Singing, solace and second chances in Sophie Green’s newest novel

“Meaningful entertainment” is how Sophie Green describes her heartwarming novels.

The Sydney-based author is coming to Wagga to launch her newest release, The Bellbird River Country Choir.

No stranger to the area, Sophie has visited the region “many, many times”.

As a child, her family holidayed in the Riverina at least once or twice a year visiting family friends in Ganmain, Wagga and other towns about the district.

This will be Sophie’s third event at Wagga Wagga City Library and she is always keen to meet local book lovers.

“I’m always interested in meeting people, because everyone’s interesting. Everyone has a story,” she says.

“It’s lovely when they have read the books and sometimes have questions and feedback. Lately, I’ve been hearing that the books have been comforting for people and I guess we’re at a time when people need a bit of comfort.

“Part of the job of any novelist is to provide a bit of distraction, a bit of entertainment, a bit of relief sometimes, a bit of support.

“If they come to me and say that’s happened then I feel like I’ve done my job.”

The Bellbird River Country Choir is Sophie’s fourth novel. Her books focus on the friendships and community that emerge over shared interests.

When Sophie writes her novels she starts with a place and a year. This book is set in 1998, and is based in a fictional small town near Tamworth, in country NSW. It features a single mum and teacher Alex, who has recently moved from Sydney to Bellbird River in the lead up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

“Whenever I start a novel I get the place and the year and once I know that then I basically just sit there and say, ‘Alright, who is around in this place and this time who would like their story told?'” she says. “In every one of my books, the character who has the first chapter is the first character who came to me.

“Alex popped up. When a character pops up, I tend to think, ‘Why are they there, what’s the reason?'”

Alex joins a local choir hoping to make friends. There she meets a mix of locals and blow-ins, all with good reasons to leave the past behind: Victoria, a matriarch whose husband has left her for a younger woman; her cousin, Gabrielle, a renowned opera singer whose career is flailing; Debbie, who is recovering from gaol time; and Janine, a closet artist who feels stuck working in her parents’ bakery.

Each woman has their own reason for joining the choir, but it’s their love of music that brings them together.

This ability of music to foster friendship is something Sophie has experienced first-hand. When her friend Neralyn, whom the book is dedicated to, needed another member for her country music band, The Sweetie Darling Sweeties, Sophie was unsure.

At the time she was “a huge snob about country music”. But she wanted to play in a band so accepted the challenge. That decision set in motion her enduring love of country music.

“We played at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2003,” she says. “That was the conversion moment for me. I went to that festival and thought, ‘This is the most extraordinary, wonderful, joyous thing I have ever experienced in my life’. The standard of music was so high, the variety of music. So I realised I had been a terrible snob and I needed to change my mind.”

That experience shaped Sophie’s life in more ways than one. She now writes an influential country music blog. Those musical experiences were also part of the inspiration behind The Bellbird River Country Choir.

Readers of Sophie’s books can expect a sense of fun to come through her stories, but they will also find a deeper meaning in her books – if they want to.

“I try to write meaningful entertainment,” she says. “That’s what a lot of people look for. I love to be entertained, because it brings solace, but I hope to write meaning into the story so they can also derive something from it – or not. That’s their choice as a reader.”

So does she have any advice for budding novelists?

“‘Get out of your own way’, is something I often say,” she says. “Stop coming up with excuses about why you should or shouldn’t do it. If you want to do it, just get out of your own way and let the story come through.”

Sophie Green is appearing at Collins Booksellers on Wednesday 24 August from 11:30 am to 2 pm and will launch The Bellbird River Country Choir at Wagga Wagga City Library from 5:30 pm. Tickets are available on the Wagga Wagga City Library website.