Author Confessions: The L.L. Kirchner Edition

Ever wonder about which bits of an author's novel are steeped in reality? Author Confessions: The Facts Behind the Fiction is ready to spill the tea.

For my inaugural issue I asked L.L. Kirchner, author of Florida Girls, A Novel (and Book 1 of the Queenpin Chronicles) what I thought was a simple question—"what does the oft-cited advice of 'write what you know' mean to you?"

Her response? (Buckle in...)

"Truth be told, I find this concept of 'write what you know' bizarre. If we only wrote what we knew, everything would be a memoir."

Ouch!

I spent a hot second licking my wounds and second-guessing myself—who wouldn't given the premise of this newsletter is gleaning nuggets of truth buried in our favorite authors' fiction—then decided to investigate.

The good news is LitHub and writer Emily Temple already did some of the heavy lifting by compiling the responses of 31 authors to exactly this question in "Should You Write What You Know? 31 Authors Weigh In."

It's an interesting read—and I may include some of the specific responses in future issues—but the TL;DR is...who knows? Some authors say yes, some no, some encourage writing what you feel and others writing what you want to learn.

I agree with...all of it?

For me, as I near the end of the first draft of my novel Perfect Memory, I am nothing like my main character in personality, life circumstances or in the challenges she faces. Yet there are definitely parts of me and my life that have snuck into Kat Sutherland's world (more details TK in future issues).

Perhaps the same is true of Kirchner.

While the 1940s-set Florida Girls is certainly not a memoir (and she knows memoirs having written two—American Lady Creature and Blissful Thinking), she too has put some of herself into her work, mining her emotions to create an important and relatable story about what it means to be living through global changes and unprecedented times. (And also that time she missed the bus...)

Let's dish!

Author Confessions (AC): Tell us about your novel...

L.L. Kirchner (LLK): Florida Girls is my debut novel and the first book in the series The Queenpin Chronicles. The series follows 18-year-old Thelma Miles near the close of World War II. Broke and orphaned, she joins a troupe of touring swimsuit models in an attempt to flee her criminal past, only to find she's stepped into the mafia's lair. When the head of the Florida underworld offers her everything she never knew she wanted, she must decide if she will forge a new future for herself or return to the life she knows.

AC: What inspired you to write this book? Were there personal experiences or events that influenced the story?

LLK: Yes! I wrote this book as pandemic restrictions were lifting. It was a nerve-racking moment on one hand because I wondered if the danger was really over. At the same time, women’s rights were plummeting as the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The desperation I felt to get a vaccine, to save women’s rights, all felt emotionally relevant to the time period of this novel. People were struggling to find their way in the brave new world, with no idea of what it would look like. The perfect storm for a cast of women who, having gotten a taste of freedom, don’t want to lose it. They’re driven to extremes to keep it.

The original seed, however, sprang from a vintage newspaper clipping that showed a troupe of touring swimsuit models from Florida at an event in California during World War II. It seemed an awfully strange use of resources at a time when ordinary citizens were limited to things like two pairs of shoes per year. If your car tires needed to be replaced and you didn’t have the rations, you put the car up on blocks. With that kind of rationing in place, just who were these Floridians that had organized such an event?

It turned out that they came from a massive drugstore here in St. Petersburg where I live. A place that was run by a forward-thinking promotionally-minded man. So when I first thought about it, of course I was thinking about the story from that perspective. But as I began to write, the female characters took over in what I think is a delightful way. 

AC: Do any of the characters in the book reflect aspects of yourself or people you know? If so, how?

LLK: To some extent they all do and none of them do. Each time I inhabit a point of view I try it on literally, at least in my mind’s eye. I imagine I’m looking out at the world from that perspective.

At the heart of every character are the emotions that drive them. I think we all have the same emotions. We just act differently in response to them. That makes it possible for me to write the characters so outwardly different from myself and from each other.

AC: Is there a particular scene or chapter that holds special significance for you personally? If yes, could you elaborate on why it’s meaningful?

LLK: Probably the opening scene where Thelma misses the bus because Greyhound leaves on time dammit. That actually happened to me once! Seeing as I was hard up enough to be using the bus for transport, it was a disaster. Unlike Thelma, I was many years away from being rocketed into a new world of possibility, but that’s why we love books, right? 

AC: Has the process of writing this book affected you personally in any way? If so, how?

LLK: I hadn’t written fiction for many years when I began so I wasn’t even sure if I could finish a book. The simple act of completing the narrative arc of a book was empowering. And secondly, though I was wrapping up the book, the characters had more to say. Now Florida Girls is the first book in the series, The Queenpin Chronicles. I’m nearly finished with book 2, Vegas Girls, and I have so many notes for book 3, Havana Girls.

AC: Thanks so much for sharing L.L. Kirchner!

To enter the drawing for an e-book of Florida Girls, drop a comment below telling us your favorite time period for books you read. (And remember, if you enjoy a book then leaving a good review is the best gift you can give an author.)

To learn more about Kirchner, visit her website (which includes links to her social media and newsletter Ill-Behaved Women) and read on for her answers to Behind the Keyboard: AKA The Top 10 List of What Writing Life Is Really Like.

1. How long did it take from the book’s beginning to The End?
I started the book during Nanowrimo in 2018, but then put it aside until 2020. I’d just finished in 2021 when my memoir, Blissful Thinking, got a deal so put it aside again. If I had to total it up, I’d say a solid year.

2. How many drafts did you write?

3

3. Do you use a daily word count/time period/etc to know when you’re done for the day?

No, I have “idea” goals like I need to get these characters from X to Y.

4. Type or handwrite?

Type

5. Plotter or pantser?

Both. I pants for ideas, plot, pants some more, plot, and pants. Final edit is plot.

6. Beverage or other pre-writing routine of choice?

Walking the dog

7. Do you read outside your genre? If so, what?

Gosh, everything. I do a LOT of research, so lots of nonfiction. 

8. Most exhilarating aspect of writing?

Discovering the world through my characters

9. Most challenging aspect of writing?

Getting my characters from X to Y!

10. Favorite resource for writers?

For craft, reading is the most important thing you can do, but I also quite like Jeannine Ouellette’s Writing in the Dark Substack.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this newsletter, please recommend it to a friend.