We are delighted to feature an interview with children's author extraordinaire Mo O'Hara.  Mo is the author of the brilliantly funny My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish books and is a huge friend and supporter of libraries.  We are doubly excited about this interview because Mo's illustrator for her new graphic novel, Agent Moose, Jess Bradley has joined us for some questions too.  

Did you read comics a child? Although it is changing, in the UK they are often quite maligned, is there more of a culture surrounding them in the US? 

Thanks for having me on your blog.  I’m excited to talk about Agent Moose. 

I did read comics as a kid.  My brother was a big collector of comics ( mostly DC) so our house was full of comics.  I enjoyed the DC comics, the action and the characters but mostly I loved the way you could immerse yourself totally in the world of the comic book. They were their own universes with different rules. That’s very liberating as a kid.  I dabbled in comics really, I would pick one up because the cover intrigued me or it was a mash up with a character from another series (I loved it when they did that) but I never followed them the way my brother did. I’m a complete Sci Fi geek too so anything that was Star Wars, Star Trek or Doctor Who also grabbed my attention. Then I really lost touch with comics until I was a grown up when I came across some amazing  graphic novels.  When I had kids we started getting The Pheonix and we loved that!  The last proper comic book I bought was on the pretext of buying it for my son a few years ago and it was a mash up of Doctor Who with Star Trek Next Gen. I’m still such a nerd. It was epic though.

At the moment Agent Moose is only published in the US but it’s easy to order import copies through any independent bookshop or online store.  Waterstones online has it available from the first of September!!

Jess Bradley also kindly took part in the interview, we asked Jess if she read comics as a child and also about her work on The Phoenix comic

I loved comics as a kid! I grew up with the Dandy and Beano (which I’m now a writer for, which is pretty awesome. I think 10 year-old me would be happy!), and also Whizzer and Chips and Buster. When I was a teenager I discovered X-Men and then got into a lot of American comics, especially indie comics. I was a huge fan of Manga too and everything I read has played a huge part in influencing my own art. My work on The Phoenix is very much based on what I know I would have loved reading as a kid; very odd characters in odd situations and lots of toilet humour! I love making the extraordinary ordinary so you’ll find a lot of magical creatures doing boring things like getting their homework done on time and washing up!


Mo, What were the challenges of writing a story told largely through dialogue and illustration? 

 I read somewhere recently that most authors are either character/dialogue authors or plot/action authors. I’m definitely the former.  So writing a script with just dialogue was actually my happy place. I used to be an actor and I started out writing scripts for performance ( stage and radio) so I think in scenes and when I write books I write with a movie script in mind.  My editor has to usually get me to trim back my dialogue and put in more description in my fiction books.  It was a learning curve to get the story into a certain number of frames for each chapter and I always overwrite so again there was a lot of cutting of dialogue.  Then the challenge is to make it consistently funny and pacey without losing the real sense of the characters too.  Jess Bradley is amazing at creating the look at feel of Agent Moose. Her illustrations bring not only the characters but the whole world of Big Forest to life.


Can you tell us a little about how the process of creating the book worked and what kind of collaboration – if any you had with Jess Bradley?

Working on Agent Moose really was a four way process with me, Jess, the editor Holly West and the art director Liz Dresner.  I wrote the script and worked with Holly on that. Jess created the character drawings and then Liz and Jess did the lay-out and design of the book to make it look inviting and fun and make you want to turn each page.   Once they had rough sketches that we had another look at the text and made some changes so it worked better.  I think with book one we were feeling it out a bit.  In creating book two we had a template of what we wanted so I could write to fit that.  All the way through my main question was- Is it funny if…? Jess’s sense of humour is fantastic so I think a lot of the same things cracked us both up.  Her illustrations genuinely make me giggle reading the book for the ump-teenth time. 

We asked Jess for her thoughts on working on Agent Moose

The book was a wonderful collaboration and one of the funnest projects I’ve worked on. I would get Mo’s wonderful script (kind of like a film script but split into book pages!) and then I would do some character designs for all of the lead characters. These would go to Mo and our wonderful editor and art director and once they had all had a chat, would come back to me with any changes they might want and I’d make some amendments.

