Kate McKinnon Describes the New Book She First Started Writing Before SNL
The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science hits stores on October 1.
Not only is Kate McKinnon a Saturday Night Live legend, and a bonafide movie star — she's now an author with the release of her first book, The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science.
Though her novel just hit store shelves on October 1, McKinnon told Jimmy Fallon that the book has been a labor of love for the Barbie actor for more than a decade. McKinnon started writing Millicent Quibb 12 years ago, even before she joined SNL.
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"I started when I was like 26 and I got hired [on SNL] when I was 28, so... I worked on this for 12 years," she told Fallon during her September 30 Tonight Show appearance.
What's the plot of Kate McKinnon's book?
McKinnon told Fallon that Millicent Quibb is about three "dorky" girls who "get kicked out of etiquette school, and they get a mysterious invitation to another etiquette school — run by the infamous mad scientist Millicent Quibb, who pickles brains and has really crazy hair, and takes them on an adventure."
Not only does the book have high-flying capers, it's also full of "really fun art and diagrams" since McKinnon loves manuals and diagrams. She told Fallon she is "obsessed with botanical prints from the 1800s."
While Millicent Quibb is fun for all ages, it is classified as "Middle Grade," which is a genre for readers from around ages 8 to 14, she explained to Fallon.
"I would tell people, 'I'm writing a Middle Grade novel,' and they would be like, 'Don't sell yourself short.' But that's the name of the genre," she continued.
"So it's for middle school, and which is my favorite genre, because it's the age when kids are starting to really think about who they are and how to live a good life, and what they're going to do in the world, and magic," McKinnon added, "and it's just so fun and I love it."
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Kate McKinnon "learned so much about writing" at SNL
When McKinnon stopped by TODAY on September 30, she revealed to Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie that she'd actually written the first chapter of the book 500 times.
"I counted in my computer, I have 500 drafts of the first chapter. In retrospect, I should have written the first thing and then gone back, but I was learning how to write in all those 12 years I was at SNL," she said on TODAY.
"SNL has some of the best minds in the United States working, so just being in a room with them watching them work, I learned so much about writing and I was able to finally complete it when I left," she said.
Maybe The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science could be in the running for the next Fallon Book Club pick?
