Lifestyle
Kate McKinnon's new middle-grade mystery is for all her fellow misfits
Emmy Award winning SNL star and Weird Barbie Kate McKinnon can now add novelist to her resume.
Her first book, The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette For Young Ladies of Mad Science, is a middle-grade mystery full of oddball characters, creatures and contraptions.
The novel, which hit shelves Tuesday, is part of what she calls her “private mission to give a wink and a nod” to young people who might feel “different,” like as she did, growing up.
McKinnon, whose characters and impressions on SNL are legendary, fully admits she was a “weird” kid. She wore a Peter Pan costume to school every day for a year. Later, she dressed like Pippi Longstocking. “I would go to school in these outfits because I felt more confident … and somehow more myself. Go figure,” she told NPR.
As a kid, McKinnon shared her room with an array of pets including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and an iguana named Willy. “It’s not something I would do again. And I don’t recommend it for anyone,” advised McKinnon. “That said, oh my gosh, we had fun me and that iguana. And by ‘fun’ I mean we had a contentious relationship that felt like a bad marriage that we’d entered into because one of us was pregnant.” McKinnon says eventually her mom, a social worker, sent the iguana to a reptile rescue organization in Boca.
Even though her parents fully supported her eccentricities, McKinnon said she often felt like an outcast among her peers: “I just felt very wrong. Like, I was not good enough and was wrong.”
Then she found her people. “In fourth grade we started a Honeysuckle Eaters Club on the playground. So we would go into a corner while all the cool girls were watching the guys play basketball. We would go and eat honeysuckle and try to understand the correlation between flower color and sweetness of nectar. And we made notes,” McKinnon laughed. “So that’s what I had cookin,’ and luckily, I was not alone.”
Small wonder one of her favorite authors was Roald Dahl; she especially like his book The Witches, in which the title characters turn children into mice.
“I love a delicious villain. And who’s more delicious than the Grand High Witch,” McKinnon declared. “But I loved also that it started with a set of instructions about how to identify real witches. And I was so taken by that because I thought, ‘I know it’s fantasy, but like, he’s talking to me.’”
In similar fashion, McKinnon breaks the fourth wall throughout Millicent Quibb, telling readers they can “take a short break” and that she’s going to hand the story “over to the illustrator… and go watch TV.”
The Porch sisters are the stars of Kate McKinnon’s new novel.
Little Brown
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Little Brown
The novel, the first in a series, begins with a warning:
“The situations contained in these books could cause:
Instant death
Extremely instant death (bad)
Semi-instant death (worse)
Burning in the upper extremities
Burning in the lower extremities
Permanent intestinal parasites”
And so on.
McKinnon narrates the audiobook with help from her sister, comedian Emily Lynne.
Comedian and author Kate McKinnon.
Jackie Abbott/Little Brown
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Jackie Abbott/Little Brown
Set in 1911 in the fictional town of Antiquarium, tween sisters Gertrude, Eugenia and Dee-Dee Porch have passions that include slugs, bats, rocks, explosions and building machines. Suffice it to say they do not belong in snooty Antiquarium where girls attend etiquette school and the official dog is the bichon frisé. They’re teased by classmates and shamed by their teacher.
Enter Millicent Quibb, the ostracized, disorganized, well-meaning mad scientist who trains the Porch sisters to help her save the town from the dangers lurking underground.
Quibb’s hair is described as “a chaotic nest of salty, windswept fibers that were thick as sea rope.” She wears a lab coat “splattered with stains of all colors and textures-a neon green smear, a dribble of oatmeal, a matrix of dried intestines.”
Despite rewriting the first chapter “like 500 times,” McKinnon said she loved “writing about these three little weirdos and their Willy Wonka-esque mentor in this stuffy turn of the century town.”
It took her more than 10 years to write Millicent Quibb. She got the idea before joining SNL in 2012. At the time she was doing sketch comedy for free in the basement of a New York supermarket with the Upright Citizens Brigade.