After characters were decided on, I would then go through the script and make thumbnails, which are very small scribbles of the pages so I could figure out how many panels could fit on a page and make sure all of the characters didn’t get too squished! I would then go on and do pencil versions of the pages. Off to Mo, the editor and art director for a look and back to me with any changes (luckily, not many!).

Once the whole book is drawn, I then ink and colour it in Photoshop. There’s a lot of back and forth but it’s nice because someone might come up with a suggestion for something that I didn’t think of and it can really add to the book! I feel like I know the characters so well now and love drawing new situations for them. Mo has some fantastic ideas and drawing them is a hoot!


Mo, the first case for Anonymoose and Owlfred is ‘Turtle-apped’ can you tell us a little about it?

Anonymoose and Owlfred (special agents for Woodland HQ) are one case away from solving their 100^th case. Then Camo Cameleon (Agent Moose’s arch rival) solves his 100^th case first.  Anonymoose is not amused. When they travel to Camo Cameleon’s patch to find a missing witness from Camo’s last case- everything is not as it seems.


There’s some lovely inventive funny moments with ‘News of the Wild’ and it feels a well realised habitat filled with humour and fun, how much world building was involved?

I loved creating the world of Big Forest with its newspaper ‘News of the Wild’.  We wanted to make all the characters really distinct and give them all a chance to shine.  The world they inhabit has to seem real too.  You have to feel at home there. But always we are looking for the ridiculous.

So, you might not know this but Agent Moose first started out life as Agent Mouse. When I was first thinking up ideas for my next project my agent, Gemma Cooper said , ‘I accidentally typed ‘Anonomouse’ the other day instead of anonymous. Maybe there’s a character there?’

I liked the idea and wrote several chapters of a really boring story about a special agent master of disguise Anonymouse.  It never worked. I put it away and came back to it months later. I realised that it didn’t work because a mouse in disguise isn’t funny.  Mice are pretty incognito anyway really.  A mouse could be in the room right now and I wouldn’t know it.  But Anonymoose? A 7 foot tall moose that could be in the room and you don’t know it ?  Now that’s funny. How do you disguise a giant furry antlered moose spy? And so Anonymoose was born. So, I constantly remind myself to look for what is funny in the scene and how can we make it funnier.


Towards the end there’s a threat by the perpetrator (no spoilers in this interview!)  ‘You haven’t seen the last of me’ can we expect any future outings?

Yes, no spoilers but you do get to see the perpetrator in the next couple books. 

You are an actor as well as a writer, does this inform your writing and events at all?  Conversely, do you feel your writing influences your acting?

I definitely feel that my writing is influenced by my acting in many ways.  I think from a practical point of view my ear is tuned in to voices.  I have very clear ideas of how my characters speak and move.  I have to work harder at the plot and setting for my books but my characters often come out with very clear voices from the beginning.  I also think I’m used to working collaboratively because I worked in theatre. I’m not precious about ‘my lines’ or ‘my writing’ because I know it will be even better with a whole team of us collaborating to make it the best book it can be.  Thirdly, I think working in improv for years has made me open to new ideas during the creative process.  I think as authors we can get stuck in our fixed plan of how we want the book to go instead of listening to our characters when they throw in something new. In improv you are taught to ‘accept’ to ‘say yes’ and take that and move on.  Often the best work I’ve done, acting or writing, is because I said yes to the unexpected.  I think if I had one bit of advice for aspiring writers it would be to take a couple of improv classes. It will open up your mind and switch off your internal censor.  Lastly the comedian in me LOVES to get up in front of a crowd of kids and make them laugh. I am really really missing performing at festivals and schools because of  the pandemic.  I do stuff online but it’s not the same as the energy you get from live shows.  I await the day when I can get on stage at a school or festival again.

I haven’t been in a play really since I’ve been a professional writer (just done little bits and bobs). I think I would approach rehearsals and delving into the character and discovering what makes them tick in a slightly different way now.  I think I’ve learned a lot about conflict and how people behave in conflict and that would be interesting to apply in rehearsing a play.


