The Ocean Grove Voice looks back on our best Friday features for 2024.
Ocean Grove’s Sally Wilson will launch her new children’s book, ‘Have You Ever Stopped to Think?’. She speaks with Jena Carr about the jump from careers in music and trauma therapy to writing books.
Sally Wilson, 50, will finish off the year with the ‘craziest haircut on the block’ and a new title in her list of accomplishments.
The Ocean Grove woman is an internationally acclaimed opera singer who started pursuing a love of music from a young age, which led her to the USA, Europe and the UK.
“I grew up on a farm and just always sang. There are photos of me as a little kid with my wooden jewellery singing to the animals and trees,” Sally said.
“I was also fortunate that my parents understood the value of music, and they gave piano lessons to my brother and me.
“There was a school choir at my primary school in western Victoria and I loved that feeling of singing with other people. I was just hooked, leading me to music and art classes in secondary school.
“I had a year off after school and started my university studies in arts as there was so much in an arts degree, but after a couple years of that, I missed singing and wanted to study singing and music.
“There are many things in life that happen unexpectedly, and opera was one of them for me… So, I picked music up as another degree and went to America to study singing more intensively.”
Sally added trauma therapy to her list of career passions more than six years ago after seeing students struggling with their mental health at a university where she taught voice classes.
“Often what makes things painful for people is that we’re going through things on our own and that it’s just our isolated experience,” she said.
“There is so much more that we have in common than differences, and… the recognition that everybody goes through something similar is comforting.
“Sometimes we need to change the therapy road map a little bit. It only takes three sessions for most people because the mind’s powerful enough if we know how to use it.
“I get to see and help adults change the negative ideas they picked up as children. Even if they had great childhoods, we all pick up ideas that don’t serve us and can be so destructive in life.
“The ideas that we pick up, we’re not even aware of them because they’re just so interwoven in our normal and they feel like they’ve always been there, so we don’t even think to question them.”
Sally has since brought together her love of music and promoting emotional awareness in young people through her new book, ‘Have You Ever Stopped to Think?’.
As the first book in the Lala Chronicles series, the children’s book looks to empower young readers to face their fears, embrace diversity and develop emotional intelligence in a fun way.
“My first intention of the book was always fun. I wanted to have fun, and I want my readers to have fun, both adults and children,” Sally said.
“Kids and adults can sing along and there’s something about that connection that we experience through music and singing together.
“There’s also something to be said for simplicity and bringing it back to the things that matter because there’s so much noise in our lives.
“Much research has been done on how music with kids improves literacy and numeracy outcomes, but the fostered connection is just extraordinary.
“Music and musical expression are such a gift and… each book is set to music as a song and that’s what I want to encourage or at least give people the opportunity to sing along to the book.
“I realised when I looked back at what I’d written, they’re about different aspects of being human and the struggles that we all have but written in a playful, fun, and witty way.
“The book also encourages kids to question their fears and put themselves in another person’s shoes while getting them to look at their feelings and know that other people feel that stuff, too.
“Most kids reading it may not be aware of these big themes and ideas, as it’s just these funny characters that grasp their imagination. It’s a story for kids, and the themes are more for adults.”
‘Have You Ever Stopped to Think?’ will be launched at Ocean Grove’s The Hive Gallery from 2pm to 4pm on November 30, with book signings, singalongs, and children’s games.
Sally said she was looking forward to having a fun book launch while introducing people to some “gorgeous and quirky little characters”.
“Something that I’ve been blown away by is the beautiful support and enthusiasm that these books have inspired in people,” she said.
“There’s no age limit on this, and my 12-year-old niece, who was introduced to these characters years ago when I first wrote them, still picks up this book and reads it before bed.
“There’s something comforting about that. It’s like the food we grow up with and think of as comfort food; sometimes, we still want it as adults. That’s the same thing with childhood stories.
“I didn’t expect to write kids’ books. There are many people out there who dream of writing children’s books, but it wasn’t something that I grew up thinking I wanted to do.
“But, when I started writing, the creative juices flowed, and it just wrote itself. I now smile when I read the book and I hope everyone else does as well.
“I would love to hear stories of grandparents, parents and kids all singing it together as it’s recognition of our common humanity, sense of belonging, shared experiences and connection.”
Following the release of her first book, Sally is already writing, illustrating and composing the next books in the Lala Chronicles series, with each story brought to life with its own song.
The books will link to recorded music by Sally and her husband, Mark Kruger, through a QR code to encourage families to continue singing with their loved ones.
