Helen Dallimore’s The Hits and Misses of Melody Moss is a hilarious new series about friendship, school and what it takes to survive being 12. Read on for a Q&A with the author.
What inspired The Hits and Misses of Melody Moss?
Melody is partly inspired by my 12-year-old self. I was a bit of an outsider, interested in music and drama and definitely not one of the cool kids. I also love a clumsy, awkward, comic heroine like Bridget Jones and Lucille Ball.
Melody is struggling with the transition into high school – did you draw from your own experiences to shape that part of the story?
I did find the first few years of high school pretty isolating. Like Melody, I was a late bloomer – skinny and daggy compared to what I perceived as the glamourous amazons surrounding me.
Are there any funny school or family stories from your own life that made it into the book?
Let’s just say that Melody’s dog’s flatulence issues may or may not be based on a certain little dog in my own household (name withheld to protect privacy).
Why did you choose to make a school musical part of the story?
It was a way for Melody to ‘find her tribe’. Because musicals are her thing, she suddenly has currency with the other kids when the musical comes around. The school musical is a formative time for a lot of creative kids who may have previously felt like outcasts.
This is the first book in a series – what’s next for Melody?
The next book is called The Secrets and Scandals of Melody Moss, set in term two of Year 7. Melody is about to turn 13 and let’s just say she definitely no longer hates boys!
What do you hope readers feel when they finish the book?
I hope they will have had a really good laugh along with Melody, and that some might feel an affinity with her self-deprecating humour, and her ability to make situations so much worse, as a result of her sometimes-ill-timed over-confidence.
And I hope that they will want to know what happens next!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Helen is an actor, singer, director and writer who has enjoyed a successful career in theatre, musical theatre, film and television both in Australia and in the UK. She famously originated the role of Glinda in the West End production of Wicked opposite Idina Menzel.
She won the Helpmann Award for her performance in Legally Blonde the Musical and was nominated for best actress in a musical for Blood Brothers. Helen has also been a familiar face in television and film, notably playing roles as diverse as Olivia O’Neill in Channel 9’s Here Come the Habibs, to Ms Crapper in the International Emmy award winning ABC children’s comedy Hardball.
As a writer, Helen’s credits include episodes of the Channel 9 comedy Here Come the Habibs, and the ABC comedy Sando.
Helen is also the voice of the international reality TV hit Married at First Sight.
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