Radio DJ Fien Vermeulen makes Friday with the book It’s raining sunbeams her debut as a writer. Vermeulen says she went “very deep” to write the personal book, she says in conversation with NU.nl.
She had known since she was about six that Vermeulen likes to write. “I was already writing stories then and went to the local bookshop in Amersfoort. I thought books were being made there,” said Vermeulen.
When Vermeulen was 21 years old, she became ill. She went to treatment for lymph node cancer. “Many people in my area wondered: can’t you write about this?” Writing about her illness while she was still in the midst of her recovery, she says, was far too confrontational.
The title It’s raining sunbeams was a fluke for Vermeulen. She participated in the program a few months ago Hiphop Stars, for which she had to turn an existing song into a hip-hop song. Vermeulen chose It’s raining sunbeams van Acda and De Munnik. “My mother thought the song was so beautiful. Not much later we heard that she had cancer. Then the song took on a completely different meaning for her.”
Idea for book arrived after participation Expeditie Robinson
Ultimately, Vermeulen stopped writing for a long time. After her participation in Expeditie Robinson however it started to itch again. “I was sitting there in the sea and thinking. Then I thought: it can’t be that it is all for nothing? That was the moment when I decided to write a book about my life.”
According to the radio DJ, it took a while before the book actually took shape. “Everything in the book is super personal. To prevent tunnel vision, I worked on it together with someone else. They could keep asking me critical questions,” Vermeulen said.
‘Hope people see that sharing is good’
When Vermeulen herself was ill, she said she often felt very lonely. “Eventually I found out that by sharing my own story I had much more in common with people than I thought in advance,” said the radio DJ.
“I hope people will also see this after reading my book. People need to see that sharing is good. That it’s okay to be open.”
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