"As a child, McKinnon had loved books about slightly oddball characters, like those found in Roald Dahl books. Her favorite heroine was Pippi Longstocking, whom she played in a kindergarten performance. She loved the character so much that she would show up at school for years in a full-on Pippi costume, complete with pipe cleaners in her hair to mimic the heroine's iconic protruding red pigtails."
"After graduating from Columbia University, between auditioning for sketch comedy roles, McKinnon sat down to write a middle-grade novel of her own. Holed up in her apartment, she plotted out a story about a trio of sisters in the Victorian era who don't fit in in their stuffy town, where girls are meant to be prim and proper."
"In 2022, McKinnon departed SNL and finally had time to devote to the novel. After marinating on it for more than a decade, it came together, and she landed a book deal with Hachette. Her book, The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science, debuted in 2024 and became an instant New York Times bestseller. She's just released the second book, called Secrets of the Purple Pearl, in what will eventually become a series."
Kate McKinnon dreamed of writing a middle-grade novel since her mid-twenties and admired oddball heroines like Pippi Longstocking. After graduating from Columbia University, she worked on a Victorian-era story about three sisters who do not fit into a prim, stuffy town, but she struggled to finish the first chapter. Joining Saturday Night Live in 2012 limited her writing time, and the project remained intermittent for years. After leaving SNL in 2022, she devoted focused time to the manuscript, secured a deal with Hachette, and published The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science in 2024, which became a New York Times bestseller. A second book, Secrets of the Purple Pearl, followed.
Read at Fast Company
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