March Artist of the Month – Mo O'Hara
Our March ‘Artist of the Month’ is amazing author Mo O’Hara. We talk to Mo about zombie goldfish, Shakespeare, comedy, using picture books to teach morals and about the influence of cats - a fun and varied interview!
About Mo O’Hara
Mo O’Hara is a New York Times Bestselling author of the My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish series. Originally from Pennsylvania in the US, Mo moved over to London in the 1990s and after a brief and unsuccessful stint as a serving wench at the Tower of London she became and actress and author. Mo has written several picture books including Romeosaurus and Juliet Rex and More People to Love Me. Most recently Mo’s first graphic novel with Jess Bradley came out with Scholastic in the UK. Mo loves touring around the world meeting kids, making them laugh and talking about stories.
What a visit from Mo entails
Mo works with pupils from Reception to Year 8 offering author visits and drama themed days.
All details can be found on her author page.
Feedback from Mo’s previous visits
“I have had brilliant feedback from all the teachers and children. The assembly was very engaging and fun especially for EYFS, KS1 and lower KS2. The children enjoyed dressing up as the characters from her book. And she was very interactive throughout with great crowd control.”
St Antony’s Catholic Primary School
“Mo O’Hara came to Melling Primary and fired up the children’s enthusiasm for writing. The whole school assembly was lively, fun and captured all the children’s attention. The interactive workshops which followed were catered according to age group and gave them tips and skills for planning and writing stories. Even the teachers learnt new tips as well! Mo’s visit began our book week in the best possible way!”
Melling Primary
“Mo’s personality shone out during a whole school assembly and with a combination of props, costumes, audience participation and her hysterical account of how she was inspired to write her Big Fat Zombie Goldfish stories, she held the attention of both pupils and staff alike. This was followed up with engaging Key Stage 2 writing workshops where the children explored their ‘What ifs’ to create amazing new stories. The whole experience was energizing and left the pupils with a buzz that continued weeks after her visit.”
Mary’s CEP School, Rawtenstall
Read about Nicky and her author visits on her author page here
Interview with Mo O’Hara
When and why did you join Authors Abroad?
I think I joined Authors Abroad in 2017 or so. A few author friends had recommended Authors Abroad but it was when my friend Margaret Bateson-Hill had a few fabulous trips to exciting places that I finally thought…hmmmm… what am I waiting for?
You have to tell us the story with your pet goldfish that inspired your hugely popular Zombie Goldfish series.
When I was about 8 yrs old and my brother was about 10 or we got a goldfish. We actually won him at a fair by tossing a ping pong ball into his bowl. 😉
Anyway, we brought home this fish that we won and we had him for about a year. We fed and cared for him and so we were really upset when we got home from school one day to see that the fish had gone belly up. (Just so we are all on the same page- belly up for a fish usually means they are dead or nearly dead. They don’t just go around doing the backstroke to relax.)
Now my brother and I had probably watched way too many hospital TV shows because the first thing that occurred to us was that sometimes on TV someone will look dead, but then these doctors rush in with paddles and yell ‘Clear!’ and they shock them with the paddles and then the person sits up and says, ‘Hmm, I’m feeling much better. Thank you very much.’ (Or they wake up and kiss the doctor but that’s usually only on General Hospital.) Anyway, I digress. So, my brother and I decided that the sensible thing to do would be to defib the fish. Makes perfect sense, right? Now we didn’t have any fancy hospital equipment but what we did have was the 9volt battery from my brother’s alarm clock.
We gently laid the fish down on the counter and very carefully touched the battery to the fish. FLIP-FLOP! The fish moved but didn’t wake up. We tried again. FLIP-FLOP! We nearly gave up but decided to try one more time. FLIP- FLOP! FLIP FLOP!!! FLIP FLOP!!!!
And this time it worked. The fish woke up . He started thrashing around. We stuck him back in his bowl and that fish lived for about a year after that.
I guess he was heading for the fishy light and just turned around and came back to us. 😊
So, it got me thinking (when I was a grown-up author and writing stories) ‘Hmmm… what if my fish came back slightly wrong? What if he came back with special powers?’ And the idea for My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish was born.
What comes first with the Zombie Goldfish books – the idea or the punny title to build on?
