It took Kate McKinnon 12 years — 10 of those while also starring on “Saturday Night Live” — to write “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” her debut middle-grade mystery book published in 2024.
But it took her only a year to finish the second in the series, “Secrets of the Purple Pearl,” out now.
The Millicent Quibb books draw inspiration from McKinnon’s childhood as a big dork who loved science and spent a lot of time outdoors, measuring, say, the velocity of leaves going down a stream and getting into low-stakes mischief with her friends.
“I just wanted to write something that hearkened back to a time when you could go outside and have magical adventures,” she said. McKinnon is currently working on the third book in the series, with plans to finish it in a year.
But the clever McKinnon — who just installed a stair rail, newel post and balusters at her house in upstate New York — seems hard-wired for multitasking, even with publishing deadlines looming. “In a way, it was wonderful to have that kind of pressure,” she said on a video call, before emailing a list of the things that keep her ink flowing. “At ‘S.N.L.,’ the best stuff came out of having no time to do something.”
These are edited excerpts from the list.
Temptations Cat Treats
I have an asthmatic cat and twice a day I need to attach what is essentially a gas mask to his small face and hold it there while he inhales 10 breaths of a steroid inhaler. He does it because I have furnished a bucket of Temptations and he knows they will soon follow.
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