“Sketch comedy and middle grade literature have a lot in common, namely funny names and big hair,” McKinnon said, “And so it just felt for me like a way to perform when I didn’t have to be at a show at the basement that night.”
McKinnon said she hopes her oddball heroes make her fellow misfits feel less alone. She’s a big believer that weirdness can be its own kind of superpower, “That thing that makes you weird. That’s actually the thing that you can use to save the town, save the world, save yourselves. That’s a message that I find true.”
The “Kiss of Death” in “The Godfather: Part II”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo. Seen here from left, John Cazale (back to camera) as Fredo Corleone and Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone.
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
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Photo by CBS via Getty Images
The “Kiss of Death” in “The Godfather: Part II”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo. Seen here from left, John Cazale (back to camera) as Fredo Corleone and Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone.
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
Given the fact that it seems like Hollywood churns out nothing but sequels, you would think the industry would have perfected the genre by now.
Some sequels are pretty darn good, but many believe the perfect movie sequel came out 50 years ago this month.
Of course, we’re talking about Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II. It’s not only considered the greatest sequel of all time, it’s also considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
So why does Godfather II work, and where so many other sequels fall short?
NPR producer Marc Rivers weighs in.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
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This episode was produced by Brianna Scott and Marc Rivers. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
JoJo Siwa is looking to unload her mansion … because she just put it on the market.
Our real estate sources tell us the “Dance Moms” alum listed her Tarzana estate for $3,995,000.
The super modern home is 6,462 square feet with 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms.
JoJo’s place is decked out with a pool, spa, entertainment room, a bar and a sports court.
The primary suite features dual, custom walk-in closets, a fireplace and a balcony … and the en-suite bath has dual vanities, a soaking tub and a walk-in shower.
The gourmet kitchen is outfitted with state-of-the-art appliances from Wolf and Sub-Zero … plus a built-in breakfast bar and dual kitchen islands.
JoJo’s place is super private … with a gate and hedges that block the view from the outside.
Jason Oppenheim, Chrishell Stause and Omar Abaza of The Oppenheim Group have the listing.
Owner Jamie Fortin opened Friends to Lovers book store on Nov. 14. Three days later, a fire closed her to close the shop.
Suhyoon Wood with AEDP
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Suhyoon Wood with AEDP
When Jamie Fortin moved to Washington, D.C., five years ago, she fell in love with the Virginia neighborhood of Alexandria and vowed to open a small business there. Last month, Fortin’s promise to herself became a reality. She opened Friends to Lovers, a romance-themed bookstore inspired by Meet Cute, a romance bookstore in her hometown of San Diego.
Friends to Lovers celebrated its grand opening on Nov. 14. “It was honestly just so joyful,” Fortin said. “We had a line around the block, which is not something I expected.”
Before the fire, Fortin estimated that Friends to Lovers offered around 800 romance titles.
Suhyoon Wood with the AEDP
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Suhyoon Wood with the AEDP
Just three days later, though, Fortin’s excitement went up in smoke after the building caught fire. The store sustained smoke damage, leaving the entire stock of books and merchandise unsafe to sell. Fortin was forced to close the store and go into what she described as “solutions mode.”
Fortin created the Friends and Lovers bookstore to be a space where women and queer people, who make up the overwhelming majority of romance readers, could feel safe.
In the U.S., the demand for romance books is booming. According to Publisher’s Weekly, seven of the top 10 books of the year fell under this category. In August, 550 bookstores across the U.S., U.K. and Canada participated in Bookstore Romance Day — the biggest celebration yet. Many readers have also taken to the internet to share their passion. Romance books dominate the #BookTok, a TikTok community with over 100 billion views. Creators like @listenwithbritt and @kendra.reads share their recommendations and reviews with hundreds of thousands of followers. Their videos have garnered millions of likes and views. Despite the genre’s popularity, Fortin says most of the bookstores she frequented didn’t dedicate much space to the genre. “Even though it may be their most popular selling genre, most bookstores have one or two shelves of romance,” she said.
At the grand opening of Friends to Lovers, many readers expressed the same sentiment. Some traveled more than an hour to browse the shelves. Readers came from Charlottesville, Va., Baltimore, Md. and more.
