Guest Post: Dawn Reno Langley, Author of The Mourning Parade

Today I’m pleased to introduce you to a fascinating woman, Dawn Reno Langley, and her new novel The Mourning Parade. In addition to being pleased that I’m able to facilitate those introductions, I’m also quite pleased to be able to share with you her thoughts on inspiration in writing and a little bit of the backstory behind the genesis of this heartbreakingly inspirational story. Enjoy!

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Sometimes Inspiration is as Simple as a Family Story
by Dawn Reno Langley

My mother never had much. For most of my school days, we lived on the second and third floor of my grandmother’s home. Then my parents moved to a home of their own for a while, and from there, to other apartments. Mom decorated those places in her own inimitable style. Nothing matched, but everything was spotless. Surprisingly, for someone who was such a clean freak, she had more doo-dads than almost anyone I’ve ever known (including myself, and I’m bad. Trust me.)

Through the years, she complained of the clutter, always wanting to get rid of the things she accumulated, but she never did. Instead, she kept adding to them. Shadow boxes hung on the living room wall, each holding a small collection: Hummel figurines, little cherubs, and at Christmastime, a nativity. One of the collections that grew through the years consisted of dozens of elephants, all with trunks raised because Ma said that meant good luck. She’d tell me other trivia, but I never paid attention because there were other things going on in my life, and who cared about elephants anyway?

It became easy for us to gift her with a new elephant pin or a snow globe or a china figurine for Mother’s Day or Christmas or her birthday. She genuinely loved every single one and even though she always said she wanted to get rid of “stuff,” there was no evidence she ever gave away a single item we gave her.

As is always the case, the family came together to pack up and distribute the contents of their apartment after my father died (not long enough for us to have finished grieving my mother). It was a surprisingly easy experience, bonding even, between my sister, my brother, myself, and the grandkids.

Ma’s elephant collection split in several directions that day, just the way she would have wanted it to. One of my nieces got a snow globe or two, someone else took some figurines, and I chose some small pieces of jewelry: gold-and-black pins, the raised-trunk elephants, little fake jewels for the eyes. Heavy pieces. Pieces that held more sentiment than physical weight for me.

I remembered her stories every time I moved one of her elephants, every time I pinned one of the elephant broaches on my winter coat. I remembered her fascination with the animals that she connected to on a much deeper level than any other. Her spirit animal.

Many years went by. My roller-coaster life never ceased, but my fascination with my mother’s elephants grew. Occasionally, I’d watch a National Geographic special or I’d see an article in a magazine, but it wasn’t until after my mother died and the elephant’s plight became desperate that I needed to see them for myself, for her. I wanted to tell their story, needed to tell a story that Ma would appreciate.

So, I booked a trip for Thailand and the novel began.

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About The Mourning Parade
Natalie DeAngelo lost everything the day her two young sons were killed in a school shooting. Desperate to find relief from her unspeakable loss, she volunteers as a veterinarian on an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, but soon realizes she may be in over her head. Battling the memories that torment her day and night, Natalie must find a way to heal an angry, injured elephant named Sophie. Through love, acceptance, and gentle care, Natalie and Sophie heal together, finding new ways to enjoy life again.

About Dawn
A writer, theater critic, mosaic artist, and educator, Dawn Reno Langley has devoted her life to literature and the arts. Born an Army brat to a WWII and Korea vet and his wife, Dawn spent her childhood scaring her younger siblings with stories of monsters under the bed. Her first published works, an essay on the Cuban missile crisis, revealed a deep sense of social justice that has never waned. Since then, she has written extensively for newspapers and magazines, has published children’s books, novels, nonfiction books, short stories and poetry, as well as theater reviews and blogs. A Fulbright scholar with an MFA in Fiction and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, Langley lives in Durham, North Carolina, a small city where people present her with new stories every day. She is always amazed that one finds most stories in small places rather than large cities, and she appreciates the warmth of the friends she has made in the town she calls “funky/artsy.” For more information about Dawn and her writing, visit: www.themourningparade.com.