Author Q&A: Naomi Reed

Name: Naomi Reed
Born: 29th May 1968
Hometown: Blue Mountains, Sydney, Australia
Education: BAppSc (physio) Master of Arts Christian Studies (in progress)
Occupation: Speaker, Author
Published titles:My Seventh Monsoon, No Ordinary View, Over My Shoulder, The Promise
Likes: Playing board games with our kids, mushrooms on toast (after a 6km run), the smell of the Australian bush after a storm, long cups of chiya with my husband and friends, the Himalayas
Dislikes: Angry words, filling in tax returns, leeches, being far away from our friends in other countries
Favourite quote or Bible passage: “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15;12)
Favourite author: I’m currently enjoying Ann Voskamp and her focus on gratitude
Favourite book genre: Anything that probes human relationships

Did you ever think you would be an author?

No, it was a bit like thinking I would be an astronaut. Impossible!

What did you want to be when you were younger?

I wanted to be a ballerina, but then I had to face my lack of talent. Dancing was probably as impossible as being an astronaut. So then I studied physiotherapy, and really enjoyed the interactions I had with patients. During the initial years, I spent a lot of time with people who had lost limbs due to trauma or vascular disease – and I enjoyed being part of the process that allowed them to walk (and live and love and dream) again. It was very humbling.

Who or what inspired you to start writing?

Darren and I moved to Nepal in the early 90s to serve with the International Nepal Fellowship (INF). We both worked as physios in Nepali hospitals and we were part of the local church. But it was also a hard time. We lived through seven monsoons and during the last one, (in which it rained for 120 days in a row), I was home-schooling our three sons, we had a shoot-on-sight curfew every evening (as a result of the civil war) and my closest Nepali friend was dying of a brain tumour. All I could think about was how long it would go on for. Then one night in desperation, I began to type. The rain was pouring down outside and we had a power cut inside. I had two small candles on either side of the laptop and I just started to tell our story. I was thinking about God’s purposes through seasons of life – why does he allow the things he does, how does he make everything ‘beautiful in his time’, and what is ‘his time’ – so all of those thoughts poured out on the page through the lens of Ecclesiastes 3. After I finished 65,000 words, I thought I better show someone. But I didn’t ever imagine that it was a book.

What happened next?

I really enjoyed it! I noticed that the more I wrote, the more space there was in my head for new thoughts. So I showed that manuscript to Darren who said that it was very nice but that nobody else would want to read it. Then I showed it to one other friend. She said it was a book. So I sent it to a publisher and it became My Seventh Monsoon.

Can you tell us a little bit about your new book No Ordinary View?

After I finished that book, I realized I was quite addicted to the process of writing. It felt like the act of putting words on the page somehow helped me to know what I thought, and it helped the new thoughts to come. So then I couldn’t stop. By the time My Seventh Monsoon was released, everyone was asking me what happened next. So I wrote the sequel, No Ordinary View, and I thought a lot about the way God asks us to fix our eyes on him, especially when things around us appear difficult. By then, my Nepali friend had died, our physio student had his house bombed and our Nepali pastor had run out of money – so he was trying to sell his kidney. It was a difficult time. Sometimes it felt like it was even too hard for God. Maybe he’d run out of ideas and gone somewhere else. All of that poured into the second book.

What was the highlight of your time spent in the Himalayas?

The very best thing was our Nepali friends (at church and work and down in the bazaar). We cried with them and laughed with them and prayed with them and ate with them. I even gave birth with one of them - at the same time, not in the same room! I think the sharing of life has to be the greatest highlight, no matter which country we’re in.

Are you working on anything exciting at the moment?

We came back to Australia five years ago, just prior to Christmas. That was probably a mistake! I was quite shocked by everything, including the level of consumerism as well as our tendency to isolate the nativity story, or even worse, to be bored by it. So then in my angst, I began to write dramatic monologues from the voices of the women in the Bible. That became my fourth book and I now spend a lot of time performing these at churches and special events. I love it! The surprising thing has been that becoming an actor was even further away from my realm of possibilities than becoming an astronaut!

But this year I have also been working on my fifth book, A Place Called Home. I’ve been thinking a lot about our yearning for home, especially during times when we feel caught inbetween. That was a big part of our transition back to Australia and the challenge for me has been to find my sense of home and meaning and purpose in Christ, as well as the tangible nature of the home around us. What does it mean for me to remain in Christ while I go back to the Post Office and cut up more watermelon? What does it mean for me to remain in Christ (and long for heaven) during my daily interactions in Australia? Those are the questions that continue to challenge me as I write…

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers what would it be?

If you have something burning up inside you, just get it down on paper. Don’t worry too much about how it sounds, just keep writing. There’s always time to fix it later. The important thing is to get it out. Then, when you’ve finished, find some honest and thoughtful friends who can give you feedback or help. But mostly, remember why you’re writing in the first place. Has God put something on your heart to say? Has he shown you something that you can’t not write about? I think that if we write from the depths of what God is doing in us, to an audience that we know and love, then we also trust that God will use those words for the people he has in mind, in his way, because that’s his work, not ours. Just write.

If you want to find out more about Naomi and her books you can visit her website here: www.naomireed.info