For Ogden, this golden ratio was pivotal to his emotionally powerful coming-of-age memoir — equal parts poetic, gutting, and darkly humorous in its recounting of murder, suicide, racial healing, glamour, romance, and black holes.
Beginning with the death of his sister on his eleventh birthday, the memoir weaves the frequent tragedies throughout Ogden’s life — his mother’s suicide, his father’s aggressive cancer, and the death of his brother — along with the triumphs.
Spanning nearly three decades, the book covers the first 18 years of Ogden’s life: his Germantown beginnings, through art school in Savannah, Georgia, his music work at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, to his current film career in LA. His resume includes DreamWorks Animation, Ikoya Productions, and Fox TV’s “Nanny 911.”
“Eclipse of the Mourning Star” transcends true crime — rather than focusing on the murderer, it highlights what it means to live after unimaginable loss.
For the past five years, using the memoir as a therapeutic tool, Ogden recalled those painful moments throughout his life, which in turn edged him closer to letting them go. Though, through the editing process and the sacred numerology elements, he said that it crossed a line from therapeutic into torture.
“I definitely try to keep the reader in mind when retelling these stories, and focus on the beauty,” Ogden said. “I found that humor is the best medicine, so it’s pretty funny, too. Even in the moments of tragedy, it’s kind of a family tradition to crack some jokes to lighten the mood.”
“Eclipse of the Mourning Star” is illustrated in premium color and black hole black and white by 33 world-renowned artists from seven different countries.
Sticking with numerology, Ogden knew he’d end up with 33 chapters, with illustrations paired with each. The art styles include pen and ink, paint, copper prints, and photography.
Many of the artists offered their work for free because they believed in the mission of the book.
“The film industry is extremely demanding; people have families at home. What I wasn’t expecting was everyone selflessly donating this artwork in between all of the difficulties they were handling,” Ogden said. “That was a really beautiful aspect that was wrenching my heart but making me feel so honored.”
The title, “Eclipse of the Mourning Star,” paired with the black hole featured on the cover, adds an ethereal, nuanced ambiguity to the book’s content. Using the homonym “mourning,” Ogden takes the great heaviness of his life and reduces it to two syllables.
This being the “eclipse” of the “mourning star” — ostensibly Ogden himself, or at least his ubiquitous grief — it’s possible his weighted journey, his emotionally therapeutic one set to paper and ink, is nearing the end of its numerically significant Fibonacci sequence. The title sparks those thoughts before cracking the binding of the book.
Ogden said his life’s mission is to help others with his art as he strives to contribute a positive impact on the human experience. With his first book, he has pulled focus on a lifelong passion for writing amidst his film career.
“I’ve gotten some really beautiful responses from people; that was kind of the goal of the book… not only to help those in need, but to just uplift people,” Ogden said. “Some people feel changed by the book, and that’s kind of the best compliment I could get.”
In the book’s second chapter, “Innocent Tempest,” Ogden recalls a lesson that his sister, Susan, gave him just before her stabbing: “Nothing in this life is worth crying over.” It’s a lesson he carries throughout the book that both haunts and anchors him — transforming over time from numb defiance into a deeper meditation on resilience, humor, and the quiet strength it takes to keep moving forward through grief.
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
MORE INFO
Robert Ogden’s debut novel “Eclipse of the Mourning Star” is available to purchase at eclipseofthemourningstar.com.
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