Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better

I have known Mylisa for years, as we both have participated in the Rochester Children’s Book Festival and taken part annually in Festival-to-Go in various Rochester, NY city schools. I have always admired her intelligence, her sense of humor, her writing acumen, and her commitment to creating the best children’s books possible. You’ll see what I mean as you read her thoughtful, thorough responses to my questions—despite how many there are! I found so much to talk about concerning this timely novel for middle schoolers, and I appreciate that Mylisa graciously answered them all. I’m delighted to welcome Mylisa Larsen to Children’s Book Corner.

Judy Bradbury: Tell us about this project: What seeded its creation?

Mylisa Larsen: I’m so intrigued by the kids I’ve worked with over the years who didn’t make things easy, who had an attitude, who gave no quarter. Often, when I hung in there long enough to get through some of the walls and learn their stories, they’d end up being some of my favorite people. So I kind of wanted to show what might be behind that kid who is sometimes a pain but who might be doing some amazing things offstage.

JB: Though not exactly a sequel, this novel follows Playing Through the Turnaround, where the characters Quagmire and Cassie are introduced. When and why did you decide to write a book in which Quag would be the main character?

ML: I just felt that Quag was the one kid who didn’t really get to tell his story in Playing Through The Turnaround. And his story kept knocking on the door—even though I didn’t really know what that story was. I just knew that something was going on with Quag’s mom, but wasn’t sure what.

JB: Factual birding segments and audio files from Quagmire’s phone are randomly interspersed between chapters. How did you conceive of the novel’s structure?

ML: I’m not good at plot. (Okay, I’m terrible at plot.) There’s a lot of thrashing around during the first draft trying to figure out what should happen. So you’ll often see me using some kind of structural device to get at the story. And I do love structural things that let the reader kind of play along–trying to figure out “what does this have to do with the story.”

I had a chapter early in the book where Quag lies to Cassie about being a birder. And in order to keep her from discovering that this was a lie, Quag is having to learn more than he wants to about birds. And I was talking to a friend during the thrashing stage about was there anything I could do structurally with these birds, and we talked for awhile but couldn’t quite figure it out.

But she kept thinking after we got off the phone and the next morning texted me “ooh! I bet birds keep themselves safe in different ways (camouflage, attack, deception, etc.)” and I was like, “YES!” Because that is so Quag. All this stuff he does is just trying to keep himself safe. So then the bird facts became a way for Quag to subconsciously reflect what is going on in his own life. And the audio files are a game I’m playing with the reader—here’s where Quag is physically and here’s what he’s noticing and recording—and I hope it’s a nice surprise what happens to the audio files in the end.

Interior design by Chris Kwon and Jessie Gang

JB: Tell about one hurdle you experienced in the creation of Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better, or provide a memorable (or humorous!) anecdote related to the writing of the novel.

ML: I got the first version of Quagmire’s story past some very tough beta readers on style points, I think. And then it was acquired. And then my brilliant editor basically said something like, “Great character, nice writing but it’s only about a third of a book. So you’ll need to write the other two thirds.” And I was like, “WHAT?” But she was absolutely right.

JB: What is one unexpected joy that came from the creation of Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better?

ML:  I think the unexpected joy during Quag was that because I struggled so much in the drafting, I figured out how to be less alone while writing. I had been more of a lock myself in a tower kind of writer. I’d check in with writing friends when I needed to know if something was working but it was a lot of “I’ll see you all when this is finished.” But that wasn’t an option this time. I had two thirds of a story to write and I had a deadline and I didn’t know what happened in this story. So I talked to everyone–about structure, about plot, about anything I thought could help. There was one point when I was so stuck that I called together a little group of smart writing friends who knew Quag and once a week for three weeks we had Save The Quag brainstorming sessions where we just tried to think about what might happen for Quag going forward that felt authentic. And it was so helpful to me. People are so generous. I knew that but I really felt it during the writing of this one.

JB: What would surprise readers to learn about you or about the writing of Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better?

ML: I don’t know if this will surprise anyone else, but it always surprises me how little control I seem to have over my characters. I invented them. You’d think I could just make them do whatever I decide they should do. But that is not how it works for me. I always feel like I’m banging around in a dark room trying to find the light switch and figure out what on earth is going on with this character.

JB: Since I am from the Buffalo, NY area and an iconic hot dog brand local to our area is featured briefly but memorably in the novel, I have to ask: how and why did you decide to include Ted’s Hot Dogs in the story?

ML: Scenes need stages to play out on. I wanted something uniquely Buffalo for when Quag and his mom were passing through. But I wrote this particular part of the story during the lockdown portion of the pandemic so I couldn’t drive to Buffalo and check places out. So I asked the internet what were some iconic places in Buffalo. Ted’s was one of the things that came up and when I saw some of the pictures and read the reviews and the menu, I thought, “Perfect.”

JB: Who do you perceive your target audience to be and why?

ML: I wrote Quagmire for any kid who feels like they are holding up a whole lot of their world and wonders if it’s always going to be like this. I wrote it for the students and teachers who notice those kids who aren’t always easy to be around and question why. I wrote it for all of us who love someone who has a mental health condition. And all of us who have a mental health condition ourselves and have perhaps come up against some less than helpful ways of thinking about that.

JB: What do you hope readers will take away from Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better? 

ML: That we all need help sometimes. That it’s okay to admit that. That there are people who will help and they’re worth finding.

JB: What need(s) does this story satisfy?

ML: I hope it helps people look at kids who aren’t easy in a more empathetic way; there’s often a reason. I hope it portrays Quag’s mom as the difficult, fun, brave, full person that she is. I hope it helps people have honest conversations about mental health. But I also hope that it’s got enough humor to be a fun read. Life is sad and funny and happy and all the things intermixed and I wanted to write a book with all of those things in the same book.

JB: If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?

ML: What’s something you need help with and who are you going to ask to help you?

JB: How do you see Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better connecting to curriculum or being used in schools or learning settings?

ML: I think English teachers are going to have better answers to this than I will but here are a few thoughts: 1) I think this is an accessible text, but these bird and audio file segments add a kind of complexity and could make for some good class discussion. What do the students think these sections are about? How do they relate to the rest of the story? Are there other ways the author could have done what these sections do? What might those be? 2) I hope it becomes a door for an honest discussion of mental health and what’s helpful when we’re struggling and what’s not helpful. 3) I hope in an SEL way, it can be an entry point for talking in a realistic way about knowing when you need help with something that’s gotten too big for you to handle on your own.

Books written by Mylisa Larsen