From Memoir To Historical Fiction with author LL Kirchner

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Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:00

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts Krisit Leonard, owner and host of Writers in the Wild Retreats, nonfiction voice over artist, and president of WFWA. I'm excited to share with you a little about today's guest. Once simultaneously the religion editor for an LGBTQIA+ paper, dating columnist for an alt newsweekly, and bridal editor for a society rag. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Salon, and the Rumpus among numerous other outlets. She is the author of 2 successful memoirs and her first historical fiction book, Florida Girls, releases on May 28th.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:01

She lives in Florida with her favorite husband. Welcome to L. L. Kirchner.

LL Kirchner [: 00:01:06

Hello. Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:09

It is great to have you. I guess we are a couple of Florida girls ourselves. Did you always live in Florida, or are you a transplant like me?

LL Kirchner [: 00:01:17

I am a transplant. I moved here from New York City, interestingly, which always caused people to ask me, don't you miss New York? And I'm like, no. And then I met my favorite husband, so I'm still here.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:29

Oh, and you're still here. That's awesome. So we always start with the same question. Tell me the most interesting thing about where you are from. And it can be where you grew up. It can be the most interesting place you've lived. Just tell me an interesting story about where you're from.

LL Kirchner [: 00:01:44

I was born in Salem, Massachusetts. That's where we lived when I was a child. And the most interesting story about Salem is, of course, they had the witch trials there. Certainly. Maybe that set me up for a love of women done wrong. I don't know, but it's certainly been a theme in all of my work.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:04

Oh, that's awesome. So we'd like to start out getting to know you personally. What is the best advice that anyone has ever given to you? It can be related to writing or not. It's up to you.

LL Kirchner [: 00:02:16

I've gotten so much great advice over the course of my lifetime about so many different things. But when you asked me that question, the first piece of advice that came to mind was given to me by a mentor friend of mine, Ruth. She was this little old lady, very petite. She wore turbans, and she smoked cigarettes. And she had been a lifelong school teacher. And I'll never forget when her advice to me was, sure, he'll cross the burning desert for you, but will he take out the garbage?

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:49

That's a very practical piece of advice.

LL Kirchner [: 00:02:53

It's been one of the things I've turned to the most, believe it or not. I mean, my whole book, I just wrote a memoir, is about going around the globe, seeking advice from other people, you know, spiritual solutions, really, to the kind of malady that's called life. And the funny part of that was that I discovered because what I wanted to know was what is wrong with me. My marriage had ended spectacularly. My husband got on a plane and told me then later that he wanted a divorce. And so I just became obsessed. And what I realized at the end of it was that I've been asking the wrong question.

LL Kirchner [: 00:03:31

So I do have a love of practical advice.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:03:33

Practical advice is very, very good. So switching over to the reason a lot of us are here, we're talking about books. When I read the history of what was the basis for your book, I wasn't actually convinced it was actual history. I looked it up. Damn if it wasn't true.

LL Kirchner [: 00:03:51

And sure enough

Kristi Leonard [: 00:03:51

Oh, my goodness. Now, I know you took liberties because all historical fiction authors take liberties to make the fiction. But, gosh, what a fun premise. So we like to ask our guests to summarize their book in one sentence. So can you give us a summary?

LL Kirchner [: 00:04:08

For sure. Florida Girls is the story of a troop of swimsuit models that toured the country toward the end of World War 2, but then eventually came home and took over the Tampa mafia.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:04:25

It is such a tough one.

LL Kirchner [: 00:04:26

First half of that sentence is true. The second half is the part I made up because when I discovered that there had been a team of these touring swimsuit models at that particular time in history when there were travel rations and clothing rations and food rations, I just thought, okay. What shady business was going on that made this happen? And at first, I wrote it as sort of the story of the men. I had these male characters in mind based on some real life characters. But then the female characters just really emerged as wanting to tell these stories, and a lot of it was because of what was happening. I started writing this during the pandemic. And during lockdown, there were a lot of consequences that we faced as being women. Things were happening where rights were eroding, and so many strange things happened for women's rights and continue happening.

LL Kirchner [: 00:05:18

So a lot of these stories that I wanted to tell or that these characters were speaking through me resonated from the history to the present day. And that's really what I kind of fell in love with this story. I've discovered one thing. I have to really fall in love with a book or a topic to write it.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:05:35

Well, you spend an awful lot of time writing, putting your heart and soul into it. So you do have to really love it for sure. So you've written both fiction and nonfiction. Tell us about the differences and the challenges to both.

LL Kirchner [: 00:05:50

You know, when I first sat down to write a memoir, my first memoir, American Lady Creature, I had a journalism background and I had been living in Qatar and I wanted to write a series of witty essays about the place because it is a weird place. I mean, women are floating through Starbucks wrapped head not Starbucks, but the mall. They're wrapped head to toe in black, and they are walking past Victoria's Secret ads while the scent of Starbucks and, the ceremonial incense, wafts through the air. So, you know, there was a lot of cognitive dissonance. And I thought I'll do it in a year. Took me 7 years. Wow. There was a huge learning curve from journalism to putting myself in the story.

