Bestselling South Carolina author Mary Alice Monroe considers herself a storyteller first and foremost, but her commitment to environmental protection comes in a close second.
Her novels, inspired by a variety of natural species, have won her the International Award for Green Fiction, the South Carolina Book Festival Literary Excellence Award, and the praise of literary luminaries such as Pat Conroy, who calls her “the premier nature writer among Southern novelists.”
When Monroe visits the Vero Beach Book Center next Wednesday, she’ll be sharing the podium with representatives from two organizations concerned with the health of Vero’s coastal waters.
The collaborative program is inspired by her novel “The Summer Wind.” Published this month by Gallery Books, the novel is the second book in Monroe’s “Lowcountry Summer” trilogy, tales about the women of a single family. Each book of the trilogy emphasizes the story of one of three sisters and at the same time, plays off a single aspect of dolphin life and health.
Biologist Rick Herren, manager of Indian River County’s habitat conservation plan for sea turtles and the executive director of the recently formed Coastal Biology Inc., will appear alongside Monroe during the program. Herren also partnered with Monroe on her last visit to Vero in 2012, when both spoke about the sea turtles that are the theme of her novel “Beach House Memories.”
Monroe will be introduced by Robin Dannahower, a vice-president at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, better known as ORCA. The Fort Pierce-based group was founded in 2005 to develop innovative strategies to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems and species.
“We’re excited that a work of fiction can open people’s eyes, helping them understand how fragile these systems are now,” Dannahower says.
Cynthia Callander, director of marketing at the Book Center, concurs. “We love to put together this kind of program. Books do more than just entertain. They can inspire change as well. Can a story impact the landscape? You bet.”
Monroe always knew she wanted to write about dolphins, but there was a catch. “I didn’t want to write ‘Flipper.’ That’s been done. I wanted to write a story that has some sort of impact on our animals and our landscape,” she says.
The impetus for the “Lowcountry Summer” trilogy’s dolphin theme came in part from a study co-sponsored by Florida Atlantic University and NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
“What they found is alarming,” Monroe explains. “Over half of Florida’s resident dolphins are sick in some way, and nearly the same percentage in South Carolina.”
In the trilogy, Marietta Muir asks her three very different granddaughters to share one final summer with her at her house on South Carolina’s Sullivan’s Island. There, the women bond with a dolphin that plays in the waters around a nearby dock.
The affinity between humans and the marine mammals is a natural one, the author says. “We all love dolphins, and we want that up close and personal connection with them.”
But the consequences of human interference can be catastrophic. Communications and community are disrupted. When they are being fed by humans, dolphin mothers don’t teach their calves to forage; encouraging the species to come too close to piers and other feeding areas increases their risk of injury.
Near the close of “The Summer Girls,” the dolphin – dubbed Delphine by the family – is nearly killed when she is entangled in fishing line and hooks near the dock.
As the new novel opens, the badly injured Delphine is being treated at the Mote Marine Laboratory’s Whale and Dolphin Hospital in Sarasota.
As always, Monroe crafted these passages from first-person, hands-on research.
“I do the academic research first and then talk to experts. Once I know where I am headed I find a place to volunteer,” Monroe said. “I think that is a hallmark of my books. I actually become part of the story world myself. I listen, I observe, I do the dirty jobs.”
To gain the background needed for this story, Monroe helped scientists take dolphin dorsal-fin photo identifications as well as blood and skin samples for DNA.
But she says that the most enlightening experience for her was at the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key.
“This is a unique place because the facility is carved out of natural lagoon, where the ocean flows in and out,” she says. “And unlike the wild, it is the kind of place where humans can interact safely with dolphins.”
“I began volunteering there at the ground level, doing menial jobs. Then I worked my way up. I volunteer every year now. They have let me learn to train some dolphins, and work with mothers and calves.”
She considers herself fortunate to have been able to participate in their Pathways program, which is geared toward children with special needs. Her work with an autistic boy helps shape the scenes involving Nate, one of the characters in “The Summer Wind,” who has Asperger’s Syndrome.
The most moving part of her time at the Dolphin Research Center, she says, was her encounter with the Wounded Warrior Project there.
“Our wounded warriors are so guarded. But the moment they connect with dolphins, they relax, become playful. For a short while they are purely in the moment.”
Watching their transformation inspired her to write the character of Taylor, a Marine who is introduced at the end of “The Summer Wind” and will be featured in the trilogy’s final installment, 2015’s “Summer’s End,” as well.
“I didn’t expect to feel this deep connection. This is why I say that I get involved first and then the story comes to me. Once I begin writing the novel, it is all about the women, the human story,” she says.
“I could write a nonfiction book about dolphins, but I’m not going to. I’m a storyteller. I think the power of the story is what elicits emotion. And it is emotion that is going to make leaders care and people’s actions change.”
Mary Alice Monroe presents “The Summer Wind” at the Vero Beach Book Center on Wednesday, July 2 at 5 p.m. Representatives from ORCA and Coastal Biology will be available as well. Contact the Book Center at 569-2050 for more information.
