Q&A: Sophie Beer, Author of Thunderhead

Briefly tell us about your book.

Thunderhead is a middle grade novel starring the titular Thunderhead, an anonymous poster on an abandoned music forum. Thunderhead doesn’t want you to know anything about them: not their age (DEFINITELY NOT 12.75!), not their whereabouts, not even their gender (or lack thereof). But they ARE okay with you knowing that:

1. They live for music, and
2. They’re (possibly) going deaf.

In what ways is Thunderhead’s story based on your own experience?

In 2016, I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a brain tumour that affects the hearing and balance nerves, and subsequently lost half of my hearing. I kept thinking about how devastating this hearing loss would have been when I was younger and based my entire identity upon my music taste. While I’ve grown up and no longer think that hearing loss is the end of the world, or that someone’s worth is based on how cool their music collection is, I couldn’t shake the itch that there was a story in there somewhere. Thus, Thunderhead sprang forth! 

What are you hoping readers will take away from your book?

Resilience. I throw a lot of awful stuff at the character of Thunderhead, yet they keep trucking along (despite some wobbles). Existing inside a sick body can be tough, so building the resilience to accept, love and cherish that sick body is difficult but oh-so-worth-it. I also wanted to underscore that disabled people aren’t there to be pitied: we are complex, messy, funny people and don’t just exist to be an inspiration to non-disabled people. Lastly, I wanted to celebrate music and deafness and the way they join. Despite what Thunderhead thinks at the beginning of the novel, despite what I thought when I first lost my hearing, music and deafness aren’t opposites. 

How does this book compare to your other books?

This is my first novel! I mostly write and illustrate picture books with some junior fiction sprinkled in, so it was quite a departure from my usual fare. I found the novel-writing process to be a lot of fun; while stylistically different from picture books, it was interesting to play with the interface between text and illustrations (something picture books are built upon) in a longer format. 

All the chapters begin with a playlist. What was your process for deciding the song selection?

No joke, I think compiling all of the playlists took me longer than actually writing the novel! Some were easy (e.g. ‘Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out’ by The Replacements for a chapter about Thunderhead going to hospital), and some required hours of research and mulling. I was swapping out songs mere days before we went to print because I would think of or discover a song that fit a particular playlist perfectly.

Which did you enjoy most: writing the story or drawing the illustrations?

The novelty of writing something long-form was such a thrill! I’m plotting out my next novel and it’s a remarkably difficult yet rewarding art, just like illustration.

Buy a copy of Thunderhead here.