SCENIC Rim debut novelist and mother of three Tabitha Bird will talk about how a tree change led to the launch of her debut novel published by Penguin Random House at an author talk at Capalaba on Wednesday.
Mrs Bird, 42, lived mostly in the Redlands from the age of four, until she moved to Boonah six years ago.
She met her husband while both were students at Redlands College.
The local launch of A Lifetime of Impossible Days is at Capalaba library from 10am to 11am on Wednesday, June 26.
Mrs Bird said that she was surprised to hear that due to high demand in pre-sales, publisher Penguin Random House had authorised her book's first reprint before it had even been published.
"I did a little happy dance and then burst into tears when I found out," she said. "You don't dream about something like that happening when you're a debut author."
Mrs Bird said she had not long been diagnosed with the mental illness Bipolar 2 when she and her family moved to Boonah.
"I had the support of a gifted counsellor, my amazing husband and my beautiful sons and finally having a correct mental health diagnosis was instrumental in healing," Mrs Bird said.
"I'd always wanted to live in the country, so living here in Boonah was one of many first steps in becoming more me - who I was if I stopped being afraid of simply being myself.
"Writing this novel was a way of finding myself, a way of saving myself. The kind of story that needed to be nurtured in a place that fed my soul."
Mrs Bird said that the project started out as a memoir but she realised she really wanted to separate it from her own experiences and write it as a fiction novel. It does, however, draw deeply from her own personal experiences of healing from childhood trauma.
"My personal journey of finding healing, the journey of writing my book and the journey of my fictional characters have all been profoundly impacted by a simple decision to move to the country," she said.
"During early drafts my story didn't have a setting so when I moved to Boonah I immediately rewrote my novel to place it here."
Mrs Bird said work on her second novel had stalled when her beloved grandmother recently became seriously ill but her writing was back on track now.
"She sat me down for a good grandma talk and told me to get back to work," she said.
"Nannie is my number one PR person, she tells all the doctors and nurses about my book."
For information about the talk, visit facebook.com/events/354380905431195. Bookings are essential.
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