LL Kirchner [: 00:06:30

I came from this school of journalism where you write about what's happening, not what's happened. You don't put yourself in it. Sure. And I started storytelling with the moth and became increasingly in love with just different forms of story. And actually, I wasn't even sure I could write a novel, but my second memoir wasn't selling. And I thought, you know what? I'm gonna fictionalize these stories and write them as movies, which I did. Fun. And they started winning awards, which was fantastic, but then lockdown happened.

LL Kirchner [: 00:07:00

And then there was the strike. So I did write a pilot based on all that, and I have it. I'm, you know, ready to go with that. But I just really enjoyed that process of fictionalizing. And so I thought I'm going to write about this troupe of touring swimsuit models that I learned about because it struck me.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:19

Oh, it grabs you for sure. Absolutely. So as a writer, if you could choose only one, would you rather be a commercial success or a critical success?

LL Kirchner [: 00:07:30

Honestly, one of the reasons that I went into journalism school I actually have a degree in journalism. Fancy that. As opposed to getting a degree in literature or English or creative writing even is because I had been writing for the school newspaper and being out and about with the writing that I was doing. And I loved being read. I mean, I loved causing and sparking conversation. Yeah. And yet, of course, I crave critical success.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:02

Don't we all?

LL Kirchner [: 00:08:03

So, honestly, I was shocked, amazed. The book Blissful Thinking, that memoir, I was nominated for a push card for it, and I am also a finalist for an Indie Award. You know, forward reviews does these annual awards, and I'm waiting to hear about one more award. And so I feel like I came out in this sort of blazing style that I kind of wrote it like, well, this is probably gonna piss a lot of people off. And so far, it's my most critically acclaimed work. Funny. Well, except for the screenwriting, which did pretty well too. So who knows what'll happen with Florida Girls, but it's part of a series.

LL Kirchner [: 00:08:41

It's the first in a series.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:43

Oh, that's great.

LL Kirchner [: 00:08:44

I called it the Queenpin Chronicles.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:46

Oh my gosh. I love it. Well, I can see where this is definitely setting up for some much more interesting fun stuff.

LL Kirchner [: 00:08:53

Well, and it's all related. It's all his stories of historical relevance, which I'm happy to talk about more. But, honestly, I thought it was gonna be a standalone. And then the characters were like, oh, we're not done. It surprised me.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:09:05

Yeah. The characters do talk to you. It's pretty amazing. They go on off on their tangents and they do their thing. I love it. What do you wanna tell others who are dreaming about writing a book?

LL Kirchner [: 00:09:17

a writing group since, like,: 2012

LL Kirchner [: 00:09:44

They're like butterfly wings. And if they get bumped up against or wet, they're damaged, and it can be irreparable. And so I try to really baby and foster that creative sprite within and do whatever it takes to sort of protect it and give it time and space to exist, really.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:04

That is pretty amazing. I love that imagery, and I'm gonna have to think about that a whole lot as I am writing, for sure. So how different do you think your novel would be if you had written it before the memoirs or how different would your memoirs be if you had written the fiction first?

LL Kirchner [: 00:10:24

Well, I think actually what changed my writing the most was screenwriting. I think my first memoir would be really different. Blissful Thinking actually had this one structure that I was very set on, which got a lot of interest, wasn't selling. But when I started really looking at structure, plot, act 1, act 2, act 3, act 4, or just 3 acts even, the idea of this happened because this happened, because that you know, building a causality of conflict, tension, and drama so that the stakes are being raised even if it's just something sort of quotidian and mundane. Although in Florida girls, there's a lot of action. Oh, yeah. Definitely. So would my memoir be terrifically different? Oh.

LL Kirchner [: 00:11:10

I mean, I kind of wrote them. I wrote this and it sat and didn't sell. And then I wrote the novel. So I had to sort of go back and forth between the two. It's hard to put into words how they're different because obviously in fiction, it's your world. You can make it up and you can make up whatever you need to have happen to make it conform to your dramatic arc. In memoir, you have to deal with the facts of your actual lived experience and turn that into something.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:39

But you do have to make it into a story that people wanna read. That's it. I think that's the biggest challenge. Well, we are actually getting to the end of our time. It seems really crazy. I feel like we could sit here forever and talk. We do like to have folks find you on the Internet. So, I would assume your website might be the best place.

LL Kirchner [: 00:12:02

Website is fantastic. If they go to LL kirchner.com or illbehavedwomen.com, that's my subject newsletter that I write where I try to kind of merge my fiction and nonfiction. I take characters and talk about them and hope to spark discussion that's relevant in today's discussion. Awesome.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:24

So what book or story inspires you the most? That is the question that we always end with.

LL Kirchner [: 00:12:30

Yeah. I, think that Pema Children's, when things fall apart, it has got to be my most often return to in terms of inspirational, like, truly soul feeding. But then I'm constantly inspired. I pulled this book out off my shelf to show you. It's called The Greenbelt Jungle. Oh. I'm reading it for the next book in the series, Vegas Girls.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:52

Okay.

LL Kirchner [: 00:12:53

egas. And this was written in: 1960

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:24

Right. Yeah. Historical fiction is something I would like to dabble in at some point, but gotta have time for all that research. Well, it has been an absolute delight to meet you and get to talk to you. You have such interesting stories, and I'm sure our listeners are gonna enjoy them. Thanks so much.

LL Kirchner [: 00:13:41

Again, thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:47

Thanks for joining us. We hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform, and we'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram @authorexpresspodcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.