It’s ironic that I pursued a career in children’s books to get away from essay writing and public speaking, as nowadays I’m getting asked to do more and more of both. And I never would have guessed that I’d actually enjoy doing both of them. Isn’t it funny how things work out?
When I first thought of the concept of Where We Can Hear the Giants Sing I was coming off the high that comes with finishing and sending off final art for my debut picture book as an Author-illustrator: Every Night at Midnight, a book about a boy who turns into a wolf every night at midnight, and I was thinking of what I would like to sink my teeth into next.
I’ve always been fond of placing myself in unbelievable, exciting experiences while I’m cosy, safe and warm (often in bed). I think this is not uncommon, as that is why we love reading books (well, I do anyway).
That night in bed, instead of sleeping, I played around with words in my head, trying to find a phrase I enjoyed enough to build on; and I came up with the line: Take me down into the deep. This string of words evoked a strong sense of adventure within me; someone bringing me to either a place or experience that was exciting and new, somewhere unknown. Instead of sleeping, once I had thought of this line, I built from it and crafted it into what would eventually become Giants. Ideas tend to form in the most inconvenient of times, and I find it’s better to pursue it in the moment, otherwise you might never get around to it.
The handy thing about writing a picture book, rather than say, a novel (not that I have any experience writing a novel), is that you can play with almost the whole story in its entirety all in your head. And this is what I did that night. The Deep became the ocean, and the Taker became a mermaid friend. And the most glorious thing I could think of doing in the ocean was to swim with the whales, the giants of the deep. So that’s where I found the high point of my story (and the title too). I typed out all of these thoughts into my phone so I could tackle and refine it the next day.
The next day I roughly wrote out the manuscript and loosely drew out thumb-nails for a book dummy. It had none of the nuance the book has now, but it was a start, as all first drafts are. Together with my wonderful agent, Paige, we work-shopped this dummy into something more readable and sent it out into the wide, wide world. It would eventually be picked up by Henry Holt and shaped by the editor and designer, Jess and Aram. Together we made Where We Can Hear the Giants Sing the book it is today. I am most grateful for these people, and the support they have given me.
In Giants I really wanted to capture that primal feeling of excitement, that anticipation of an unknown adventure and, of wonder. You know that feeling you get when it’s Christmas the next morning, or that tomorrow you get to sit next to that really cute girl you have a crush on? That feeling, but more. When I was younger I joined the Australian Army as a rifleman. My younger self romanticized being in war (Yes, he wasn’t very smart). I watched and read a lot of military media and while most of it (if not all) shows how terrible war is, I didn’t see it. All I saw was camaraderie, honour and the chance to be a hero. Young and dumb, I know. But, because of this experience, I could draw on how I was feeling the night before I went to basic training, leaving my family and home behind, embarking on an unknown adventure completely on my own, and channel these feeling directly into Giants.
When I do school presentations, I often say that illustrators can do almost anything they want, because they are the illustrator and there is a freedom that comes with making art. But now, I’m discovering that there is a similar thing, but even more so, with writing. As the Author, you can do whatever you want, it’s your story, and it’s your words. It’s very freeing. And being able to be both the Author and Illustrator is very much having your cake and eating it too. It feels like cheating, I thoroughly enjoy it.
I hope that Where We Can Hear the Giants Sing ignites a spark of imagination in others that other books did for me when I was little. I hope it encourages readers to try things they haven’t before, to have an adventure (or two), to enjoy the things they thought they wouldn’t, and to remember that home is a place they can always come back to.
Peter is the illustrator of I’m a Hero Too, Nothing Alike and the Pow Pow Pig series. His author-illustrator debut, Every Night at Midnight(Atheneum) publishes in August 2023 and Where We Can Hear the Giants Sing (Holt) will be released in Fall 2024. Peter lives in Perth (Whadjuk Region), Western Australia, with his very understanding wife and less understanding cat (and even less understanding baby).