopes “Canine Custody” will remind people that genuine love and connection will prevail over any differences.
“There’s a lot of stress and pressures that can weigh on a couple,” he said. “But I think if the love is there, keep working on it.”
During the editing process, Lancione had to balance serious moments like Franklin and Layla’s heated arguments with the sentimental scenes and moments of comic relief. She added that the character’s arguments and tension was authentic enough that the humor naturally flowed throughout the story.
“The tense dialogue is visceral, real, and deeply relatable,” Lancione said. “The drama is firmly established. To balance it, humor arrives naturally through the reality that they are forming a custody agreement over a dog rather than a child.”
Goldstein said that writing “Canine Custody” is built on decades of experience in storytelling. As a screenwriter, he has written over 15 telefilms and worked in journalism, including for the Los Angeles Times.
“If every couple needs a dog, every divorcing couple needs Betty, the devoted canine in the middle of an unhappy custody battle,” Ken Pisani, an LA Times bestselling author said in a blurb about the book. “Brought to life by Goldstein’s delightful prose, ‘Canine Custody’ is honest, unexpected, thoughtful, and as enjoyable as being scratched behind the ears."
“Canine Custody” will be released on Sept. 22 but is available for preorder through all local and online booksellers. For more information, go to GaryGoldsteinla.com.
