Kathie: Welcome back to MG Book Village, Amy! I’m so glad we have a chance to chat again, this time about your June 20th release from Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers called THE MCNIFFICENTS. Can you tell our readers a bit about it, please?

Amy: Hello! Thank you for having me. The McNifficents tells the story of the six McNiff children and their nanny, Lord Tennyson (who happens to be a very distinguished Miniature Schnauzer). Every day, he does his best to care for the children and keep them from destroying their pink New England farmhouse—and the rest of the town for that matter. But when summer vacation brings the kids home together all day, his chaos-containing skills are put to the ultimate test.

Baby Sweetums is still refusing to walk, nap, or listen to anyone; Ezra is trying to keep a snake as a secret pet; Annie and Mary’s fighting is worse than ever; while Pearl and Tate are scared of just about everything. And when a particularly tempting trio of baby chicks arrives at the house, even Lord Tennyson finds he can’t stay on his best behavior. He starts to wonder – is he really the dog for the job? Together, they will learn that each McNiff member has an important and special role to play – just like everyone who has ever been born into a family.

Kathie: This is the first book where your protagonist is an animal. Can you tell us a bit about Lord Tennyson and why you chose to tell the story from his perspective?

Amy: I thought it would be funny if a pet dog really thought he was the nanny to his family. At first I wrote the story from the rotating point of view of the six siblings, but for one chapter I tried out Lord Tennyson, the dignified schnauzer. Because he wasn’t a sibling or directly involved in their conflicts, his powers of observation felt more powerful and omniscient. It was also a new writing challenge as Lord Tennyson can’t speak, so he does a lot of effective communicating through his bark, paws, and stern eyebrow raising. It made me think about how a very intelligent and protective pet dog might interpret our human behavior. 

Kathie: There’s a lot of humor in this story, which is something I think many young readers are looking for these days. Do you find that easier or more challenging to write than a heavier topic like ALS in The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair?

Amy: I am drawn to weighty, deeply emotional topics, especially ones involving the human body, but I think I needed something lighter too, something that made me laugh out loud several times (this did). The McNifficents has the drama of family life, but with much lighter subject matters. In that sense I suppose it was a bit easier, although humor is also hard to write and it took me just as many drafts as my other novels. It did bring a lot of joy to write, and I hope that joy is something readers feel, as well.

Kathie: I know you incorporate elements of your real life in your stories. How is the McNifficent family’s mayhem similar to something in your own life, and what scene was one of the most enjoyable for you to write?

Amy: We actually have a Miniature Schnauzer named Lord Tennyson (who obviously adores poetry) and I have four children who have grown up loving him. Like the McNiff family, there is a lot of mayhem all of the time, but it’s also incredibly endearing to witness the love between your children and their childhood dog. For instance, when they were younger, my kids would often say “Tenny” was their best friend. An enjoyable scene to write features Lord Tennyson’s hero, Mr. McNiff, who is a tap-dancing-singing-drama-loving teacher who is constantly trying to rally the children to clean up after themselves. His character is based on a very funny and delightful cousin I have. 

Kathie: Can you tell me one thing that might surprise us to know about this story?

Amy: “Naughty Mary” was inspired by my mother as a child (she’s slightly more reformed now). The “Naughty Mary Paints the Fence” scene? It really happened like that. Her older sister still holds a grudge (probably because my mother still thinks it was genius and one of her greatest pranks).

Kathie: Are you more of a plotter or a pantser, and what part of the writing process do you enjoy the most?

Amy: I suppose I’m a mixture of the two, a “plantser.” I have a lot of ideas and notes written in Google docs, Scrivener, and yellow legal pads. I write outlines for many key scenes, and often know where I want to start and end a chapter. But getting from the beginning to the end is an act of faith: me sitting in the chair, writing one word after the other, not exactly sure how we’re going to get through the middle. The blank page is pretty torturous; I’d much rather refine and edit something I’ve already written.

Kathie: Can you share one book that you have on your summer reading list?

Amy: I’m finally going to read both “Zoe Washington” books by Janae Marks!

Kathie: Where can our readers go to find out more about you and your writing?

Amy: Instagram: @amymakechnie

Website: amymakechnie.com 

Weekly newsletter: amymakechnie.substack.com 

Kathie: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, and best of luck with your book’s release.

Amy: Thank you very much, Kathie! 

Amy Makechnie is the author of the critically acclaimed middle grade novels The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair and Ten Thousand Tries, both of which received multiple starred reviews and have been on numerous state and “best of” book lists. The McNifficents launches July 20th, 2023 and tells the story of six rambunctious children and their nanny (who happens to be a very dignified Miniature Schnauzer). A former Anatomy and Physiology teacher and soccer coach, Amy is also mother to four children, enjoys running the picturesque roads in her small New Hampshire town, and is learning how to paint and draw more than stick figures. 

Stay in touch with Amy on Instagram and by subscribing to her newsletter.

Anne: Hello, Meg! It’s great to have you here at MG Book Village to talk about your recently released novel in verse, Good Different. Would you please give readers a short description of what the story is all about?

