Рак мозга автора детской книги «Гром» вдохновил на создание истории о слепоте и музыке

How a Brisbane author’s brain tumour inspired a children’s book Welcome to CityChats, where Brisbane Times meets our city’s most interesting characters on our most iconic form of transport. This week, children’s book author and illustrator Sophie Beer tells us about her unlikely corporate background, how her real-life experiences with loss and grief inspire her work and why children’s literature is the backbone of society. Beer is waiting for us at North Quay ferry terminal after travelling almost an hour by boat from Bulimba for the interview. She’s dressed head-to-toe in colour and impossible to miss. Her bright personality is evident from the moment we meet. Where do you write your best? Do you have any certain rituals or things you need in your space to set you up for success? Oh my gosh, yes. I’m one of those people that has to hyper focus, so I need a coffee, and complete quiet, just my computer and me, tapping away. Usually, I try to get an hour or so done in the mornings when my brain is fresh. Do you have music playing or anything like that or is it silence? Oh, no, I never do. But then I was talking to an amazing writer, Jeremy Lachlan, who does kids’ books. He was like, “I write to movie soundtracks.” Which I was like, “That is so cool.” How long have you been writing children’s books and illustrating? It would have been 2016 when I got into it. It was all I ever really wanted to do, but for some reason I did a law degree before that. I was like, “you can’t make a living being an artist for kids”, but apparently you can. I just didn’t know that at the time. Related Article You see this creative path, but it’s like, oh no, it’s not going to happen. Yeah, totally! It’s like thinking you’re going to be a rock star or something. I worked at a law firm for a little bit – I won’t say which one. I was the person getting into trouble because I was doodling on the side of affidavits and stuff. And then one day, one of the senior legal people saw one of my doodles, and he’s like, “Sophie, you’re in the wrong profession.” I mean, I’m sure there are creative lawyers out there but for scatterbrain, rainbow-vomit me, yeah, that’s not a vibe. Do you ever run into kids that are dressed up as your characters for Book Week? Not yet, unfortunately. One day, fingers crossed, one day it’ll happen. You mentioned before that children’s literature is so important to you. Why is it so important to you? Related Article I feel like it’s the cornerstone of society. Not to be overblown, but legitimately, it is. I really want warmth and compassion and kindness to come through with the books I write. I do like to communicate a lot of social issues in my work, but at the same time, I never want to do it in, like, a preachy way. I have a five-year-old, and he’s really into books, which is great, but he only likes nonfiction books. Like the encyclopedia? Totally. We’re reading a bug encyclopedia at the moment. But I find myself, every night, I get excited, ’cause I’m like, “I get to read about bugs tonight!” Can you tell me a little bit about your novel, Thunderhead? Ah, yes, this is my baby! It’s about this kid who learns that they have a genetic illness which is going to make them deaf, and they’re a huge music nerd. I took inspiration from my own story. I went half-deaf from a brain tumour nine years ago. I wanted to read a book about being a huge music nerd and knowing you’re going to lose your hearing, and I couldn’t find one, so I [thought] I guess I have to write the book. And it’s been really beautiful, I’ve had so many people reach out and be like, I’m a pianist, I’m a music teacher, my daughter plays the flute, and I’ve just found out I have progressive hearing loss, or I am going deaf, or I have gone deaf. And those emails always make me cry. Has your hearing loss affected how you consume music? It has, unfortunately, yeah, ’cause I have tinnitus as well, as... it’s noise-affective, so if I hear something really loud, my ears buzz. So, I can’t put on punk music and rock around any more. But I guess that was the ethos of the novel – there’s beautiful things in life and they come and go. Are your other books inspired by real-life experiences, too? I have quite a few that I’ve drawn from my own life. I went through IVF with my little bubba and I have two books about that. It was quite emotional. I have two picture books that deal with that. One is called Baby, You’re a Rainbow, so it’s about having a baby after losses, and things like that. But it’s not a sad book, it’s cute and like, “Oh, you’re here now! We’re going to celebrate!” Yeah, it’s very sweet. The other one is called Before We Met, which is written by a lovely lady called Gabrielle Tozer. She’s lives in Wagga in New South Wales, and I did the illustrations. So I tried to put an IVF story in the illustrations – me working through my own feelings about IVF. Yeah, I’m an IVF baby. Are you? Oh my god! Yeah. And I remember my mum just told me one day, I was a teenager, and I just couldn’t understand what it meant. I was just like, “What do you mean, like, test tube?” Test tube baby! So, I imagine having a book like that when you’re a kid, that would have been so nice. Yeah, because [becoming a parent] can happen so many different ways. Every family is as special and gorgeous as every other, so it doesn’t matter if they come together in a slightly unorthodox way. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter. 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