Deaf Australian author’s book lands a TV show deal

A Deaf author named Asphyxia (name sign) from Australia wrote a book called “The Words in My Hands” (name sign). It was released last November in North America. This book will turn into a TV show.

[Photo showing book cover]

The genre of “The Words in My Hands” is dystopian fiction, targeted for young adults, but anyone can read it. The story follows the main character named Piper who searches for her place as a Deaf person in a struggling society related to the global crisis and she meets Marley who is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) and they figure out how to get through things together.

Asphyxia, the author, started “The Words in my Hands” about 10 years ago and took her 8 years to write it. She started over from scratch 5 times. Asphyxia mentioned that this was a long project for her, but was exciting too.

We reached out to Asphyxia for an interview to discuss her book and the deal with the TV show. Before we show you the interview video, we want to let you know that Asphyxia is from Australia so she is using Auslan Sign Language. We have a qualified Deaf interpreter with us named Drisana who will interpret ASL and Auslan Sign Language. You will see the interpreter with a blue screen and black shirt interpreting in between Asphyxia and myself.

Asphyxia: Yes, of course! I am Deaf and I’m from Australia. I work as an author and artist related to Deaf advocacy work. I also speak to large groups of people in regards to issues that I’m passionate about. Also, if I read something or watch a movie that has a Deaf character, I make sure that the character is represented appropriately. I used to be a ballet dancer, a circus performer, I worked with puppets. I’ve really done so many things. Being an author, artist, and advocacy work would be my main things I do right now as before I did a lot of other things.

Renca: I’m curious if the girl on the book cover is supposed to be you? Do you feel like she’s a reflection of yourself?

Asphyxia: No, that’s a character in that book. Her name is Piper and this is her sign name. Piper does experience many of the same things that I’ve gone through myself, especially dealing with Deafness. But her actual character is really different from my own personality. We’re different.

Renca: So that brings me to my next question. What inspired you to write this book? You, as a Deaf person, created a character [VIDEO FREEZES] What inspired you to illustrate and write this book?

Asphyxia: There are a few things. One being that I believe we, as people, see world crises happening and we often wonder what we can do about them. So that’s how my idea for this book came about in regards to crises type of experiences. We all probably experience a crisis at some point in our lives so how can we be resilient and be ready for crises in our lives? Oddly enough, this book was just about to be published and then COVID happened. Our lives changed because of that and for me there were so many parallels with my vision for “Future Girls,” the name of the book, and what was happening with the COVID pandemic. In the book, the crisis is centered around peak oil. We all know that there are issues surrounding climate change and the possible threat that is to us but people don’t know peak oil is just as much of a threat. So that’s why I wanted to write this book. I wanted to show what would happen if we ignored the issue and didn’t prepare ourselves for the disaster of peak oil.

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So I wrote a book that I would want to read. It is about peak oil and also relates to Deafness too- those are the two that are included in the book that I wrote. The main character, Piper, is Deaf because I really wanted to read or watch a movie about Deaf people because I am Deaf myself. I feel disappointed because where am I represented in the media? Where are the stories that show my language, either Auslan or sign language in general. Where are the movies about Deaf culture or the Deaf community? It’s not often you see characters whose struggles and victories are the same as my own so that’s frustrating. What stories or movies that there are out there, I feel like aren’t really an appropriate representation of our experience. It’s for everyone to be involved.

Renca: You briefly mentioned a TV show. How is that going? Will there actually be a TV show in Australia? Maybe something that will come out on Netflix? What’s your plan with that, if you can share?

Asphyxia: Yes, 3 different companies have reached out and they want to gain the rights to my story. I can pick from the companies and I could negotiate a good deal. The company that I chose is called Orange Entertainment Co. They’re the leading company focusing on Queer issues. What’s frustrating is that you see a lot of negative representation in media regarding the Queer community and I feel like it’s the same for Deaf people. We need authentic and true representation. So we negotiated an agreement that I will have 50% ownership regarding the creative decision making process and everything. This means that I will oversee every single part of that TV show. In addition, we plan to expand on the story to include more of the Deaf community and Deaf culture. I’m really excited about that. I’m focusing on that now. Now I’m looking for a team of writers but we’re still in the early stages. We haven’t really gotten started so we’re still in development. When all the details are ready and worked out, then we’ll figure out who will buy the TV show be it Netflix, Amazon, or Apple. That will be worked out later down the line. I feel confident that any of those companies could distribute the TV show in America because the book was also distributed in America which means the show should, too. For those who have already read the book, that means they’ll be able to enjoy watching the TV show. It could be three years before that happens so we must be patient with the process.

Renca: I’m curious if there’s anything you’d like to add in regards to the book itself or about yourself for the all of the Deaf community world wide?

Asphyxia: I just hope the book will inspire everyone. I hope it inspires people in different ways. For example, I hope that people become more resilient. For example, starting to grow your own food or instead of relying on gas using your bike to get around more. I want people to think about how we impact the world. I hope that the book will inspire people to be more creative and to express themselves through art or journaling. I hope the book inspires people to want to do more things. This book shows how you can do those things yourself. My biggest goal is that I hope this book gives people more of an understanding and empathy about Deafness. I hope that maybe this book becomes the motivator to learn sign language or to support our experience and not oppress Deaf people or force us to become mainstream. I hope it shows that Deaf people are just fine and that we have sign language. I hope it shows that we need to preserve our language and our culture. I hope that the book will enlighten people about the Deaf community. That’s what I want to share with everyone.

We want to thank Asphyxia for her time. The other perk about this book is that it offers lesson plans and discussion questions for schools too. So, this is not only for personal reading, but can also be academic reading for classrooms as well. This book is available to purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Kindle, or directly from her website. We have included links in this transcript.

https://helloasphyxia.wordpress.com/

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/asphyxia/the-words-in-my-hands/

https://www.amazon.com/Words-My-Hands-Asphyxia/dp/1773215280