“Romance-centered bookstores are sorely lacking,” said Kayla Lloyd, who traveled from Annapolis to check out the bookstore. “We can go to Barnes & Noble and we can see the romance section, but you’re not going to get the selection that’s here.” Fortin says she stocks local and independent authors as well as bestsellers. She estimates that the bookstore offered about 800 titles before the fire.
“Outside of gay bars in the area, I think that there is definitely a lack of third spaces for people of color and queer people to hang out,” said Eleanor Bodington, a customer at Friends to Lovers.
Fortin partnered with two women who owned small businesses in the area to help launch their brands at the grand opening event. Women and queer-owned businesses also make all of the store’s non-book merchandise, including bags, hats and more. Even her store’s location was intentional, Fortin says. She wanted Friends to Lovers surrounded by other small businesses so that readers would be encouraged to support other entrepreneurs like her after they came to her store. “When I woke up [after the fire], I felt like I needed to live up to this space that I created that people are now relying on as a space they feel at home and safe,” Fortin said.
Fortin partnered with women and queer-owned businesses to create merchandise for her bookstore, including hats and stickers.
Courtesy of Maryam Bami
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Courtesy of Maryam Bami
Despite being open for just a few days, the community Fortin hoped to reach rallied around her business. Donations flooded in, surpassing Fortin’s $20,000 GoFundMe goal in 24 hours. After assessing the full extent of the damage, Fortin increased her donation goal to $45,000, eventually surpassing that one as well.
Fortin says she believes that her dedication to her goal of supporting women and queer businesses, combined with the tight-knit nature of the romance reading community, helped her rebuild quickly. “The community support has really buoyed me and pushed me to create something better out of the ashes, as it were,” she said. “There were more people than I ever expected that cared about my little bookstore.”
“When you set your mission, and you really stand by it, people say, ‘We love that mission. We’ll live that out as well,”‘ Fortin said.
Fortin opened a long-term pop-up location for Friends to Lovers on Dec. 7 at a nearby business. She continues to search for a new permanent location for the shop.
“It has been so overwhelming. I feel like the community is not letting me sit and wallow in my grief. Instead, they’ve said, ‘We’re going to fix this. We’re going to make sure it’s successful.”‘
Fortin says that because the romance community is used to their traditionally feminine interests not being respected, it doesn’t take the brick-and-mortar location for granted.
“I think we haven’t always had a lot of overwhelming support for things that women love,” Fortin said. “We love to say that things are ridiculous when women love them. There’s a lot of things that men love that we don’t consider ridiculous.” Fortin points out that teenage girls were the ones who loved the Beatles first before they became a household name. “Romance is one of the genres with the most staying power, that’s always been the least respected.”
“We’re creating a safe space to talk about things that are not celebrated in regular spaces,” she said. “Once women and queer people saw that, everyone said ‘let’s all stand behind this together.”‘
“The outpouring of support has been amazing as a bystander to watch,” said Maryam Bami, owner of Old Town Flower Gal. Bami launched her floral business at the Friends to Lovers grand opening. “I thought I was a fan of romance until I met some of the supporters of the bookstore.” Bami is one of several woman-owned businesses Fortin intentionally collaborated with. “She really just took a chance on all of us and really elevated us in the process,” she said.
Maryam Bami was one of several female entrepreneurs who launched their brand at the Friends to Lovers grand opening. Bami owns Old Town Flower Gal, a floral shop that specializes in “flower bombs.”
Courtesy Maryam Bami
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Courtesy Maryam Bami
As Fortin writes a new chapter for Friends to Lovers, she still views her community of business owners as vital to the bookstore’s success. She hopes readers supporting her rebuilding efforts will also patronize the nearby businesses that were also affected by the fire. She’s also encouraged supporters to donate to fundraisers for other businesses affected by the fire. “Women have constantly had to lift each other up and be each other’s solid ground,” she said. “If [my business] has all this hype and support and encouragement, I need to use that to build up other women and other brands.”
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