If you find it odd that chose her first book to be for middle-grade kids, the former star says, think again.
鈥淚 find sketch comedy and middle school to be very similar,鈥� she said recently over Zoom. 鈥淭here can be an unabashed silliness in middle grade that I have found only in sketch comedy.鈥�
鈥淭he Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,鈥� now available, follows the three Porch sisters, Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee, who feel that they don't fit in their hoity-toity town. They live with their snooty aunt and uncle and equally snooty seven cousins 鈥� all named Lavinia. When the Porch girls are kicked out of school, they find a new mentor in an outrageous scientist with worms in her hair named Millicent Quibb.
In a Q&A, McKinnon spoke about her childhood and "The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,鈥� which she wrote mostly from her bed. 鈥淚 ended up staying in bed for a year, basically,鈥� she laughed. The plan is that this is book No. 1 in a series.
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
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AP: Some themes in this book are about identity. It would be fitting if you wrote this Did you?
MCKINNON: I started writing this before 鈥淪NL," and worked on it throughout, whenever I had a moment, and picked it right back up I like weirdos. I am a weirdo. I like playing weirdos, and I like reaching out to fellow weirdos. And this was just another venue for doing that.
AP: What was it like going from the hectic, repetitive pace of 鈥淪NL鈥� to writing fulltime?
MCKINNON: I was surprised by how much it felt like performing. I felt like I was improvising. It felt like sitting in a room and writing a sketch for 鈥淪NL,鈥� but then you just have a lot more time to revise. I absolutely love it. I鈥檓 an introvert, so writing by myself does not bother me. As much as I miss my colleagues, it suits me in some way.
AP: In the book, the Porch sisters find a true mentor in Millicent who encourages them to be who and how they want. Who was your Millicent growing up?
MCKINNON: I had parents who celebrated my weird, little activities and let me take the clamshells home when we had linguine and clams at a restaurant. They bought me little archeological kits and just really fostered whatever esoteric interest I had. I also had teachers who helped me and supported me. Sometimes a magical adult swoops in and fosters the gifts you were born with that other people are telling you are bad.
AP: The book is silly and funny. Did you ever make yourself laugh while writing?
MCKINNON: I do. I enjoy names. I think funny names are a whole art in and of itself. I was proud of the names I came up with.
AP: Talk about narrating the audiobook.
MCKINNON: That was some of the most labor-intensive performing I鈥檝e ever done. I鈥檝e done plenty of voice overs, but you鈥檙e doing every line. When writing, the first thing I had to do was come up with voices for all of the characters. With anything I鈥檓 like, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the voice?鈥� I have to start with that. Then you decide the hair and the clothes and that鈥檚 all you need to know. I knew what all of the characters sounded like going in.
AP: Will you go on a book tour and meet your readers?
MCKINNON: I am going on a cross-country trek and I am so beyond excited. At 12, I was getting messages from the culture and from some of my peers that I was not OK the way I was. To have someone look at you and say, 鈥淗ey, the thing that you think is weird about you, that鈥檚 actually what鈥檚 going to save you as a grown up. And that鈥檚 actually what鈥檚 going to help the world-at-large.鈥� To give that to someone else would be the honor of my life.
Alicia Rancilio, The Associated Press
