Dawn Reno Langley's Blog, page 3

Live in Chicago, Portland or LA?

If you do and you have a group of friends who are either readers or writers (or both), I want to visit with you on my cross-country tour! Let's have lunch or tea or wine!

Message me and we can put something together.

Cheers,
Dawn

VOTE for The Mourning Parade!

The Mourning Parade is on a bunch of lists, but to move up, we need your help! Can you check out these lists, pick one you're interested in, and vote for TMP?

https://www.goodreads.com/list/book/3...



THANK YOU!!! Love you guys!

Allergy Eyes and Book Tours and Do I Need an RV?

I've spent the better part of the last three months booking the cross-country tour, planning how to properly deliver this new "baby" into the world, and how to balance the rest of my writing life while I do so.

I seriously don't understand how people can write three books a year and keep all the balls in the air that need to be afloat in order to sustain the business end of this cottage industry we call writing.

What makes it even more difficult is that my eyes have suddenly decided not to focus -- and, of course, I spend all day looking at some kind of screen, so I need my eyesight! I discovered this morning that a combination of eye drops and an allergy pill did the trick, so I suspect that the wind is whipping up a bunch of pollen that my eyes are not appreciating. Hopefully, I can deal with this, because I need to work!

Looking at the trips I have lined up in order to promote The Mourning Parade, I'm wondering whether I need to simply buy an RV so I can travel from one place to the other without having to worry about someone to mind my house (and Izzy! Can't forget about Izzy! I'll put a photo of him on my Goodreads page for you all to drool over my handsome man).


So, dear readers, where should I go along the East Coast? What towns? Favorite bookstores? Who would like me to come meet your book club? Or how about creating a Literary Lunch that will benefit one of the elephant sanctuaries in the U.S.? Or maybe we'll have tea and discuss my long and storied writing career?

I'm up for anything! Message me!

Birthday, beach and book parties! BOOM!

So I had another birthday this past Saturday and had a lovely weekend. Celebrated with my two special people (my daughter and grandson) on Friday night. Of course, I couldn't get through the door without him telling me "We have a chocolate cake for you, and I painted a picture, and we wrapped it up, and we're going out to eat." No secrets kept in that house.

Headed to the beach for a quick overnighter and celebrated my birthday watching a wonderful sunset and eating great seafood. Nothing better to make me relax and forget about working for a few hours than the sound and smell of the ocean. There's absolutely no pill in the universe that does for me what the beach does.

While I was away enjoying the sea and sky, little fairy dust pieces fell from the clouds and decorated my Goodreads review page for The Mourning Parade with the most wonderful group a ladies. Several women who know each other through Goodreads groups chose my book from NetGalley and started spreading the word like wildfire. I love love love their reviews, but what's even more humbling is that they're all so kind and supportive of my work. I'm blown away by this awesome group and hope to meet them all in person while I'm traveling to promote the book.

Which brings me to this: if you are in any of the cities I'll visit on the x-c trip, please contact me and I'll visit your group personally. You can have whatever kind of party you'd like, and I'll show up, book in hand, ready to do a reading, answer questions about elephants or PTSD or Thailand (I can even bring recipes!), or we can talk about writing. I have tons of stories I'd love to share -- and nothing would make me happier than to meet the readers who have enjoyed the book or might want to read it or who simply want to have a night out with some friends.

Let's meet! Check my schedule on http://www.themourningparade.com and let me know if we can get together!

Cheers
D

Reviews and Publicity and Cross-Country Trip, Oh My

I've spent the past six months--no, wait a minute, it's been more than a year--learning how to promote my books, publicize my "brand" and now everything is ramping up for the new novel. It's been . . . interesting. The learning curve has been intense, but I think I'm finally getting it.

The x-country tour has become more of a challenge than I could have imagined. I have to write emails every day to bookstores and book clubs and libraries and anyone who might be interested in meeting with me along the way.

If anyone reading this is in any of the following cities, feel free to get in touch.

7/17-7/19 Boston *book launch 7/18
7/21 Chicago
7/23 St. Paul
7/25-26 Havre, Montana
7/27-28 Spokane, WA
7/29-7/30 Seattle
7/31 Portland, OR
8/2-8/3 Healdsburg, CA
8/3-8/4 San Francisco
8/6 Los Angeles/Pasadena
8/7-8/10 Phoenix/Scottsdale
8/11-8/13 Houston
8/14 New Orleans

Hope to see you somewhere along the line!

Cheers
Dawn

Nominated for the National Book Award!!!

Yes. The Mourning Parade has been nominated for The National Book Award.

The National Book Award.

I still can't believe it. The National Book Award.

I'm shaking my head.

Do you realize how many times I've picked up a book strictly BECAUSE it won The National Book Award? I actually choose books on this list on a regular basis, so for my book to be nominated for this prestigious prize . . . well, I'm flabbergasted. Pure and simple.

To prove my point, here's the list of the finalists last year: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2016_b...

And remember The Color Purple? National Book Award. And All The Light We Cannot See? National Book Award Finalist. Remember Station Eleven? National Book Award Finalist.

I'm still shaking my head.

The Mourning Parade

PR Kits . . . I'm doing my best

Part of being an author is handling some of your own marketing and publicity for your work. If you don't do it, the book will simply languish without any attention whatsoever. Believe me, even if you DO the publicity schtick, your book could STILL come and go with the impermanence of a match.

I've spent the last six months preparing documents, designing advertising pieces, figuring out who needed to get packets, which bookstores I would approach, whether I should add links on my website and call it a day or to create paper packets that would be mailed.

