12 Curly Questions with author Cassy Polimeni

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

I once appeared on Deal or No Deal. Being on a game show had been on my bucket list so when I got the chance I took a day off work and dragged a friend and our mums along. They filmed a week’s worth of shows at once so we spent six hours playing audience members before getting called up onstage. When my moment finally came to guess how much was in my suitcase I was so dazed and delirious from the lights and the long day that the host had to call my name three times before I answered.

2. What is your nickname?
I don’t really have one – despite years of campaigning! During the height of my nickname campaign some workmates took pity on me and tried out ‘Casio’ and ‘Cassiopeia’ but neither really caught on.

3. What is your greatest fear?
For a while in my 20s everyone was really into costume parties and I lived in fear of overcommitting to a costume and turning up to find everyone else in normal clothes. That’s why these days I mostly avoid costume parties altogether.

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words.
Finding real-life magic and things that light me up.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Curious, determined, descriptive, caffeinated, daydreamer.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
I always loved Pippi Longstocking – the animals, the outfits, the not caring a jot what others thought of her. But, in reality, as a tween I was probably much more like Erica Yurken from Hating Alison Ashley.

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
I’ve always felt a really strong pull to the 1920s. Mostly because of the flapper outfits and the speakeasies. I love the idea of parties and hidden worlds going on in basements and behind hidden bookcase doorways.

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now?
I thought we were going to be a marine biologist? But I guess this is pretty cool too.

9. Who is your greatest influence?
My daughter. By pure luck my books so far have been published just as she was the right age for them and it’s such a joy to share this ride with her and experience it through her eyes. She is my biggest and most passionate fan – she helps me brainstorm plots and titles, gives feedback on covers and fonts and is just so generally thrilled about the whole thing that when I’m having a cynical day or nursing a rejection, her enthusiasm for the stories reminds me what it’s really all about.

10. What/who made you start writing?
In primary school I loved reading Robin Klein and John Marsden. They are the first authors whose words and characters are seared into my brain and made me realise I wanted to be an author. I think learning they were Australian, and not international superstars, made it feel possible too.

11. What is your favourite word and why?
This changes all the time! It used to be ‘juxtaposition’ because seeing two unlikely things side by side is sometimes how the best story ideas start (and it’s fun to say). Then I went through a ‘zephyr’ phase (poetic, romantic, makes me think of faraway places, also fun to say). But these days I think it might be
‘pootle’ – because parenting and the pandemic made me lose all my travel instincts and now ‘pootling’ sounds like the dreamiest thing you could possibly do (and might also be the funnest of all my favourite words to say!)

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Probably a writing craft book like Stephen King’s On Writing or Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. If there was only one book left in the world, I would have to get busy writing more to save me from dying of boredom.

Cassy Polimeni is the author of Ella and the Sleepover Safari, Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra, and CBCA Notable The Garden at the End of the World. She is the former editor of Destinations Australia magazine, and the recipient of an ASA Award Mentorship. For more information, see 
www.cassypolimeni.wordpress.com