Meg: Sure! Good Different is a middle grade novel in verse about an autistic girl named Selah who learns to advocate for her needs and accommodations through writing poems. Her special interest is dragons, and she wishes she was powerful like a dragon, as her sensory needs often make her feel so powerless. But as she finds a voice through poems, sensory tools, and allies, Selah learns she doesn’t have to be a dragon to feel empowered.

Anne: Great. At the end, you include information about autism and an Author’s Note. How interesting that when you learned (as an adult) that you were autistic, you finally felt like you’d found your voice! How much of the character Selah is you? Are parts of the story autobiographical?

Meg: Emotionally, Selah is me. Maybe this is the autism, but I have trouble having distance from my protagonists. All of my protagonists are some aspect of me. So when I’ve had mentors or writing instructors say, “your protagonist isn’t you,” I’ve had trouble understanding—or fully agreeing—with that statement. Whenever I try to write not me, it doesn’t work very well! The setting is inspired by a private school I attended (and really enjoyed in many ways) as a child, but the actual plot is not what I experienced. The plot is inspired by situations I’ve seen autistic kids get into, where their behavior is misunderstood and feared.

Anne: Somewhere, I read that the book’s original title was “Selah’s Guide to Normal.” Why the change in title?

Meg: So I learned through this journey that a title is actually quite a complicated thing! There are lots of people who need to agree on a title: your editor, agent, and the promotion team at the publishing house. My publisher had certain parameters they wanted the title to fit into based on what’s done well in the past. So we had to work together to find a title that captured the story well and that we could all get behind. Huge shoutout and gratitude to my writer friend Kathy MacMillan, who suggested the title “Good Different” when I was getting stumped with the back and forths of finding the right fit. In the end, I’ve fallen in love with it and can’t imagine using any other title!

Anne: It’s a good title! It really works. Now, tell us about your process in developing the characters. I love Pop and his way of helping Selah understand her autism. Are any of the characters based on people you know?

Meg: All my characters are based less on literal people in my life and more on my emotional perception of people, or of memories I have. Pop has aspects of my pop, but he’s his own unique character. Other characters are based off memories from when I was a kid and how I felt about what happened then, as well as how I feel about it now. The intersection of past and current perception is where most of my characters come from. For example, Addie braiding Selah’s hair is based on a true memory (though I didn’t hit the girl who braided my hair!) but in writing and creating Addie’s character, I wanted to see not just what I felt and perceived in that moment as a kid, but why someone might touch someone else’s hair without their consent, and the well-meaning offering in the act. 

Anne: You wrote Good Different in verse. Why verse rather than narrative prose?

Meg: I come to poetry when prose is inadequate, when the content can only be in verse. I’ve heard that for musical theater, for example, the characters sing when the emotion’s too strong for spoken word. They dance when the emotion’s too strong for music. Poetry’s like that. The emotion is so strong that it comes out in poetry. And writing about discovering my neurodivergence in a neurotypical world—all the exhaustion and overstimulation and confusion of not being able to keep up—the feelings were too big for prose. They just made sense in poetry.

Anne: I loved how Selah felt understood when she attended FantasyCon. What about you? Are you a regular at ComicCon conventions?  Have you gotten involved with a LARP (live-action role playing) group?

Meg: Yes! I feel at home at conventions, especially MAGfest, a music and gaming festival in National Harbor, Maryland. My husband and I go every year, and in fact I speak there as a panelist too. It always feels like a kind of homecoming.

I don’t have as much experience with LARP, or any kind of RPGs if I’m honest. My friends used to do a tabletop RPG but I got anxiety from the real-time improvisational aspect. I way prefer to write a book on my own time when no one’s watching than to make decisions in front of everyone!

Anne: Yeah, I hear you!

What do you hope young readers will take away from reading Good Different?

Meg: I hope young readers will see they don’t have to just keep everything inside, that they’ll see the possibilities for agency and working together with others. I hope neurodivergent readers can see a place for themselves in the world. I hope they can see characters like Selah and go—hey, that’s me! Books are what brought me to discover my autism in the first place, and I hope that my books in turn can help others. I also hope neurotypical readers can gain greater empathy for neurodivergent folks and see how they can be better allies.

Anne: Nice. Now, I see that on Twitter, your handle is @ConfusedNarwhal. Why did you choose that handle? And please tell us your other social media links. Where can readers go to learn more about you and your work?

Meg: Ha! To be honest, I can’t even remember the exact origin of it. I thought narwhals were cool before they were “cool” and I live with constant amounts of varying degrees of confusion, so there you go. 🙂 I like to think I’m the one who began the trend of narwhals though. 🙂

You can also find me on instagram at @meden_author, and my website: www.megedenbooks.com.

Anne: Thank you so much for stopping by MG Book Village, and for writing such a heartfelt story!

Meg: Thanks so much for having me!

Meg Eden Kuyatt teaches creative writing at colleges and writing centers. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently Good Different, a JLG Gold Standard selection (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com.

Anne (A.B.) Westrick is the author of the older-MG novel Brotherhood. You can learn more about Anne at the MG Book Village “About” page.