We asked Jess for a bit of information about her background as an illustrator

I’ve always drawn, even when I was really young and I studied art all through school. I went on to art college and did a foundation course and then went to university where I gained a BA Hons in Illustration. I worked in a comic book shop after I graduated and got into self-publishing my own work and have always done that alongside my freelance work for publishers. I really enjoy the freedom of being able to make my own books! I love working with publishers though and have been very lucky to work with a lot including Macmillan, Buster Books, Capstone, Carlton Books and Arcturus Publishing.


Mo, you’ve also written the massively enjoyable My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, picture books like the brilliant Romeosaurs and Juliet Rex and now a graphic novel.  What differences in approach are needed, do you have a preferred form to work in and are there any forms you’d like to try your hand at? 

Awh thanks. I loved writing the fiction books and the picture books and they are very different animals. I think writing a picture book text is like writing a poem. You have to be so precise. There is no room for words that aren’t pulling their weight.  I have more ideas for picture books- including some non -fiction stuff. I also have an idea for a new fiction series that I’m kicking around and I’ve written lots of poems during lockdown. Poetry seemed to be my go to form for a creative outlet during the last few months. I’d love to have some more poetry published too.


You’ve had some fantastic illustrators working on your books Marek Jagucki, Andrew Joyner, Ada Grey and Jess Bradley.  What do you think leads to a successful pairing of text and illustration?

I know! I feel like I won the illustrator lottery or something!! I have been incredibly lucky to have been paired with the illustrators that I have worked with.  The editors and art directors at the publishing houses really did the pairing.  These four illustrators have such different and unique styles and each one suits the project that we did together so well.  I guess it’s just experience knowing what images would suit what voice but I just hope I keep getting this lucky!!!


This year you were heavily involved with setting up the Herne Hill Kidlitfest, can you tell us a little about this and about how it went?

That was an incredible experience and led to me meeting and working with  some absolutely fantastic authors, illustrators in the sessions and editors, agents, librarians and literacy specialists on the panels.  (including Zoey Dixon from Lambeth Libraries on a fascinating Reading for Pleasure Panel) The festival was in South London in the Herne Hill Station Hall which is a buzzing  community hub above Herne Hill Station. It’s a large space (big enough to fit 90 kids in the Chris and Katie Riddell session on the Saturday!!). It showed that there is a big demand for book events in the area.  The uptake from local schools was amazing and the contact with kids through the story making festival was brilliant as well.

We are hoping to run the story making contest ( stories can be told in word, drawing or video) this year and we’ll have to see if circumstances allow us to hold any in person festival events.

CWISL (Children’s Writers and Illustrators for Stories and Literacy), Herne Hill Station Hall, Herne Hill Forum and Tales on Moon Lane bookshop were all involved in the creation and running of the festival.  We all hope to take it forward to continue to connect local kids with authors and illustrators.

You are also very involved with SCBWI and with the Pulse what does this entail and are there ways that libraries can support any of your work?

Candy Gourlay and I run the PULSE strand of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) events which is aimed at our published authors. As you know SCBWI British Isles as a whole and  PULSE specifically have been keen to connect more with librarians especially YLG.  We have done some fun joint events so far (pre pandemic) and hope to do joint panels, talks, socials and even conferences perhaps in the future.  I think we both have so many common goals,  promoting reading for pleasure especially and  also just getting the right books in the hands of the right kids. Librarians work that voodoo.  They are the people who, if given the opportunity, can impact a child’s reading life immensely. Authors and Illustrators are the content makers. We put our ideas and words and pictures out there into the world but feel powerless sometimes about how we can get those words and pictures into he hands of our future readers. Librarians and Authors (writers and Illustrators) truly  have a  symbiotic relationship. 

I hope that we can all be creative in these next several months to try and have virtual events together perhaps and to make plans for when we can all meet up in person again.

Just a small plug too for those of you who work in schools.  Book PenPals  is a fantastic resource for connecting authors and illustrators with schools and school libraries. In current times this is great way of keeping contact through online posts and snail mail between authors and students. 

A huge thank you to Mo O'Hara and Jess Bradley for a fascinating Friday interview.  Do check out the illustrations which Jess has kindly shared with us!