Oh, the idea comes first and then we sit around and try to come up with the punny yet relevant title.
Live and Let Swim is a personal favourite title for a story that had lots of little James Bond references in there. And Jurassic Carp was also good for the dinosaur fish book. 😉
Some of your picture books have quite important messages such as those about acceptance and the huge variety in types of families – do you find picture books can be enjoyable for younger readers and still impart key messages?
I really think the story and characters have to be there first and if they work then the message can be a part of that. Sometimes the message in integral to the book though. With More People to Love Me it is based on an incident that happened to my daughter in Reception Class. They were sent home with a template to draw their family members on a family tree. But my daughter’s family didn’t fit on the template with stepparents and siblings and so many grandparents! So, we added and taped together bits of paper to make her family tree into a family forest that would fit in everyone she loved. I thought more kids needed to see that its ok to have families in all shapes and sizes and that you can be happy in your family forest. 😊
Shakespeare is still popular today and you gave one of his tales your own dinosaur twist – how did you find the process of transforming such a famous story for older readers into a funny, dinosaur version for a younger audience – fun, challenging?
I’m a bit of a Shakespeare nut. I studied his plays and poetry at university and as an actor and have gone to see countless productions. I loved the idea of making it accessible to younger kids. And I also love dinosaurs, so it was a bit of a dream book for me. A mash up of two of my favourite things.
I didn’t want it to be about romance though but about friendship and about being friends with folks that are very different to ourselves. A carnivore and a herbivore should be natural enemies – but can they be friends? I also really wanted to have nods to the real play and be a little accurate in places.
So, the character names are right for the role they play. Mercutio (Romeo’s best friend) is now Mercutio-tops. And Nurse-a-dactyl is Juliet’s trusted nurse. I also added in some lines for the Shakespeare loving parents out there. Juliet’s cousin Tybalt-rex causes the fight at the ball where Juliet and Romeosaurus meet and become friends. 😊 And, of course, there is a balcony scene.
Which audience makes you more nervous – school children or an audience at Edinburgh festival?
I really enjoy both actually, but kids are a much more honest audience. They don’t laugh to be polite or because they liked your last book or because you were being clever. If it’s not funny , you don’t get a laugh. I like that. I feel I have earned my laughs then. 😊
Are you a naturally funny person, or is it a skill that has to be honed like anything else?
My own children would say I’m not a naturally funny person at all. I don’t know. I think lots of us have funny thoughts or ideas but we spend so much time censoring ourselves that we don’t express what is funny. I think one of the best ways of ‘freeing the funny’ is to take an improv course. Or even just watch some improv comedy. It’s all about accepting and saying yes to the offer that is made to you. We can all learn to respond more impulsively to things and censor ourselves less.
I do think you can hone your skills for writing comedy the same as any writing techniques. And you can definitely improve your public speaking and your use of speech techniques like repetition, inflection, and use of pauses and timing. These are all skills that need to be learned and practiced.
Who is it harder to make laugh – young people or adults?
As I said. Kids are a way more honest audience. I love the sound of big groups of kids properly laughing about something. That is the sound I probably missed the most during lockdown.
Tell us about your latest series and character – Agent Moose.
Agent Moose (who is actually named Anonymoose) came about because of a typo. My agent sent me an email and said she had spelled Anonymous as Anonymouse accidentally. And wasn’t that a funny name for a character. I liked it and tried to write a book about a secret spy mouse who was a master of disguise and could hide anywhere. I wrote about 5 chapters or so and it just wasn’t funny. I put it away for a few months and came back to it and realised that it wasn’t funny because it’s too easy for a mouse to be a spy. They are tiny and quiet and could be in a room right now and you would never know. But a moose that was a master of disguise? A big furry 7 foot tall moose that could be disguised as that lamp or that mailbox is funny- because it’s sooooo unlikely. So that is how Anonymoose was born. Then I found him a best friend -Owlfred who is a spy owl but he’s only a ‘not quite so special’ agent instead of a special agent. Then Jess Bradley came on board with her amazing illustrations and the books really came to life. Agent Moose is keeping Big Forest safe- one mystery at a time and he really wants us to ‘Moose this Mission!!’