Believe me, this is not something that could be done in a week (ha! I'm laughing at myself, because if you could see my to-do list, I have 12-15 things on that list every day, and 'building a PR kit' was on that list for a very very very long time.

But they're done, and they're being sent, and I'm hoping that they look professional and are good representatives of the book and of me -- and that they work to interest people in reading this novel!

So, what's going into my press kit? A cover letter, first of all. It's personalized for every contact I'm reaching out to. I want them to know that I've considered very carefully where I want to go and what type of event I want to build.

Secondly, the press release. Mine covers the major themes of the book, a link to the town I'm going to visit, information about the book, my bio, and some info about what type of publicity will be done to promote the book and the events.

Third, a glossy cover sheet that says "Inside the Mourning Parade," and includes a bulleted list of interview topics and book club questions.

Beneath that, there's an extensive Reading Group Guide that is best enjoyed online since the links to the play list and recipes are live.

Fifth, another cover sheet. (it's a three-fold presentation folder that I'm filling). This cover is the sell sheet from the publisher, that gives details about book buying information, as well as general info about the book.

And beneath that, the backstory about the book, my inspiration for writing it, and contact info.

Whew. Each piece took me at least four days to produce, then I'd print it and look at it again, find more I'd want to change, and the process continued until I started printing up the packages. I'll guarantee you, if I look at the package one more time, I'll still find things I want to change.

So, there's another pile of them going out today, then I'm going to start sending them to book clubs I'd like to meet in person while I'm on the book tour.

Do you know anyone who'd love to have an author come speak or sit and have a glass of wine or cuppa coffee???

VOTE for The Mourning Parade!

The Mourning Parade, my latest novel (coming out in July) is on several Goodreads lists! I love it! And people are voting -- and it's FIRST on several lists!!!

Would love it if you'd vote, too!

https://www.goodreads.com/list/book/3...The Mourning Parade

The review that made me cry . . .

I'm humbled and so happy to have some of the first reviews of The Mourning Parade...and they're awesome! This one is from Erinn's Book Club, and it made me cry . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ1d3...

The Mourning Parade back story

It's time for the back story for my latest novel (set for a July 18, 2017 release) THE MOURNING PARADE! I'm so excited to share this book with you. I've always loved animals, but this book may actually help some of the animals I love.

Before I start, a reminder: I'm coming across the United States to promote this book in July/August. As we come closer to the dates, I'll be sharing more details, but suffice it to say, I'd LOVE TO MEET YOU!!!

Now, for the story:

The inspiration behind THE MOURNING PARADE began long ago when my mother collected little porcelain elephants. "They must have upraised trunks," she'd tell us. So we bought them for her. When she passed away, we found ceramic, glass, and metal elephants, as well as elephant jewelry and all kinds of other pieces that featured her favorite animal.

In 2014, more than ten years after her death, I visited Thailand to see her beloved elephants in their native habitat. The trip was fabulous, but the highlight was the time I spent at an elephant sanctuary in the Kanchabouri Province.

A small rattling truck flew down Thailand's winding, two-lane highway stretching from where I was staying (a jungle hotel that could only be reached by longboats that sped between jungle cliffs on both sides of the River Kwai) to the elephant sanctuary, more than an hour and a half away. The welcome hot breeze whipped away the perspiration I wore 24/7 since arriving in Thailand. I was the only passenger, and the driver didn't speak English, so I spent the whole ride drinking in the green jungles and mountain spires, realizing we headed even deeper into the mountains. Huge plantations of cantalope and watermelon, fields of rice paddies, roadside stands where Thai locals sold everything from produce to straw hats.

When we finally arrived, the entry road led another mile back into an area where I finally saw the giant grayish pink animals I'd come to see. They gathered around a raised cement walkway, which I would later find out was their "eating station."

Because I was early, no one from the sanctuary spoke to him, so I wandered around and went to visit some of the elephants. I had no fear, though I know that any wild animal, even the ones families trust, can revert to that wildness once spooked or angered.

That thought stuck with me. The ever-present question novelists ask themselves repeated over and over throughout the time I spent with the elephants and the people who cared for them. What if?

I used the sanctuary I visited as a template for the one where Natalie and Sophie live, though I changed where buildings were located and added Sophie's enclosure, as well as Mali's farm. One of the first things I did was to sketch out a little map of the sanctuary.

I asked lots of questions, though I'd already read a number of books prior to arriving in Thailand. I made notes, when I could. Most of the time, I committed my impressions to memory as I fed the elephants a hot mixture of calcium powder, rice and squash. I tried to savor the emotion I felt when one of their elephants connected with me, staring deep into my eyes as I fed her.

We cut palm leaves for food, chopped vegetables, watched the herd in the mud pits, but the moment we waited for in the afternoon was swimming with the elephants in the river.

I know now that even the very careful instructions we had to stay on the elephant's neck weren't enough to protect the animals. I know now, after lots more research and time at an elephant camp in Kenya, as well, that we should not put any weight on an elephant's fragile spinal bones.

For the next two years, I wrote the story of the veterinarian, Natalie, and the elephant with whom she falls in love. And over that period of time, my mother sat on my shoulder more than once, sometimes commenting on the story, sometimes just offering comfort or support. But she's been here the whole time.

I hope readers will also fall in love with Natalie and Sophie and Thailand.

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon, and I'm posting a Readers' Guide on my website The Mourning Parade that will include links to questions, music, recipes and other goodies.