What has been your favourite moment from a school visit so far?
There have been so many. I have laughed and cried at school visits. There have been moments where I felt like a rock star with 1000 kids in massive California schools and other special small storytelling moments with 8 kids in a one room schoolhouse in rural Wales. I love that they are so varied. It never gets dull.
How does drama writing differ from writing a story? Is one easier than the other or is it a personal preference.
I do like writing scripts so writing the graphic novels has been so much fun. I feel like I’m going back to my drama school roots. It is a different challenge because you have to get everything you want into the action and dialogue. But then again, some of the fiction books that I write are in the first person so in a way you are just writing an extended monologue for that character. 😉 I think it’s a personal preference though. I love writing dialogue so it’s my happy place.
Have you found your drama workshops help students grasp the key lesson of creative writing of ‘show don’t tell’.
Yes, the drama workshops are great for demonstrating that concept and also showing the kids about showing emotions in more varied ways. We also talk about other acting concepts like ‘motivation.’ You need to always know why your character is doing something. Or about ‘muscle memory.’ So if you are writing a character who plays guitar you need to watch people play guitar and hopefully pick one up and see how it feels so you can describe it better. I love seeing how the drama workshops can get the most reluctant writers to come up with a character/ a scene / a conflict and then some dialogue before they realise, they have actually just written something. All they need is to get it from spoken word onto the page. 😉
Favourite moment from a drama day with pupils?
When the kids share what they have created. The best bits are when the students support each other and tell each other when a scene is really good. That feedback means more to the kids than anything that I could say.
Did lockdown lead to writing opportunities for you – is that why we are being treated to two new book releases this year?
Yes and no. Like lots of people, I think my lockdown went in phases where I was productive and then times where I was just not productive. Sometimes I could not write anything at all, but I had the best organised closets in the country. I think I needed to put some order into the chaos that was going on in the world perhaps.
I did write a few scripts for an animation project. I wrote a picture book that is coming out next year with Macmillan, Hush Little Rocket, and I wrote the third Agent Moose book. I also helped to organise various online events for writers and illustrators through SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and for thousands of kids in two story-making festivals with CWISL. (Children’s Writers and Illustrators for Stories and Literacy) There were months that were incredibly busy.
As we start to open back up and in person visits replace virtual visits you’ll be back on the road again soon – I know you have a busy World Book Week. When it is safe to do so what place overseas would you love to visit?
I have been very lucky to visit some brilliant places with Authors Abroad. I’ve been to Germany several times and would love to go back again. I also went to Kuwait and to Nigeria before lockdown. I’d love to travel widely again. I have never been to Japan and I would love to go there. Also, South America would be brilliant!
Quick Fire
Starter or dessert?
Ooooh, starter usually. Unless there is cheese for dessert. I’m a cheese eating monster.
Or unless there is Cookie Dough Ice Cream obviously. 😊
Would you prefer to be able to time travel or teleport?
I think teleport. I get soooo sea sick that I just avoid boats. I would love to travel to places that you need a boat to get to just by clicking my fingers or blinking. Galapagos islands here I come!
Cats or dogs?
Cats. (My cat is staring at me now and she will know if I answer the other way. I am a chicken so my answer is definitely cats.)
What’s scariest – a zombie or a vampire?
Vampire. Zombies are just misunderstood. 😉
Best bear out of Rupert, Winnie the Pooh and Paddington?
Winnie the Pooh. He is wise, even though he doesn’t know it, and he has the best pals.
If you were Prime Minister for the day, what law would you introduce?
Teachers ( early years, primary, secondary, university) would all get a massive pay rise and lots of in class support and mental health support.
Also, taking children’s mental health seriously. This strange time has highlighted the need for more support across the board for children’s and teens’ mental health.
Arrange for Mo O’Hara to visit your school
To make an enquiry about Mo, or any of the other authors, poets & illustrators listed on this website, please get in touch. Our office number is +44 (0) 1535 656015,
UK visits
Email: UKbookings@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Or contact Head of UK Visits, Yvonne - 01535 279850
Overseas Visits
Email:Overseasvists@caboodleboverseasvisits@caboodlebooks.co.ukooks.co.uk
Or contact Overseas Manager, Robin - +44(0) 1535 279853